GamerDad's view on the future of PC gaming!

Goonch · Post by **Goonch** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 9:54 am

It is a very good article with dead-on insight.

http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=2432.

baron calamity · Post by **baron calamity** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:21 am

Ah, preaching to the choir again. If sales reverse their 7 year slide, publishers start expanding development for the pc platform, and stores increase their shelf space for pc games, THEN we'll say "PC gaming is back."

Goonch · Post by **Goonch** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:51 am

I think that everybody would agree with him when he states, and I quote:

"It costs a lot of money to be a PC gamer. This is a cold, hard fact of the hobby. "

dfs · Post by **dfs** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:57 pm

I don't. I've got to have my rig for work. Incremental cost of games is small.

Compare and contrast with a boat.

baron calamity · Post by **baron calamity** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:00 pm

dfs wrote:I don't. I've got to have my rig for work. Incremental cost of games is small.

Compare and contrast with a boat.

Yeah PC gamers have nothing on boaters. My Dad use to own one. A wooden sailing craft by the way. I think that he spent my college fund on it...

moss_icon · Post by **moss_icon** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 3:37 am

Goonch wrote:"It costs a lot of money to be a PC gamer. This is a cold, hard fact of the hobby. "

i don't agree. perhaps £150 - £200 a year on upgrades to keep my computer rolling a long and up to date. most games i want to buy are £17.99, i can sell the ones i don't want to keep for around £10. that's not really a massive outlay.

Ripstar · Post by **Ripstar** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 1:09 pm

Friends of mine spend 6000 dollars a year on a single golf club membership.

PC gaming is extremely cheap by comparison.

Start adding up the costs of some other hobbies.

Hunting....gun 1000 bucks...liences...hunting camp fees...ammo...foood...
transportation....possession licence...weapon licence....etc..3000 bucks.

Scuba diving....complete suit...tanks..BC...weights...reulator..mask ..fins..
snorkel..knife...boat..transportation......etc...3000 bucks....

And I won't get into photography...

Sure all this is variable ....... but I think you get the picture...

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 2:22 pm

moss_icon wrote:
Goonch wrote:"It costs a lot of money to be a PC gamer. This is a cold, hard fact of the hobby. "
i don't agree. perhaps £150 - £200 a year on upgrades to keep my computer rolling a long and up to date. most games i want to buy are £17.99, i can sell the ones i don't want to keep for around £10. that's not really a massive outlay.

That's true. If you're smart, it's a pricey initial investment ($2000), but that can last you 3 years with minimal tweaks.

Greggy_D · Post by **Greggy_D** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:00 pm

It's cheaper to be a PC Gamer now than it was just 5 or 7 years ago. The prices of PC's and components has come down considerably sicne then.

philosophist · Post by **philosophist** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:35 am

The beauty of the PC or console gaming hobby is that if you're willing to stay at least 1 year (2+ is even better) behind the current generation of hardware and games, the hobby is incredibly inexpensive. You could build an excellent gaming rig for well under a grand (not including monitor) and the older games wouldn't cost you more than $20 (less if you buy used on ebay).

baron calamity · Post by **baron calamity** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:21 am

I've recently built a gaming pc for under $500. If you are willing to run games at 800x600 on a CRT monitor, you can play anything out there in high detail.

Ofcourse that isn't entirely true because pcgaming isn't about gaming, isn't it? These days its more about having a pimp rig with all sorts of of flashy lights and running an old game at a bajillion frames per second.

Montag · Post by **Montag** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:50 pm

baron calamity wrote:I've recently built a gaming pc for under $500. If you are willing to run games at 800x600 on a CRT monitor, you can play anything out there in high detail.

Ofcourse that isn't entirely true because pcgaming isn't about gaming, isn't it? These days its more about having a pimp rig with all sorts of of flashy lights and running an old game at a bajillion frames per second.

A gay replicant's game rig?

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 6:10 pm

"It costs a lot of money to be a PC FPS gamer. This is a cold, hard fact of the hobby. "

Fixed.

If you don't play FPS you can get by on a remarkably weak machine. My old 1.6 gHz P4 (bought for $499 two and a half years ago) had no trouble with World of Warcraft at 1024x800.

Can I play 1600x1200 with 4X AA? No.

Can I play all the games that I want to play? Yep.

edosan · Post by **edosan** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:27 pm

Exodor wrote:
"It costs a lot of money to be a PC FPS gamer. This is a cold, hard fact of the hobby. "
Fixed.

If you don't play FPS you can get by on a remarkably weak machine. My old 1.6 gHz P4 (bought for $499 two and a half years ago) had no trouble with World of Warcraft at 1024x800.

Can I play 1600x1200 with 4X AA? No.

Can I play all the games that I want to play? Yep.

Agreed. I play the games I like just fine, thank you. Living behind the curve is fun!

dfs · Post by **dfs** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 9:22 am

If you don't play FPS you can get by on a remarkably weak machine.

Again I don't mean to be a prick about it, but what kind of PC gaming habit can you have for 6 grand a year? That scratches the surface of the boating world. It's a hole in the water that you pour money into.

Think about the annual cost for a boat, golf, serious woodworking, competative sports.....Hell compare it to serious clubbing and drinking.

Pc gaming is cheap any way you look at it. Unless you compare it to sitting around watching TV.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 11:21 am

dfs wrote: Pc gaming is cheap any way you look at it. Unless you compare it to sitting around watching TV.

Cost of watching TV...
TV: $300-$3000
Cable/sattelite: $500 a year
Sound system: $300-$3000
TiVo: ?(no idea)

Sure you could have a $200 20 inch and watch basic cable but that still is gonna set you back at least $500 a year.

Over a 3 year period you would spent $1500 just on cable, or the equivalent of a nice gaming rig that would last the same 3 years with little to minimal upgrades.