Microsoft ruined gaming

[Archibald]

Sounds like Microsoft saw a sick man then beat them to death with a club, but it's ok cause it probably would have happened anyway.

Nobody is saying that Microsoft is supposed to be good guy here. But sick man was already on his last days, if Microsoft didn't take some scraps then more would have gone to Sony.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Nobody is saying that Microsoft is supposed to be good guy here. But sick man was already on his last days, if Microsoft didn't take some scraps then more would have gone to Sony.

Bullshit.

 

[Archibald]

It's not profitable for them, it drains not only money, but time and manpower. More than one former exec has stated "it's a distraction" and thus shouldn't be continued.

It seams that current strategy for them is to look at xbox as "service delivery" unit, what with them switching in their latest report from "units shipped/sold" to "xbox live users".

 

[Telengard]

Babsom College - Sony PC: Entry into the US

In late 1995 Sony announced a new entry initiative with a line of desktops aimed squarely at home / SOHO PC buyers and sought to differentiate its PC offerings through technological innovation, design and customer service excellence...

With its strong position in consumer electronics, Sony planned to lead the digital convergence revolution, integrating audio-visual, entertainment and telecommunications functionality into PCs that would be as simple to use as TVs. Its vision was a 4-pronged Internet strategy—PC, PlayStation, mobile phones and digital TV. The strategy, dubbed “Sony Dream World,” was to integrate its existing business units—Sony Pictures, Sony Music, and Sony Electronics—and make its vast array of content available on a variety of networked devices.

Imagine that future. Just imagine Sony Dream World come to pass, where PCs are even simpler than consoles, are as simple as TVs. What a world that would be.

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

Imagine if Microsoft was broken up by the government in the late 90s and Apple came to dominate PCs.

 

[Jarpie]

Imagine if Microsoft was broken up by the government in the late 90s and Apple came to dominate PCs.

That kind of talk can give us nightmares.

 

[a Goat]

Imagine if we were all autistic.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

. Technical progress being neutered by consoles only made PC gaming worse.

You kind of got that backwards. Technical progress being neutered by consoles is exactly the thing that kept PC gaming alive. Anyone who claims otherwise was probably born during Bush Junior administration.

Andhaira is the only person in this thread who knows what the fuck he is talking about.

The rest of you unwashed neckbeards, have no fucking clue whatsoever on just how bad things had gotten in the late 90s on the PC market with amount of conflicting hardware. Back then everybody with a bit of sense was running to the console market to save their business, because it was no longer financially possible to technically support all the myriad PC configurations.

It took PS3 and 360 stabilizing the hardware requirements, or as clueless millennials like to call it, "neutering the progress", for developers to return to PC market knowing they can actually make profitable ports that most machines will run. And now PS4 and X1 are fulfilling that same function exactly.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Funny how PC gaming was at its best in the 90s but suddenly, after being "saved" by consoles, it turned to shit for a whole straight decade. Great argument brah, much convincing, so historically accurate, wow.

It took PS3 and 360 stabilizing the hardware requirements, or as clueless millennials like to call it, "neutering the progress", for developers to return to PC market knowing they can actually make profitable ports that most machines will run.

This is just too retarded to even bother to refute.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Microsoft ruined gaming back in 1995, by allowing in the stupid people who cannot into editing autoexec.bat.

This.

 

[Jarpie]

It wasn't just Microsoft, I've said it before in some other topic but I think Sony paved the way for the decline and for Microsoft with PSX. Sony gave credibility to the console gaming with their name, which brought in new people to buy PSX, and later PS2, and made it more acceptable than before.

Microsoft would've found another way to fuck with us though, but maybe not this badly.

 

[J1M]

Alternative hypothesis: laptops (and eventually tablets/phones) ruined gaming.

Once normal consumption patterns changed from being measured in hours to being measured in minutes on low-power devices, the market shifted from making games to making toys.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Funny how PC gaming was at its best in the 90s but suddenly, after being "saved" by consoles, it turned to shit for a whole straight decade.

It turned to shit alongside the move to 3D graphics. Not that you'd know anything about it, because in the 90s your old man didn't even have hair on his balls yet.

This is just too retarded to even bother to refute.

I don't know how to respond so I'll respond that I won't bother to respond.

How original.

 

[Irenaeus II]

It turned to shit alongside the move to 3D graphics. Not that you'd know anything about it, because in the 90s your old man didn't even have hair on his balls yet.

Lyric Suite is about 35 yo

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Lyric Suite is about 35 yo

 

[Irenaeus II]

I just made that up btw

 

[Lyric Suite]

It turned to shit alongside the move to 3D graphics.

More bullshit. 3D graphics didn't make games worse. The Xbox did. I don't see how anyone can ignore the fact the moment that fucking thing came out all PC gaming turned into shit almost overnight. Even as late as 2002 or 2003 we still had great games being made, then boom, nothing but shit for ten years straight. Sort of a crazy coincidence, wouldn't you say? All of the best PC games now have one common element between them: they are all made for PC first and foremost, whether we are talking about Indie games or stuff funded with kickstarter. All the so called "incline" is coming from PC developers who have found a way to finance their products without the aid of big corporations, who are all obsessed with console shit.

Lyric Suite is about 35 yo

Yeah, and about the 90s. Let's be honest here. Who didn't obsess with playing the most cutting edge computer games back in those days? How many here learned to OC their CPU for the first time to try to squeeze a few extra FPS in order to play that fucking Unreal shit? Don't lie now. And if you wanna talk about market and how much PC gamers actually care about that stuff, look at how much money people have thrown at Scam Citizen simply because it promised that type of AAA experience we were all used to back in the day.

I just made that up btw

Well, i am.

 

[zlocish]

Alternative hypothesis: laptops (and eventually tablets/phones) ruined gaming.

Once normal consumption patterns changed from being measured in hours to being measured in minutes on low-power devices, the market shifted from making games to making toys.

That makes sense. The change of market made a lot of impact on games. The oversimplification being the biggest sin.

 

[†††]

Microsoft ruined gaming because they messed up the balance between consoles and PC, erasing the strengths and idiosyncratic nature of both. Before XBOX, it was clear as hell that consoles were Japanese dominated and PCs western dominated; every one with its own strengths, deep, complex and engrossing games in the case of the PC, joyous, well designed gameplay for consoles. Of course western devs have always made games for consoles but they were subpar, and the best ones were straight ports from PC. Everybody knew its place and these two different platforms co-existed gracefully.

Microsoft then threw the ying and the yang to the trash by convincing western devs of the money making potential of "casualizing" their titles to make a bigger buck. They already had the connections and could force things eventually to turn the tide into the shit we're in. And slowly western devs started to see the profits after that and diverted from the usual philosophy of games full of depth. Microsoft also lured wary console users with some SEGA titles and other Japanese titles.

But most important was the ability of gaining the sympathy of the western journalism world. One could say that this was eventually the only possible outcome given the sheer economic power of Microsoft and the closeness of working in the "right" side of the sphere compared to those closed, arrogant and monolithical Japanese companies making consoles until then. It was a slow process of course but Halo was the first showing; an average shooter with notable AI and repetitive levels suddenly was the best game ever according to the press, and impressionable fellows not accustomed to the great FPS titles of the era followed through. Slowly we witnessed a change of discourse within the western gaming journalism that climaxed with the release of the 360; suddenly Japanese titles weren't received as glowingly, the journos started to push a very visible agenda of Japan lagging behind in quality and "innovation" while praising the "innovation" of western titles (all of them being dumbed down versions of the titles and genres you already know, showing that these "gaming experts" don't know shit). The incestuous relationship between press and companies tightened beyond repair, western devs were winning money beyond their dreams, Japanese devs saw their influence and reputation waning and the masses were already convinced that this panorama was the way to go, throwing glowing praise to "innovative" titles such as Oblivion (people's first CRPG) and many more.

And so we came to the current state of gaming, with games being clones of each other, casualized and dumbed down, platforms without different games where the only choice to be made is one of following a certain "ecosystem", also the dishonest money making schemes and the press defending those very practices.

In one sense I compare this with the phenomenon of multiculturalism, where neither culture (the locals and the immigrants) are satisfied and defining values of each other are erased in favor of an mixed bag. Seems as if you try to homogenize heterogenous cultures, in every field, you cultivate a recipe for disaster, even if it seemed like a great idea at first.

Enjoy the decline fellas.

 

[Infinitron]

Impressive rant.

Truth is that America's "Nintendo generation" grew up and was in the market for games that weren't about plumbers and hedgehogs. Western devs, who had been developing more mature games for the PC the entire time, suddenly found themselves in the position to supply that demand. So the great console/PC mixup was probably inevitable to some extent.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Very good post, ropulos

 

[Lyric Suite]

Microsoft ruined gaming because they messed the balance between consoles and PC, erasing the strengths and idiosyncratic nature of both. Before XBOX, it was clear as hell that consoles were Japanese dominated and PCs western dominated; every one with its own strengths, deep, complex and engrossing games in the case of the PC, joyous, well designed gameplay for consoles. Of course western devs have always made games for consoles but they were subpar, and the best ones were straight ports from PC. Everybody knew its place and these two different platforms co-existed gracefully.

Microsoft then throw the ying and the yang to the trash by convincing western devs of the money making potential of "casualizing" their titles to make a bigger buck. They already had the connections and could force things eventually to turn the tide into the shit we're in. And slowly western devs started to see the profits after that and diverted from the usual philosophy of games full of depth. Microsoft also lured wary console users with some SEGA titles and other Japanese titles.

But most important was the ability of gaining the sympathy of the western journalism world. One could say that this was eventually the only possible outcome given the sheer economic power of Microsoft and the closeness of working in the "right" side of the sphere compared to those closed, arrogant and monolithical Japanese companies making consoles until then. It was a slow process of course but Halo was the first showing; an average shooter with notable AI and repetitive levels suddenly was the best game ever according to the press, and impressionable fellows not accustomed to the great FPS titles of the era followed through. Slowly we witnessed a change of discourse within the western gaming journalism that climaxed with the release of the 360; suddenly Japanese titles weren't received as glowingly, started to push a very visible agenda of Japan lagging behind in quality and "innovation" while praising the "innovation" of western titles (all of them being dumbed down versions of the titles and genres you already know, showing that these "gaming experts" don't know shit). The incestuous relationship between press and companies tightened beyond repair, western devs were winning money beyond their dreams, Japanese devs saw their influence and reputation waning and the masses were already convinced that this panorama was the way to go, throwing glowing praise to "innovative" titles such as Oblivion (people's first CRPG) and many more.

And so we came to the current state of gaming, with games being clones of each other, casualized and dumbed down, platforms without different games where the only choice to be made is one of following a certain "ecosystem", also the dishonest money making schemes and the press defending those very practices.

In one sense I compare this with the phenomenon of multiculturalism, where neither culture (the locals and the immigrants) are satisfied and defining values of each other are erased in favor of an mixed bag. Seems like you try to homogenize heterogenous cultures, in every field, you cultivate a recipe for disaster, even if it seemed like a great idea at first.

Enjoy the decline fellas.

Nailed it.

I would like to add that the chief characteristic of western gaming is not complexity as such, but the exploration of the possibilities inherent in this technological medium, hence, the emphasis on simulation, rendering and pushing the envelop in a general sense. Realistic environments. Realistic AI. Physics, interactivity, realism, exploration, and also more tactics, more options, more possibilities, and so forth. The Japanese seem to have latched on to the Atari early on and always saw gaming from that perceptive, which is why they have dominated the arcade and console market ever since, but the origin of PC gaming can be found in stuff like the Plato platform:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

With the first PC game being something like Spacewar.

This is why to me it makes no sense to say that the forestalling of technical progress was actually beneficial to PC gaming when the very essence of PC gaming was pushing things forward in terms of what video games could do in every sense, including graphical fidelity.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

The existence of stupid people and the fact they outnumber everyone else 10 to 1 ruined gaming.

You could apply this formula to a lot of things actually.

 

[Telengard]

Most of the devs that people usually cite as representative of MS's influence had already bricked on the expense of shifting to 3d and chasing after graphics whores, and so had already sold their shit to console devs while MS was still playing footsie with Sega. Which is long before Xbox was even a glimmer in anyone's eye.

Which meant all those loose IPs were going to be made for consoles no matter what, and most were geared up for the Playstation first - unless Microsoft ponied up for exclusivity. There was a mass-exodus to consoles in the late 90s, most of them because of selling up shop. But that is what a tech race gets you - anyone who can't hack it disappears. And the people with the most money get the prize, since they can buy up all the loose IPs.

That's what a tech race is, in the end - a way of handing everything over to the big boys on the block. The ones who have the deep pockets and the close relationship with monied interests to keep shoveling money into the tech furnace and to keep acquiring loose IPs on top of it, until all the indie and small-time devs are dead.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Most of the devs that people usually cite as representative of MS's influence had already bricked on the expense of shifting to 3d and chasing after graphics whores

Name those companies.