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New computer prices, heavy impact on MMO's?
Mitara
Member UncommonPosts: 755
In the last 2 years, we have seen computer prices drop tremendously, in my country more than 70% has been cut off. This is the way of the world of course, question is, how will this affect upcoming MMO's. With Intel's Larabee coming out soon, will developers aim for higher-end computer in the future?.
Comments
Need to give people time too buy enough of the new stuff to drive prices down,thing is there low enough now on real good system to be able to play anything out now.
My dream machine atm is being able to use the latest technology exspecially the solidstate harddrives just think with fans getting quieter and no moveing parts makeing noise on your hard drives i would be in heaven,although with costs of these items still at premium i can't afford to build it yet.
Intel will soon release westmere, a 32nm die shrink with integrated graphics and memory controller.
It depends entirely on the state of the economy whether people will upgrade their computers at all. If you lose your job, you won't be thinking about buying a new computer with a graphics card that can handle Crysis-like graphics. People are losing their jobs at a faster rate than in previous years, plus they can't find work easily again once they are unemployed. I know that if I didn't have a job, I would not buy a gaming computer, even with a 70% lower price than the recommended retail price.
However, I would still sub to one MMO, and I would need that MMO to run on the current computer I have. I think there is still a real need for MMOs especially to run on lower end computers, at least until the economy begins to pickup. And even if the economy picks up, computer prices will go up again therefore the amount of people upgrading to higher quality computers will still be limited.
I haven't noticed in the UK prices going down by 70%, so it seems to be dependant on where you are wanting to buy the computer.
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.
I put together a high end PC for $1,400 less than a year ago
Almost any computer out there, you gotta add another $200 for a decent graphics card.
What do you mean it's just economical to aim for the lower end. You increase your market base, you can get away with a simpler design depending on the balances you follow in your developement cycle.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
I put together a high end computer that was under $500, that can run crysis at max setings with no lag.
"Originally posted by Cillasi:
Almost any computer out there, you gotta add another $200 for a decent graphics card."
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500058
This is not a decent graphics card, it's a great graphics card for under $110 after rebate.
If the economy starts to bounce back then I think most people will be able to afford at least medium specs on a computer. If you're willing to invest some time and a bit of effort to find all the parts you can put a damn good computer together for under $1000. As it stands now though. All the people unable to find work will have computer upgrades last on their list... if it even makes the list.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
it wont be that significant, even if new mmos are going to require high-end mmos, there will always be mmos that runs compatibly with older PCs. Even 4-5 years mmos are still played.
There are some problems with computers becoming better at this point.
One problem is global warming. The earth is getting hotter and more powerful computer hardware generally generates more heat. My room gets pretty hot just from the computer with an core 2 and a Nvidia 9800 GTX.
Number two problem is more powerful hardware consumes more power. With money worries in the world today I believe there wont be a lot of advancement in computer technology unless they figure out a way to make the hardware faster while consuming less power and generating less heat.
Overall I see computers and computer games to not advance to much for a while due to these issues. I believe in fact that slower computers and graphically simplier games will become more popular for a while. I'm not sure if thats good or bad.
Umm try living in Canada.even our trashy laptops are still asking ridiculous prices.They have mass spammed the market with pre built systems,but even though you may get a decent chip ,the systems are garbage.
The systems that are worthy of an upgrade are still very high priced,the only thing that has come down is the monitors.Even still this should not sway the developers,as most good games will have the ability to scale down to lesser systems and still pamper the big boys.As mentioned by EPIC games and the UE3 engine,they have developed a way to incorporate massive poly graphics and still maintain playable conditions,so there is no excuse for drab garbage looking games.
Not only that ,the developers need to start making their games across several platforms [alla SQUARE ENIX],this way they can reach every possible player with no excuses for systems.The Xbox 360 is quite powerful and the PS3 even more so,right up their with most PC's .The problem still lies in the DX10 technology,ONLY the top PC's offer this and none of the Developers are willing to code a game properly for Vista and take advantage of all it offers.
So given the developers costs and stubborness,they can still make a GREAT looking and playable game for top of the line XP/32 bit systems,this would stay in line with the PS3 and the Xbox360.
We need to look no further than EQ2 and Vanguard,the graphics are plenty good and both these games were made many years ago and are quite playable on average systems,especially EQ2,so developers SHOULD be able to realize that amount of quality at the very least>Vanguard only needs more power because it utilizes a lot of things that are not neccessary to achieve a great looking game,they went the extra mile.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Larabee really isn't a GPU. its more like an add-on CPU. Based on the information Intel gives out it will be the greatest thing since Washington saw the last red coats sail away with their tails between their legs. However, I suspect it will not perform as well as dedicated GPUs when it comes to rendering images. Considering all of Intels foryays into graphics have been nothing but jokes, its reasonable to assume Larabee will be a joke too.
However, Larabee and Cell processors don't matter because developers are clinging on to old concepts. Right now we have a predominantly art heavy development with little strives made into enhancing gameplay. On the art side the artists are using dated techniques from 2002 that are no long necessary and a bit innefficient. Lastly you have a bunch of designers who now fill up studios to write the static content. Its all a very inefficient process. Ontop of all this you got recruiters who don't do their job searching for talent and instead randomly select a few individuals who often times work at 1/10th the speed of a real passionate person.
Development now should be much more programmer heavy then art heavy, the artist should be more geared towards technical arts then traditional arts, and the designers should be more scripters then writers.
ye it was great card 2 years ago, when it was released as 8800 gt, it was medium card a year ago when it was renamed to 9800 gt, its low-medium card by now..
i own 2x 9600 gt , which is prety close to 9800, and i would call it medium at best by now..
Technology will continue to advance regardless of "global warming" and economics...
Problem one is not a worry, the heat your computer generates is not much compared to a cow for ecample, and if you feel bad about it you can always get a liquid cooled one, the generates almost no heat (and uses not that much power.
Power is a problem however but the upcomming nano technology is just 5 years away or so and will lower both the electricity and heat while at the same time give you 10 times the speed.
Besides, you can get power fron sources that are not using fossil fuels, like wind, sun and Nuclear power, no global warming there.
So as I see it we are just in front of a big revolution where computers will be a lot faster, there are already working memorys at 50 gb using nano threads in coal with a gold tip (cambridge got it working in 2007. Harddrives are already using a bit of nano tech and will soon go over to that completly giving us 10 times the space too.
Soon we actually will have home computers good enough to run a VR game even.
The problem here is instead that before games where made by a singlle person or a small company but already now we are closer to the cost of producing a movie and smaller companies are being bought up by giants like EA, Microsoft and Activision/Vivendi.
So the games will be a lot more advanced but there will be fewer of them instead. That is at least my prediction based on what is happening in hardware right now.
It depends on what you're aiming for population-wise, but I bet that many game developers would be more than happy to have as many players as possible playing their game. The best way to increase the market base is to develope an engine that will run on the *widest* range of computers as possible. That also means developing a game that benefits those who have better computers: ideally developers should be coding stream-lined, efficient engines that handle graphics well. A great example of this is LotRO which runs very well on low-end systems with everything turned down (still looks passable) and looks gorgeous on high-end systems with everything turned up. Plus, the way the game has been designed, LotRO won't age very fast and it will age well. LotRO is doing well population-wise too partly because of it. The game might not have WoW numbers, but it's doing a lot better than many games out there.
Besides, the point still is that even if a great gaming machine costs $500, if you don't have $500 extra hanging around, you're not going to buy a gaming computer. It's as simple as that. And a lot of people right now don't have $500 to plop on a machine especially if they have had to take pay cuts or have lost their jobs. Why do you think the prices have dropped on computers in the first place? It's because the number of people upgrading has dropped drastically, even over the Christmas period. If game developers are stupid enough to aim for the high end computers now, they're going to get caught short.
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.
I agree with you about cross-platforming, as long as developers continue to realise that converting console games to the PC does require some foresight about how to implement the UI. You mentioned FF XI: the UI for me in that game as a PC user was a MAJOR turnoff. I really really hated it... it was one of the major reasons why I left. It felt like such a pain to do even the simplest things.
I agree with you about the caution developers have about developing for Vista and not taking advantage of it properly.
But onto EQ2 and Vanguard, I can't disagree with you more. EQ2 looked ok when it was released, but still not great, especially for its performance. When EQ2 was released, even high-end systems lagged and the game client still has a memory leak. Vanguard is even worse. At release it was a horrific mess with high-end computer users struggling to even play. The single core, Windows XP players had less problems but the game engine is not efficient, even still after all of the changes. Vanguard looks no better than EQ2 even though it was released later and had even more hyped graphics and the like. If anything, EQ2 and Vanguard are the poster children of how not to develope an engine.
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.
Computers will get better and faster,quieter and cooler despite global warming.
Heat disapation has been a priority in last few years by chip manufacturers which is why certain chips that both intel and AMD never finished or redesigned because of heat issues.
As stated in a previous post the harddrives are going to be solidstate no moveing parts means virtually no heat.
Your rig shouldn't be running that hot tbh m8, the 9800 uses 8800 architecture but
runs a whole lot cooler & uses a lot less power.
There are also a lot of cpus out there that again use less power & generate less heat.
Secondly PC prices will fall dramatically if the economy is hurting, like all industries they will
have to lower prices to stay afloat if, ppl are hard up they wont spend on over priced goods.
As for global warming it's been said by scientists that the climate changes are part of earths
natural cycles,
But yeah we have f*cked up big time with pollution in the last hundred years or so & were making
matters worse but china & usa need to pull their fingers out their arses being the biggest
resource users & polluters
Funny thu ppl mention global warming yet our summers have been sh*t for 15yrs & our winters
seem to be most of the year
The Deathstar destroyed planets...SOE destroyed Galaxies
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
SWG | EVE | WOW | VG | LOTRO | WAR | FML | STO | APB | AOC | MORTAL | WOT
You make very good points. Saves me from having to type a similar post. I think many gamers, like the OP, fails to realize that the world doesn't revolve around games and most of those who play games don't make gaming their priority. I still think it comes down to functionality and purpose. What function and purpose will a computer serve in that persons household? It must serve more than just gaming, or else the masses won't buy that computer. So one theory is that the masses will buy whatever computer is competively priced for what they use their computer for. I don't think most people buy computers for games, they just buy games for their computer. Their main purpose of their computer could be school or work related, not really leisure related. Using a computer for leisure activities is a result of having free time, extra money, and a desire to play a game.
So to summarize, cheap gaming computers will not entice the masses to buy gaming computers. It will just make the masses happier, since the regular computers will be that much less expensive, which will save them money that they can use of real life pursuits. So in the end, games should still cater towards whatever the market minimum is for bargain computers. In this day and age, the bargain computer could probably run EQ2, whereas the bargain computer of 4 years ago could run WOW. It's slow progress, but it is progress none-the-less.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
This is another false misconception of the market. Hardcore gamers may know what a graphics card is and how to build their own computer to save money, but the masses do not. Make no mistake that game developers target the masses with their games.
I'd say the masses couldn't distinguish software from hardware, much less open a case up to install new memory or a graphics card.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
People do specifically buy rigs for gaming, there are a hell of a lot of hardcore gamers
out there as well as the average users etc, we make average PC prices fall tbh
since we buy all the latest parts therefore the lesser/older parts fall in price,
so the casual PC users etc benefit from the gaming industries fast cycle of demand
Prices will fluxuate as the economy goes up & down.
In the harder times of economic gloom its truly a buyers market!
I bought a house the other day at a really good price... buy low sell high
lifes a game :P
The Deathstar destroyed planets...SOE destroyed Galaxies
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
SWG | EVE | WOW | VG | LOTRO | WAR | FML | STO | APB | AOC | MORTAL | WOT
You're one of the privileged few then. A lot of people start life heavily in debt, especially if they went to university. Consider that a large amount of players are in their early to mid-20s who can't find jobs at all after leaving university. A lot of them have to struggle with debt. It might be a buyer's market for a privileged few, but for most people, it isn't a market at all!
Computer gamers are still a minority of computer users and MMO players are a minority of that minority. The computer world does not revolve around MMO players. To be honest, the only piece of hardware gamers *might* affect is the graphics card, and even then there are other people who require great graphics cards who are not gamers. An example is in 3d modelling: something used by engineers, scientists, artists, etc. You have to consider that these cards are also developed with these guys in mind. Sure... there are people who go out and buy rigs for gaming (I am one obviously), but it doesn't seem to be as many as you might believe.
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.
I spent $850 on my computer and it's equal to a Dell that costs $4200 today. Building your own computer is soooo much cheaper than buying them from a company. Alot of the parts of my computer are used or refurbished by myself (most of them were free!), but they still work perfectly fine. Most expensive thing I had to buy was my operating systems (yes plural).
I'm rather lucky as with my job I get alot of high end computer parts (which are usually broken) for free. If you ever get someone to come fix your computer be sure to keep all the parts they replace
. Alot of my clients let me have them for free, or I offer them a discount on thier service. Most of them however don't know any better.
Yes I live in the UK and have been waiting for a large drop in component prices before I build a new system, I was hoping to get some bargains. However it has not happend and it seems to be getting more expensive rather than less, it must be because the pound has dropped so much against the dollar.
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