Monday, March 12, 2012

Monday Musings

Let's get this out of the way now:  I'm a PC gamer.

That said, the appeal of a console for gaming right now is pretty strong, but not because of what you'd think.

There are a lot of good, new games that I'm interested in but I've not pulled the trigger on because of the system requirements.  My aging PC still meets the minimum system requirements, but I know from two decades of gaming experience that those minimum requirements are just about worthless.  So, instead of paying for the game itself, I'd also have to pay for some significant upgrades to my system.

With a console, I wouldn't have to do that.  Yes, that means I wouldn't be able to play a lot of the games I currently own as they aren't made for the console, but it also means that I don't have to pay for hardware upgrades every couple of years.

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Speaking of hardware upgrades, WoW's older graphics engine might actually work in it's favor for a while.

As newer MMOs with more sophisticated graphics are released, you need more horsepower to run those games seamlessly.  For gamers such as myself, who are reluctant to shell out cash for the hardware just to play one or two games, it's a cheaper option to simply remain with WoW.

I doubt we're going to see much impact by that, but I know that one significant deterrent from me playing TOR are the system requirements.  My PC struggles when you get all 40 people wailing on Drek or Vann in AV, and  there have been a few times where I've actually gotten kicked out of the game in AQ40 when there's been too much activity on screen.  Now, throw in the nicer but more processor intensive graphics of the latest MMOs, and you get the idea.

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Given the instant popularity of Healers Have to Die, you'd think that Healers would be higher on the priority list in a BG.  Or at the very least, CC them or something to keep them from assisting in the BG.

But nooo....

I can't tell you how many times I've been in a BG lately where people have had to spell out "KILL THE HEALERS" in BG chat.  You know, it's one thing if there are four enemy healers in Warsong Gulch and they're all focusing on the flag carrier, but it's quite another if there's just one Holy Spec Pally out there spamming Holy Light.

It's as if everyone in the BG is expecting someone else to do it, so they get the glory of offing the FC.

2 comments:

  1. I have to admit I love my pc over my ps3. I do have to spend some money once in a while to update my hardware, but for me the pc is my main form of entertainment. I am wondering if wow will ever upgrade their graphics if that will force people to upgrade their hardware though :/

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  2. @antlergirl-- Yeah, I've been a PC gamer since I was in college, and for strategic games such as Civ, it's just the perfect platform.

    I'm kind of torn on any WoW graphics upgrade, myself. I did like what they did with the water in Cata, but flying over water areas was just too much for my machine, so I had to really dial back the water graphics to make it work. I know it's the Core Duo processor that's the issue (I'd replaced the graphics card 2 years ago), but I really don't want to spend the money on a new motherboard if I can help it.

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