The PC Centric Extravaganza 07.08.08

Posted by Chris Evans on 07.08.2008

A Political Machine dominates the PC Centric Extravaganza this week!

The PC Centric Extravaganza 8th July 2008

Apologies from the off for the short column this week, I will admit that I haven't been keeping track of the news this week for one reason or another. This is my last week before I go to PC Zone for a week long internship but don't worry, there will still be a column next week!

In a note, I would like to mention that myself and Snake211 have come to an amicable conclusion, while the ‘Fanboys' piece in this weeks article may seem like I am complaining, I was just annoyed at the time of writing. That probably was not the best mood to be writing, but keep an open mind on the piece anyway.
Enjoy the column!

The Political Machine

I think it is time I got round to talking about The Political Machine 2008, the latest in Bobble-Head Political Games from Stardock Interactive. I recently defeated Ulysses S. Grant in the US Presidential Election with Barack Obama as my Vice President.



I had started my political career in The Political Machine with a horrific defeat in my homeland of Europe to the scourge of the Galactic Civilization's world, the Drengin Lord Kona. It was not a normal map of Europe, this was a Europe from the perspective of a US school student, with countries like Britland and issues such as the bullying of France this was always going to be a hard campaign to win.

In my European campaign I chose the risky strategy of investing heavily in media campaigns, TV and Newspaper ads were started in any country I felt worthy, speeches were left to the back burner and the use of political capital was, to say the least, used to ill-effect. The decision to place Bill Clinton as my running mate can be seen in hindsight to have been the turning point of a campaign I had been winning.

When it came to voting day I was handsomely beaten by Lord Kona, while I had won the majority of the public vote, Kona had been able to secure the most Electoral College nominations...or votes...I am not sure what really but I know that Kona's bobble-head was victorious, I was the loser.

It was with some trepidation then that I started my next campaign in the US against Ulysses S. Grant, my knowledge of US politics is in someways limited to The West Wing...unfortunately I have not watched that since it last aired so I was out of touch with what states I should target in my campaign. Whilst I may have been keeping half an eye on the current US Presidential Race I had not been taking a keen interest in it. Tying this in with my poor sense of both the physical and geographical geography of the United States I was expecting an ass-whooping of never before seen proportions.

My campaign reflected my lack of understanding of what I should be doing in this great country, I was content to rapidly jump from state to state often following in the footstep of Grant in the hope of reversing any gains he would make. At every possibility I flew from the West coast over to New York or Florida for a high profile chat-show interview in the seemingly vain hope of winning the support of the undecided voters.

With Barack Obama appointed as my running mate I was hoping he would be able to spark those states I had ignored into throwing their support behind me. All the media reports that were presented to me by what I assume were my assistants presented me with reports of those same assistants claiming my campaign was dead in the water. I was fearing a defeat worse than the one Kona inflicted upon me in Europe.

After 41 hard weeks of campaigning it was election day, one by one the map of the US moved from state to state with each state turning Red my hopes visibly fading while every Blue state made me hope and witness a glimmer of a chance at victory.

I should not have been so pessimistic, while I failed to win the majority of the popular vote I had secured enough states/Electoral College seats to clinch the victory from Grant. Political success had never tasted so sweet.

The bobble-heads of Obama and myself standing together as future rulers of the US was a sight for sore eyes. What a game The Political Machine 2008 is, what a game.

Microsoft on the 360 and PC

In an interview with Games Industry.biz Mircosoft Games Studios' Peter Zetterberg and Matthew White discussed marketing strategies and business models in Europe for the PC and 360.

They claim that they don't release 360 and PC games at the same time in Europe so as to help drive sales of the 360 title yet they go on to claim that they don't prioritise the 360 over the PC. Either I am getting lost in market-speak but they are talking out of their arses!

Q: Which format is your priority in Europe? You have these big Xbox 360 titles such as Mass Effect, but they don't see release on the PC until six months after the console release. Why don't you go for a simulataneous treatment on these titles?

Peter Zetterberg:

On a global scale the Windows Vista business is as important as our Xbox 360 business. But in Germany for example, we want more gamers to buy our Xbox 360. If we launch a game that is on 360 and PC simultaneously, we basically shoot ourselves in the foot by allowing the German market to choose to play the PC version – because they are more likely to buy that than spend their money on the Xbox 360. On a global scale the PC is very relevant to us. And I would say that 90 per cent of the games that are pitched to us are on console. We're strongly perceived as a console publisher because we're the first-party publisher even though the Windows operating system is equally important to us. If we launched a Halo game on PC and 360 in Germany simultaneously, 80 per cent of sales would be on the PC. So we need to pick and choose our formats.

Q: So you're admitting that the Xbox 360 is the priority, because you don't want to lose console sales.

Peter Zetterberg:

No, they're equally important. The PC has a much wider use, it's so established, it's so dominating already so in some territories we need to make the games for the 360 to increase the sales there.

So I'll be honest that these guys are failing to convince me that they are interested in pushing the PC as a gaming platform. They are admitting that when a market, such as Germany, is predominantly PC orientated they would rather push a 360 version of a game first so as to maximise sales opportunities.

I really don't understand it, surely if they can see that the PC is the dominant platform in a market that they should do what they can to ensure PC gamers have equal opportunities to their console brethren.

Guess this just goes to show where Microsoft really have their priorities.

Fanboys

Fanboys, surely these are the worst part of gaming there is. Fanboys can enter a thread on a forum and instantly turn it into a mess of arguments and counter arguments, they can force developers to change how a game plays purely by their weight of numbers, in short they are the curse of the modern gaming world.

I have had to deal with fanboys for many a year now, ever since I stepped into the halflife2.net forums I have witnessed many a thread become ruined with arguments of 'Half-Life sux, play Halo ftw n00bz'. Well the arguments on the fanboys often aren't that bad, but you get the idea I hope.

However I have taken the decision to write this right now after comments left in my last two editions of The PC Centric Extravaganza here on 411. I would like to present evidence found in the June 24th column and the July 1st column.

The comments in question, firstly from the June 24th column:

MGS4 > All PC games.

Posted By: Snake211 (Guest) on June 24, 2008 at 12:25 AM



MGS4 = watching a movie with an average plot

Posted By: Triple J (Guest) on June 24, 2008 at 12:41 AM



LMAO, ignorant haters commenting on the Game of the Generation. You'd wish that kind of godliness would grace the PC.

Posted By: Snake211 (Guest) on June 24, 2008 at 12:53 AM

And this taken from the July 1st column:

Diablo 3? All these years, and you PC guys are waiting on another mindless clickfest? LMAO. Superior technology indeed. Wake me up if the PC gets a game as good as MGS4.

Posted By: Snake211 (Guest) on July 01, 2008 at 12:54 AM

Now I have no issues with people sharing their opinions on different issues and topics, I enjoy a good debate or two. I love a good debate really, just ask people from my politics class from college! Back on track though, I really don't see the point of people making comments like Snake211 has done in response to my PC based columns. I can fully well understand him making comments in a PS3 column when he feels that the writer said something about Metal Geat Solid 4. However these comments in a PC column just don't fit.

I wonder why fanboys can't shut their mouths once in a while and let people have a mature debate without bringing it down to their level. Maybe it is just because they lack the necessary brain cells to do so? I doubt we will know whether that is the case without abducting one and performing a brain examination.

Here is a thought, maybe it is all their console playing (in my experience fanboys are most often console gamers) that causes them to become fanboys. I wonder if Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have some kind of drug that transfers to the human body upon someone touching one of their consoles? You don't get that kind of crap with a PC!

Yes I appreciate the irony of what I just said, I did it for a reason, I wanted to show how stupid fanboy'ism is.

My message to fanboys, grow up, the world doesn't want you.

Tally Ho!

That is it for this week, should be getting back to normal service next week! Tally Ho!