The selection of "PC" as the unimodal choice if you like video games is ludicrously, laughably wrong, unless you define "video games" as "WoW and RTS games."
It's simply most pronounced in FPS games, where the environments are deliberately segregated because console gamers simply cannot compete in the slightest with PC games due to the failures of their controls, and RTS games, where a workable console interface is simply impossible.
A videogame that is fun for kids that adults also like and won't get sick of? Total win in my books.
As for PC games, the kids also like Warcraft, though mine is just getting old enough to read and figure out quests. Blood Elf Barbie (ie character generation) is still a favourite with teh 6 yr old. They are also fond of Goo. And the internet. There are a million good kids games on the internet, mostly tv channel sites.
Xbox Live is a "closed network" that doesn't permit unauthorised hardware onto it. Heck, Microsoft doesn't just ban consoles from it with modified hardware, it laminates the circuit boards in its servers to prevent tampering on their own end. It's a very paranoid system, and PCs are excluded from all but the most basic (and heavily filtered) access to the console side of the network to prevent malware or other malicious content from gaining access to it.
-- Steve suspects this wasn't the answer you were anticipating.
Very well, then, can you tell me why, ever since the Saturn, console gamers and PC gamers have been prohibited from playing the same multiplayer game across the same internet with each other? The most consistent long-term reason?
I just discovered how much more fun it is to play Oblivion and Fallout 3 on the computer, compared to the years I've been playing them on the 360.
These Mods! They change everything! And it's just as much fun trying to figure out how to get the mods to work together as it is to play the actual games!
For Xbox Live, at least, that is the primary reason. I can't speak for other console networks as I don't have much experience with them and/or haven't spoken with their network gurus to the same extent.
As for other cross-platform ports, well, many of them in the past were simply incompatible with each other; even though they had the same design elements from a user perspective, the operations and networking were different on the different platforms.
More recent games have the issue that I suspect you're nailing your colours to, that the input methods differed too much which granted one or another platform an undue advantage; you'll be dismayed to know, though, that it doesn't always break in favour of PCs. That is very heavily dependent upon what the native platform was; UIs built assuming dual-analog inputs don't always map too well to mouse+keyboard, and vice-versa.
-- Steve frankly doesn't buy platforms, nor does he invest much into them. He buys games based upon how much they interest him, not because of the labels.
PS: If my gaming budget was bigger I'd have all the platforms, or even just all the current-generation ones; Okami on the Wii looks intriguing. However, right now I'm sticking with my i7 desktop and my 360 console as those two have the biggest lists of titles that I enjoy.
I'm gonna have to offer support to the point here by being one of the failures. I can't play FPS whatsoever unless it's on a PC. I stick grenades to my own feet and try to run from them. I empty clips into nothing. I can't scroll-aim with a joystick.
But I can point and click! Bioshock (which I wanted to play for the story) and Borderlands (Story?...nah. Blood.) are accessible to me because there's not a controller to piss me off.
But when it comes to PC games, you can have a wider range of types of games because you can have tons more buttons without having to up the learning curve.
Though unfortunately, at this point, the overwhelming power of the console market's size is screwing up PC games (http://www.oldschoolhard.com/2009/12/problems-with-new-games-consoles-picking-up-pc-problems-and-vice-versa/). Deus Ex 2?
Any game I can see myself enjoying mods for, I'll pick up for the PC. But more and more, interfaces have been simplified for the console market, and it feels more natural in the game's "native" environment. Borderlands, for example.
Okami is disappointing on the Wii, unfortunately. Rent it and try it at a friend's house before you think about buying. The PS2 version is considerably better, because it's so, so much less frustrating to use the brush.
Well, you go ahead and believe that if you like; as for myself, I find that my enjoyment of shooters (and other games) is less dependent upon the platform and more upon the talents of each title's developers.
-- Steve enjoyed the heck out of Doom, Marathon, and Goldeneye in their respective days.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 02:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 02:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 02:58 pm (UTC)It's simply most pronounced in FPS games, where the environments are deliberately segregated because console gamers simply cannot compete in the slightest with PC games due to the failures of their controls, and RTS games, where a workable console interface is simply impossible.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 03:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 03:03 pm (UTC)-- Steve finds great comedy value from it, like those videos of kittens trying to figure out how to pounce on a kitty-toy.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 03:08 pm (UTC)Hint: It's not because Microsoft *likes* splitting their player base in two.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 03:23 pm (UTC)Katamari Damacy
Lego Star Wars
Lego Batman
A videogame that is fun for kids that adults also like and won't get sick of? Total win in my books.
As for PC games, the kids also like Warcraft, though mine is just getting old enough to read and figure out quests. Blood Elf Barbie (ie character generation) is still a favourite with teh 6 yr old. They are also fond of Goo. And the internet. There are a million good kids games on the internet, mostly tv channel sites.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 03:27 pm (UTC)-- Steve suspects this wasn't the answer you were anticipating.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 03:31 pm (UTC)Very well, then, can you tell me why, ever since the Saturn, console gamers and PC gamers have been prohibited from playing the same multiplayer game across the same internet with each other? The most consistent long-term reason?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 03:39 pm (UTC)These Mods! They change everything! And it's just as much fun trying to figure out how to get the mods to work together as it is to play the actual games!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 03:54 pm (UTC)For Xbox Live, at least, that is the primary reason. I can't speak for other console networks as I don't have much experience with them and/or haven't spoken with their network gurus to the same extent.
As for other cross-platform ports, well, many of them in the past were simply incompatible with each other; even though they had the same design elements from a user perspective, the operations and networking were different on the different platforms.
More recent games have the issue that I suspect you're nailing your colours to, that the input methods differed too much which granted one or another platform an undue advantage; you'll be dismayed to know, though, that it doesn't always break in favour of PCs. That is very heavily dependent upon what the native platform was; UIs built assuming dual-analog inputs don't always map too well to mouse+keyboard, and vice-versa.
-- Steve frankly doesn't buy platforms, nor does he invest much into them. He buys games based upon how much they interest him, not because of the labels.
PS: If my gaming budget was bigger I'd have all the platforms, or even just all the current-generation ones; Okami on the Wii looks intriguing. However, right now I'm sticking with my i7 desktop and my 360 console as those two have the biggest lists of titles that I enjoy.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 04:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 04:03 pm (UTC)But I can point and click! Bioshock (which I wanted to play for the story) and Borderlands (Story?...nah. Blood.) are accessible to me because there's not a controller to piss me off.
But when it comes to PC games, you can have a wider range of types of games because you can have tons more buttons without having to up the learning curve.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 04:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 04:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 04:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 04:35 pm (UTC)Any game I can see myself enjoying mods for, I'll pick up for the PC. But more and more, interfaces have been simplified for the console market, and it feels more natural in the game's "native" environment. Borderlands, for example.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 06:22 pm (UTC)Sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'll never know.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 06:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 06:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 06:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 06:50 pm (UTC)I remember one of the PS2 Castlevania games being like that. Man, the cameraman was a jerk.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 07:02 pm (UTC)-- Steve enjoyed the heck out of Doom, Marathon, and Goldeneye in their respective days.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 07:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-10 07:09 pm (UTC)