The features PC gamers wantan open letter to developers and gamers
polycounter lvl 10
Hey guys. Since there are many developers here, I thought it'd be cool to have a thread about this article. It's from a great guy Durante who made fixes for bad pc ports like Dark Souls and Deadly Premonition.
The article is located here: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-features-pc-gamers-wantan-open-letter-to-developers-and-gamers/
PC is my only gaming platform and my favorite one. It pains me that even today many developers have no idea about what makes for a good PC version. Maybe it'll help your studio to make your customers happier? Spread the word, let's make PC gaming better
The article is located here: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-features-pc-gamers-wantan-open-letter-to-developers-and-gamers/
Article by Peter "Durante" Thoman. Durante is the creator of PC downsampling tool GeDoSaTo and the modder behind Dark Soul's DSfix and Deadly Premonition's DPfix.
The PC gaming market is thriving. Hundreds of games are released every month. Some are from established studios, who have been working on PC games non-stop for years or even decades, but this is now the exception. Indie developers are changing the face of Steam. Developers who once made games exclusively for consoles are porting them to the PC for the first time—and some of those games, like Dark Souls, are finding bigger, even more passionate communities than they had before.
For developers new to the PC, there can be bumps in the road. As I’ve learned from my interactions with some developers, at times they simply don’t know what PC gamers want and expect from their games: graphics settings, keybindings, modding support, and more. Likewise, gamers often are not fully aware of the restrictions and workloads their wishes impose on developers, and why some of these features may not be included.
This article is aimed at addressing both groups—to tell developers what PC gamers expect from their games and which of those features we consider most vital, and to explain to gamers how much work it takes to meet those expectations.
PC is my only gaming platform and my favorite one. It pains me that even today many developers have no idea about what makes for a good PC version. Maybe it'll help your studio to make your customers happier? Spread the word, let's make PC gaming better
Replies
I imagine it shouldn't be too hard to organize something like that. PC version's quality is objective, it just needs to be tested on a variety of rigs for performance and it needs to have all needed features there and working fine.
maybe a brutal series of hardware/driver/SLI configuration tests that garners the same prestige ( and sales ) the PSU industry is now enjoying.
80+ platinum approved PC gaming certification.
As for more hands on approach of actually knowing what to expect out of a game (especially ports), here is a wiki: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home
I trust TB more than any other 3rd party.
Which makes him more credible.
gues Gaben has to step in once again.
That makes no sense. He works for himself so he's magically more credible?
That's one of his selling points actually-when he takes paid gigs he makes it pretty obvious: written disclaimers, bumpers on the vids, talking about how the promo went on his podcasts. There are other youtubers--some very big--who try & keep that under the table. As an indie dev there have been a couple of shady YTers--some very very large channels--who have come to ME asking for money to make positive vids.
I may disagree with some of TB's takes on things, and he may or may not disclose every paid thing he does (he says he does), but he does make that one of his "selling points" as a youtuber.
I can tell you for sure. One miss step from TB, like being not honest about some shady deal, and he is done as game critic.
Unlike some big organizations, where everything tends to dissolve over time, and everyone seems to forget about past or some other not necessary customer-friendly intentions.
Yes. I don't trust big organizations. The bigger you are, the more ways you have to mitigate any accusations trowed at you.
I remember there were a lot of big video creators within the CoD community that were making near 6 figure salaries by making bullshit videos. There was one guy who even got away with basically stealing every single video he's ever uploaded from other youtubers.
TB might be fine, but there's literally nothing stopping him from lying his ass off.
As for the topic at hand, I'd say it's pretty much impossible for there to be a high quality "product check" for the PC market, there are simply too many variables that can't be controlled. If a game looks, runs, and plays smoothly on one person's machine, there's no guarantee it will work just as nicely on another person's machine, even if the game is made by a serious developer with lots of experience. There are also a lot of things that can't really be measured that can ruin a game as well, such as the amount of cheaters within the online community of the game. Considering everybody seems to be moving towards "games as a service" I'm not really sure if this will be an issue in the near future, but it does suck when you buy a $60, especially from a "trusted" developer, that doesn't work like it should.
The minimum system requirements are supposed to take care of that. A rating that says "this game has FOV settings" and the like is performance agnostic.
pfff japanese, they proly dont even know they are working on pc´s
Actually there are laws, which force you, to disclose any sponsored deal you might have.
Yes, that group are called reviewers. No need at all to elevate them to seals and all that, just write reviews and give them scores.
Which country?
In US for example. In UK as well afair.
Sponsored deal, which in the essence advertisement, which might not contain true presentation of product, is under regulation. I think most countries have such regulations.
yeah but who gives a fuck about youtubers.
if you want to sue a youtuber with this, the best you are getting out of your attourney or a judge is a smug laugh.
I think I read with Evil Within (which I also ordered) that when you buy the season pass you get a couple of extra missions which I imagine will cost around the same amount as the SoM one. It would be nice if we could just pay for a game and get all of it, rather than just 'bits'. I dunno, maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion considering some DLC isn't integral to the actual storyline and is exactly that - an add-on!