Nvidia wants to ruin PC gaming

[Shannow]

Its certainly not something i would want as a consumer. I like my rack of game CD's that i can install as many times as i like and play offline. I even still buy music CD's, owning something is very important to me. But that is me.

I can see it being massively popular with business though. It would kill piracy without any need for traditional DRM. You wouldn't have to worry about people owning 100 different types of graphics card with 100 different processors. I doubt the average gamer really cares about differentiation in hardware so long as what they get looks and sounds good.

It always depends on how much consumers are willing to be corporate monkeys. While the overall trend seems to be *decline*, there are always highs and lows. UBI sales plummeting by 90% because of their DRM shit, people getting hacked left and right and losing credit card information (Sony, D3, etc), and OnLive's pathetic performance all give me at least slight hope that the whole business model crashes.
That most interesting games would be outside the whole mainstream clustercloudfuck is further hope of me not being affected by this shit.
The success of always online SP game D3 on the other hand is depressing. One can only hope that standing in queue, dying to lag and getting hacked creates enough butthurt for the monkeys to realize what their interests are, as oposed to what the corporations' interests are...

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Well that was not unexpected, there have been plans for cloud-gaming for quite some time. It's a logical step from the current DRM and online distribution bullshit. Already now, when buying a game of steam and most other digital retailers (except GOG), you don't get to download a full working copy of your game, but only a castrated client that has to be connected to the server in order to install.

No matter the quality of the future games (which undoubtetly will be shit), this is not my kind of gaming anymore. When buying a game, I want to own a full working copy that will run on my hardware without any outside data input needed. That way I know I will be able to play the game at any point in the future (given that I have the appropriate hardware or emulators), no matter if the developer/publisher will exist then or not.

Instead of selling you a copy of the game and a license to use it at your own like in the old days (well the license also had certain limitations on paper, but in practice you could do what you wanted with your product), Publishers now grant you the limited right to play their game, a right that they can withdraw at any moment for any reason.
This is already happening right now with always-online DRM, installation limits, activation requirements, cloud computing is only the next logical step.

I'm too much of a sentimentalist and collector to pay for online subscriptions instead of "real" copies of games (be it physical or digital).

Anyways, when reading this I'm glad I've stopped caring about modern gaming a long time ago. I take solace in the fact that my huge (and thanks to ebay ever growing) library of classics games that I've missed when they came out will keep me occupied for a lifetime.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

20 years ? you are oddly optimistic for a codexer, this will happens in the next few years. No risk to see them out of business as you wont have the choice, microsoft and sony going this way too. No matter how everyone think diablo 3 is dumbed down and requires online , face it most of us bought it. It will be the same, the proud codexer will take his online subscription and continue to enjoy his new bioware ARPG , but this time it will work s on the tablet too with added lag.

Yes...it is getting there precisely because people like yourself bought the damn thing.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Well that was not unexpected, there have been plans for cloud-gaming for quite some time. It's a logical step from the current DRM and online distribution bullshit. Already now, when buying a game of steam and most other digital retailers (except GOG), you don't get to download a full working copy of your game, but only a castrated client that has to be connected to the server in order to install.

No matter the quality of the future games (which undoubtetly will be shit), this is not my kind of gaming anymore. When buying a game, I want to own a full working copy that will run on my hardware without any outside data input needed. That way I know I will be able to play the game at any point in the future (given that I have the appropriate hardware or emulators), no matter if the developer/publisher will exist then or not.

Instead of selling you a copy of the game and a license to use it at your own like in the old days (well the license also had certain limitations on paper, but in practice you could do what you wanted with your product), Publishers now grant you the limited right to play their game, a right that they can withdraw at any moment for any reason.
This is already happening right now with always-online DRM, installation limits, activation requirements, cloud computing is only the next logical step.

I'm too much of a sentimentalist and collector to pay for online subscriptions instead of "real" copies of games (be it physical or digital).

Anyways, when reading this I'm glad I've stopped caring about modern gaming a long time ago. I take solace in the fact that my huge (and thanks to ebay ever growing) library of classics games that I've missed when they came out will keep me occupied for a lifetime.

Well said sir, well said.

I envy you that you seem to have so many older classics still to play though.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Well it's the blessing and (and the curse I guess) of being late-born. I started gaming in 1997, but I was just a kid back then so even counting from that year on there is a lot good stuff I have missed, not even mentioning everything that came out before. A curse, because I sometimes envy the people who could consciously appreciate all the great games back then when they came out, which is always a different experience from playing those games years after they have been released. A blessing, because as I said, I will never run out of good games, especially since being in my mid-twenties now I'm not really able to spend as much time on gaming as I could when I was a kid.

Also, watching the decline of video gaming without giving a damn about it at the same time is a great source of some kind of perverse, voyeuristic entertainment. Like watching a massive crash during a formula 1 race on TV.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Well it's the blessing and (and the curse I guess) of being late-born. I started gaming in 1997, but I was just a kid back then so even counting from that year on there is a lot good stuff I have missed, not even mentioning everything that came out before. A curse, because I sometimes envy the people who could consciously appreciate all the great games back then when they came out, which is always a different experience from playing those games years after they have been released. A blessing, because as I said, I will never run out of good games, especially since being in my mid-twenties now I'm not really able to spend as much time on gaming as I could when I was a kid.

Hmm, I can understand this.

I still remember the late 80's/early 90's fondly. Purchasing a new RPG or Wargame...the heavy box waiting to be opened...upon inspection, the disks, thick manual binded with metal rings, the odd little addon (cloth maps, coins, fold together space craft, orb of the moons, Ankhs and so on), full colour catalogue of the company in question, and other bits and pieces...and the 'smell' of a new game. I cannot begin to describe it, but new games used to have a certain smell to them...I experienced this recently when I opened a still factory sealed C64 game I bought online...

Sending the registration card back via mail. Getting all sorts of catalogues, offers and booklets at different times of the year.

Not to mention playing the game...a fully working game that is, that did not need any patching.

Anyway, back to the clouds...

 

[Excommunicator]

20 years ? you are oddly optimistic for a codexer, this will happens in the next few years. No risk to see them out of business as you wont have the choice, microsoft and sony going this way too. No matter how everyone think diablo 3 is dumbed down and requires online , face it most of us bought it. It will be the same, the proud codexer will take his online subscription and continue to enjoy his new bioware ARPG , but this time it will work s on the tablet too with added lag.

I don't think I can stomach the idea of purchasing a game in "cloud format". I don't think I'm alone when I say if all games go this way then it may drive me out of buying or playing any games from that point on, completely.

 

[Topher]

I don't think I can stomach the idea of purchasing a game in "cloud format". I don't think I'm alone when I say if all games go this way then it may drive me out of buying or playing any games from that point on, completely.

I'll be opting out at that point as well.

 

[Excidium]

This cloud thing has the potential to be p. cool some day, but we'll probably be too old by then to really enjoy awesome 3D RPG battles in our next-gen dinner table. It will be almost like the real thing!

 

[Mortmal]

20 years ? you are oddly optimistic for a codexer, this will happens in the next few years. No risk to see them out of business as you wont have the choice, microsoft and sony going this way too. No matter how everyone think diablo 3 is dumbed down and requires online , face it most of us bought it. It will be the same, the proud codexer will take his online subscription and continue to enjoy his new bioware ARPG , but this time it will work s on the tablet too with added lag.

Yes...it is getting there precisely because people like yourself bought the damn thing.

Thats not true , you should stop believing our opinion matters in the market, we do not exist , players like us who enjoyed those 90's game dont matter anymore. I too remember the fresh cardboard scent of a new game box , its kinda like a madeleine de proust . But millions of blizzard fans would have bought it anyway, we represent , like what ? 100K sales at the very best ? how many copies sold fallouts and planescape ?
The true traitor is the one who will buy this but not the easily piratable good indies bringing incline , cause its just convenient to get them for free. I am pretty sure some will stop gaming when all we have is an even more streamlined elderscroll 6 and a call of duty , you dont like xbox 360 being THE gaming platform , you wont like cloud even more but its going to happen right after the next generation of consoles and even the xbox720 will have a foot into that. So in 5-6 years game over !

 

[LordDenton]

I am pretty sure some will stop gaming when all we have is an even more streamlined elderscroll 6 and a call of duty , you dont like xbox 360 being THE gaming platform , you wont like cloud even more but its going to happen right after the next generation of consoles and even the xbox720 will have a foot into that. So in 5-6 years game over !

Which is precisely why I am skipping some classics at this time. For example, I own a fully boxed copy of Wizardry 8, but I am not planning on playing until 5-10 years from now.

I am almost certain that there will be a point in the future where gaming as we know it will cease to exist. Always online DRM, cloud gaming, Steam DRM (or something like it), and consoles are going to be our only options. Games with over the shoulder view, cover shooting, quick time eventing, and checkpoint saving are going to be the only type of games being produced (as those appeal the most to drooling console mouthbreathers). Maybe one or two games a year will be worth playing (Kickstarter et al), but I can't go through a whole year with only 1 - 2 games. Thus, I am collecting all the classics from the past two decades, and saving them for the future.