RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Orogun01]

 

I think the point was buying the games from a developer that one already has bad experiences with, rather than playing games that are bad to completion (the poster quit early when they weren't fun, I gather) or merely talking about it. Not sure why negativity about games is a bad thing, though.

Well, yeah.  If the person expects a game to be garbage and hears, reads, or sees nothing to the contrary, then it does indeed make no sense whatsoever to go ahead and buy the game then suffer all the way through it.

 

When trying to understand games as a product in an economics sense I find that they are much alike drugs. A junkie that needs a fix will switch to a lower quality product, same with games. Both are goods that while not indispensable their demand matches that of essential goods.

[rjshae]

Ouch...

[BruceVC]

 

 

I think the point was buying the games from a developer that one already has bad experiences with, rather than playing games that are bad to completion (the poster quit early when they weren't fun, I gather) or merely talking about it. Not sure why negativity about games is a bad thing, though.

Well, yeah.  If the person expects a game to be garbage and hears, reads, or sees nothing to the contrary, then it does indeed make no sense whatsoever to go ahead and buy the game then suffer all the way through it.

 

When trying to understand games as a product in an economics sense I find that they are much alike drugs. A junkie that needs a fix will switch to a lower quality product, same with games. Both are goods that while not indispensable their demand matches that of essential goods.

 

 

That's an interesting perspective but I'm not sure I agree with the analogy around drugs. Are you suggesting gaming can be as addictive as drugs? I know there are some gaming addicts but we are talking about "normal" gamers like the people who frequent these forums

[Orogun01]

 

 

 

I think the point was buying the games from a developer that one already has bad experiences with, rather than playing games that are bad to completion (the poster quit early when they weren't fun, I gather) or merely talking about it. Not sure why negativity about games is a bad thing, though.

Well, yeah.  If the person expects a game to be garbage and hears, reads, or sees nothing to the contrary, then it does indeed make no sense whatsoever to go ahead and buy the game then suffer all the way through it.

 

When trying to understand games as a product in an economics sense I find that they are much alike drugs. A junkie that needs a fix will switch to a lower quality product, same with games. Both are goods that while not indispensable their demand matches that of essential goods.

 

 

That's an interesting perspective but I'm not sure I agree with the analogy around drugs. Are you suggesting gaming can be as addictive as drugs? I know there are some gaming addicts but we are talking about "normal" gamers like the people who frequent these forums

 

Anything that causes dopamine to release is potentially addictive, I find the analogy apt when trying to explain inconsistent behavior such as hating a game and playing it to completion. I also realize that its insufficient to explain the entirety of the behavior of games as goods, ultimately games have a limited field of distribution and even more limited of interaction. By which I mean that so far you can only get games in 2 formats, via 3 options (renting, buying, pirating) and that they cannot be just played as background noise as one would a TV since games require all of your senses.

 There are movies that are more enjoyable to watch on TV and there are those that are made for the big screen but lose their appeal when played on TV. Which affects the opinions on said films, games on the other hand can only be experienced one way and said limitation might affect how the buyer perceives the game.

 

To put in an example; if I'm forced to see an M. Night Shyamalan movie on the silver screen I will probably be very pissed. Whereas if I just play it as background noise on the TV whilst i'm multitasking I might enjoy it more since my attention is divided and I have lower expectations. 

[Keyrock]

 

 

I think the point was buying the games from a developer that one already has bad experiences with, rather than playing games that are bad to completion (the poster quit early when they weren't fun, I gather) or merely talking about it. Not sure why negativity about games is a bad thing, though.

Well, yeah.  If the person expects a game to be garbage and hears, reads, or sees nothing to the contrary, then it does indeed make no sense whatsoever to go ahead and buy the game then suffer all the way through it.

 

When trying to understand games as a product in an economics sense I find that they are much alike drugs. A junkie that needs a fix will switch to a lower quality product, same with games. Both are goods that while not indispensable their demand matches that of essential goods.

 

Sure, but that analogy only works if there's a shortage of the higher quality product, or if the lower quality product is significantly cheaper than the higher quality product.  At the moment I see no shortage of good games and I don't see them being more expensive, in fact, they sometimes tend to be less expensive.

[Keyrock]

To put in an example; if I'm forced to see an M. Night Shyamalan movie on the silver screen I will probably be very pissed. Whereas if I just play it as background noise on the TV whilst i'm multitasking I might enjoy it more since my attention is divided and I have lower expectations. 

Under NO circumstance would I enjoy any M. Night Shyamalan movie made in the last decade.  I don't care how divided my attention is.

[Orogun01]

 

 

 

I think the point was buying the games from a developer that one already has bad experiences with, rather than playing games that are bad to completion (the poster quit early when they weren't fun, I gather) or merely talking about it. Not sure why negativity about games is a bad thing, though.

Well, yeah.  If the person expects a game to be garbage and hears, reads, or sees nothing to the contrary, then it does indeed make no sense whatsoever to go ahead and buy the game then suffer all the way through it.

 

When trying to understand games as a product in an economics sense I find that they are much alike drugs. A junkie that needs a fix will switch to a lower quality product, same with games. Both are goods that while not indispensable their demand matches that of essential goods.

 

Sure, but that analogy only works if there's a shortage of the higher quality product, or if the lower quality product is significantly cheaper than the higher quality product.  At the moment I see no shortage of good games and I don't see them being more expensive, in fact, they sometimes tend to be less expensive.

 

Once you consider that we are talking about "hardcore" (addicts) gamers, they are likely to burn through releases fairly fast.

 

I wonder if their complaints isn't so much about quality but rather about quantity and replay value?

[Morgoth]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/09/gabe-newell-linux-is-the-future-of-gaming-new-hardware-coming-soon/

 

Gabe Newell, the co-founder and managing director of Valve, said today that Linux is the future of gaming despite the minuscule share of the market it has today.

That seems hard to believe, given that Newell acknowledged Linux gaming generally accounts for less than one percent of the market by any measure including players, player minutes, and revenue. But Valve is going to do its best to make sure Linux becomes the future of gaming by extending its Steam distribution platform to hardware designed for living rooms.

Newell made his comments while delivering a keynote at LinuxCon in New Orleans. "It feels a little bit funny coming here and telling you guys that Linux and open source are the future of gaming," Newell said. "It's sort of like going to Rome and teaching Catholicism to the pope."

Valve brought Steam to Linux in February, and the platform now has 198 games. Newell has previously promised to unveil a Linux-based "Steam box" to compete against living room gaming consoles sometime this year, and his company has updated the Steam software to work better on TVs. While he didn't specifically mention the Steam box today, Newell hinted at an announcement next week.

"Next week we're going to be rolling out more information about how we get there and what are the hardware opportunities we see for bringing Linux into the living room," Newell said.

Getting games to work on Linux has its challenges. If not implemented right, "Just compile it yourself" could be the inconvenient solution to the problem of installing games and applying updates, he said. However, Valve worked through these problems in bringing Left 4 Dead 2 to Linux, hopefully showing the way to other developers, he said.

Bringing Steam to Linux "was a signal for our development partners that we really were serious about this Linux thing we were talking about," Newell said.

Besides just releasing Steam on Linux-based operating systems, Valve is contributing to the LLDB debugger project and is co-developing an additional debugger for Linux, Newell said.

"When we talk to developers and say, 'if you can pick one thing for Valve to work on the tools side to make Linux a better development target,' they always say we should build a debugger," he said.

Newell has previously complained about Windows 8 being a "catastrophe for everyone in the PC space," and he reiterated these concerns today. Closed platforms are going to lose to open ones that allow innovation, he said. But that won't stop Steam's rise: Despite year-over-year declines in the PC market, Steam has seen a 76 percent increase in its own sales according to Newell.

"I think we'll see either significant restructuring or market exits by top five PC players. It's looking pretty grim," he said. "Systems which are innovation-friendly and embrace openness are going to have a greater competitive advantage to closed or tightly regulated systems."

 

 

 

[pmp10]

"Systems which are innovation-friendly and embrace openness are going to have a greater competitive advantage to closed or tightly regulated systems."

Says the owner of the biggest DRM platform on PCs.

[Orogun01]

Weird, I just finished reading that article before checking the forums.

I'd say Gabe is going to find it difficult to convert developer to Linux, although I this comes as no surprise as he has in the past criticized Microsoft because of Direct and praised OpenGL. I think he just likes the idea of open source.

[Keyrock]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/09/gabe-newell-linux-is-the-future-of-gaming-new-hardware-coming-soon/

 

Gabe Newell, the co-founder and managing director of Valve, said today that Linux is the future of gaming despite the minuscule share of the market it has today.

 

That seems hard to believe, given that Newell acknowledged Linux gaming generally accounts for less than one percent of the market by any measure including players, player minutes, and revenue. But Valve is going to do its best to make sure Linux becomes the future of gaming by extending its Steam distribution platform to hardware designed for living rooms.

 

Newell made his comments while delivering a keynote at LinuxCon in New Orleans. "It feels a little bit funny coming here and telling you guys that Linux and open source are the future of gaming," Newell said. "It's sort of like going to Rome and teaching Catholicism to the pope."

 

Valve brought Steam to Linux in February, and the platform now has 198 games. Newell has previously promised to unveil a Linux-based "Steam box" to compete against living room gaming consoles sometime this year, and his company has updated the Steam software to work better on TVs. While he didn't specifically mention the Steam box today, Newell hinted at an announcement next week.

 

"Next week we're going to be rolling out more information about how we get there and what are the hardware opportunities we see for bringing Linux into the living room," Newell said.

 

Getting games to work on Linux has its challenges. If not implemented right, "Just compile it yourself" could be the inconvenient solution to the problem of installing games and applying updates, he said. However, Valve worked through these problems in bringing Left 4 Dead 2 to Linux, hopefully showing the way to other developers, he said.

 

Bringing Steam to Linux "was a signal for our development partners that we really were serious about this Linux thing we were talking about," Newell said.

 

Besides just releasing Steam on Linux-based operating systems, Valve is contributing to the LLDB debugger project and is co-developing an additional debugger for Linux, Newell said.

 

"When we talk to developers and say, 'if you can pick one thing for Valve to work on the tools side to make Linux a better development target,' they always say we should build a debugger," he said.

 

Newell has previously complained about Windows 8 being a "catastrophe for everyone in the PC space," and he reiterated these concerns today. Closed platforms are going to lose to open ones that allow innovation, he said. But that won't stop Steam's rise: Despite year-over-year declines in the PC market, Steam has seen a 76 percent increase in its own sales according to Newell.

 

"I think we'll see either significant restructuring or market exits by top five PC players. It's looking pretty grim," he said. "Systems which are innovation-friendly and embrace openness are going to have a greater competitive advantage to closed or tightly regulated systems."

 

 

 

There are 11 paragraphs in that quote block.  There are 5 links in that quote block.  

11-5 = 6  

6/2 = 3 

 

Half-Life 3 confirmed!

[HoonDing]

Funny, I have Half-life 2 Episode one, Episode two and Lost Coast (whatever that is) sitting in my Steam library for years (courtesy of Orange Box birthday present), and still they are untouched. I am confident it will remain so.

 

EDIT: well upon further checking it seems I played Episode two for 9 minutes.

Edited September 16, 2013 by Drudanae

[melkathi]

I didn't feel like gaming tonight so I am going to bed early(ish). In light of Orogun liking gaming to a drug habit, not feeling like gaming seems to be a good thing

[Keyrock]

I didn't feel like gaming tonight so I am going to bed early(ish). In light of Orogun liking gaming to a drug habit, not feeling like gaming seems to be a good thing

I want details on your withdrawal tomorrow.  Play by play, if possible.

[rjshae]

Just say no to early bed...

[Morgoth]

There are 11 paragraphs in that quote block.  There are 5 links in that quote block.  

11-5 = 6  

6/2 = 3 

 

Half-Life 3 confirmed!

 

 

 

Yeah Gaben, yeah!

[Morgoth]

 

"Systems which are innovation-friendly and embrace openness are going to have a greater competitive advantage to closed or tightly regulated systems."

Says the owner of the biggest DRM platform on PCs.

 

 

You expect them to release their software completely unprotected?

 

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch in this reality.

[AwesomeOcelot]

I find it hard to believe that linux makes up less than 1% of gaming in terms of playtime or revenue. Did they forget that Android is linux?

Edited September 16, 2013 by AwesomeOcelot

[Bester]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/09/gabe-newell-linux-is-the-future-of-gaming-new-hardware-coming-soon/

 

Linux? Please... Lacks and has always lacked too much software. Unless Gabe ports it all, no chance of anyone starting using linux all of a sudden.

[Azdeus]

 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09/11/steam-adding-option-to-share-and-borrow-games/

 

I did'nt see it linked anywhere else here, so.

 

It's quite depressing that they can take away your ability to sell, share and borrow games and then give back a little of it, and get lauded for it.

"They" didn't take away your ability. You voluntarily surrendered it by purchasing a Steam-based title. It's your fault, not the corp's.

 

 

Note how I never stated it applied to me in a direct sence, I will never kowtow to Gabe, I'd rather quit playing. Hell, I've damn near quit playing already.

 

So yes, they did, because Valvemade their system so, people went for it for some inexplicable reason and then publishers decided to use it. I railed against Steam when it was first released, and have continued to speak against it for damn near 10 years.

So I actually consider myself entitled to say they.

[Tagaziel]

Good for you. Now if you don't mind, I'll keep enjoying all those great games I have on Steam, without wasting a decade on lashing the Hellespont.

[Azdeus]

Good for you. Now if you don't mind, I'll keep enjoying all those great games I have on Steam, without wasting a decade on lashing the Hellespont.

 

Atleast my stance does'nt **** up the fun for others, so good on ya.

[Hurlshort]

I haven't been able to sell or rent PC games for over 20 years, retailers caught on to that one pretty quick where I live.  I also haven't shared games since college, very few of my friends even play games anymore.

 

 

Steam has vastly improved my gaming in the last couple years.  They have better bargain bins than brick and mortar shops, I don't have to dig out CD's, and their offline mode actually works decently now so I can game on the road.   Now they are offering to let me share my games with all my faraway friends?  That sounds like a pure bonus.

[Malcador]

[Keyrock]

Yeah, I once hated on Steam too.  Then I realized that it was driving down the price of games, and after I switched computers and moved a couple of times, I realized how much easier and better it had made my gaming.  Since they fixed offline mode a couple years back, I have not had one bad thing to say about Steam.  Then they added Linux support and made it even easier to play games and share saves across bot my OS in my dual-boot.  I have no issue with people being against Steam, that's their prerogative.  I'm not going to get into the DRM argument, my bottom line is that it works damn near perfect for me (YMMV), it's hella convenient, and it makes game buying oodles cheaper than in was before.  I guess I've gone over to the dark side, but whatever.

Edited September 17, 2013 by Keyrock