Is plug and play gaming disappearing?

[Dogg Thang]

Just an observation that may spark some thoughts or discussion. Or may not. I'm a console gamer. I have a high-end PC that is designed for graphic work and yet never use it for games.

I guess being a console gamer stems from early memories of having to figure out that I should type 'BRUN' instead of 'RUN' to get some computer games working and yet, with a console, all I had to do was pop in the cartridge and off I go - instant Pong.

And it's been like that ever since. NES, Master System, Megadrive, SNES, N64. PS1 and Saturn opened the idea of save management but that hardly impacted. You still just popped in the CD and played. End of story.

Simple, elegant and leads quickly to the end goal - just playing the games.

Yet now, I have to upgrade firmware before I get to play a PSP game. Having the game and the PSP is no guarantee that I can play it. Am I right in thinking that upgrades are common already for the 360? The Wii and PS3, in spite of being only just released, are talking of upgrades. A console is now seemingly a 'work-in-progress'. Games get patched, added to and we also now have the miracle of microtransactions with which buying and plugging in the game is now simply not enough. We can buy the elements we want - we don't just get them as standard. So in a way the core games themselves are also 'work-in-progress'.

So I was thinking of getting a 360, to see what all the fuss on GoW was about. But then, how do I get it hooked up to Live? After all, I'd be missing out badly without it. So suddenly I'm looking at ICS, IP Addresses and how the hell I might get a cable from upstairs to downstairs. I may still get one but I work hard weeks and, while I appreciate the pointers (especially from Concept), it turned out I just didn't have the energy to start that project this weekend. Even reading the guides was just too much work. Maybe next weekend.

Is plug and play gaming a thing of the past? Do the majority have the time, inclination and technical know-how to deal with firmware upgrades, patching, microtransactions and so on? Or will that create an opening for a games company to come back in with a guaranteed no-fuss, no upgrade, play what you get in the box gaming? Will buying a console be like getting Sky in that they have to send a guy out to install it? Am I just a lazy old fart?

Where is this headed?

[eastyy]

to be honest i am more concerned that i am encountering more crashes and bugs on console games now.

I am also annoyed that online is just so essential when i am pretty sure there will be alot of people who dont have broadband and companys offer no alternative to get patches/updates etc

[Dogg Thang]

Yes, the bugs and crashes seem to be symptomatic of the 'work in progress' gaming. Having said that, there is a major plus now in that a game can be patched. Back in the day, if a game went out with a bug, that was it. No fix whatsoever.

[Kubrick]

If the bug was bad enough, it would get sorted in a 2nd print run (eg: Metroid Prime and others)

[Brats]

Is plug and play gaming a thing of the past? Do the majority have the time, inclination and technical know-how to deal with firmware upgrades, patching, microtransactions and so on? Or will that create an opening for a games company to come back in with a guaranteed no-fuss, no upgrade, play what you get in the box gaming? Will buying a console be like getting Sky in that they have to send a guy out to install it? Am I just a lazy old fart?

Where is this headed?

I think patches and firmware upgrades are plug ad play anyway. You put in a game, it updates the firmware or installs the patch in seconds and you're on your way. The only time you wouldn't want a firmware update is if you're doing something dodgy anyway.

Connecting to the internet I have some sympathy with and I think the console manufacturers could do more here (MS are especially quiet when enusring everyone has an open NAT). However with the PS3 and Wii having built in wireless and the increasing popularity of things like BTs Homehub, this is only getting easier.

[Dogg Thang]

The only time you wouldn't want a firmware update is if you're doing something dodgy anyway.

Pirate paranoia doesn't change the effect it has on the buying public.

There was a particular instance in which I bought a PSP game (I think it was Micro Machines), wanted to play it on a bus and couldn't. Yes it comes with the firmware but won't let you do it without a particular amount of battery power. That's not plug and play. You can argue it only takes a few seconds but if I have to upgrade the firmware in order to play a game, it's not plug and play. That's the sort of thing that has me stay away from PC gaming.

[eastyy]

oblivion did annoy me a bit in that they were far more keen to get microtransactions out rather then the patch.

would be incredible irony if PC's got simpler and consoles got more confusing

[MattyD]

The thing that concerns me about Xbox Live is how its increasingly used to rescue developers who can't seem to ship bug-free games anymore. The first game I had was GRAW, and that needed to download a patch, and then Gears of War downloaded a patch the very first time I played it on the UK release day. Even now it still has some pretty serious bugs in the multiplayer modes (like the irritating silent mic bug).

I suppose this and the network config problems Dogg Thang touched on could be put down to the increasing complexity of games. Perhaps it's true that as games programs and the way we play them become ever-more complicated there will inevitably be more to go wrong.

[Ajay1986]

Saying that Console games have more crashes and bugs is just not correct. I can name 5 recent PC games at least that had patches released days before the actual release of the game or the same week.

[MattyD]

Saying that Console games have more crashes and bugs is just not correct.

I don't think anyone's saying console games have more bugs or crashes than PC games, they're just saying they suffer these problems more than older consoles used to. I don't think anyone could argue with that.

Don't forget that a console is also a single hardware configuration so there's less excuse for this sort of thing than when they make a PC game that has to work properly on potentially unlimited numbers of different hardware and software configurations.

[AdamJW]

I have to say yes it is. I know cartridges may have been prone to bugs aswell but they would usually just be the bad games, and now it seems like this with more or less every major release on the 360. From what I'm reading here and there anyway. Its half of why I don't want a 360, but thats my choice - which I'm fully entitled to.

I just hope there's enough left in the tank of the games I play, and that the people who make them don't get into this patch it up culture aswell. I have to admit though it has been there to some degree anyway with remakes, gaidens and everything else loyal fans are expected to buy anyway these days.

In my opinion having to fix things online regardless of it being free or fast takes away any choice you might have had. It does for me because broadband is still very ****e in the part of the pennines where I live as much as they say otherwise, so you tell me if you'd be happy seeing this 'patch it up' trend emerge if you couldn't even get online with much success. Regardless of the fact that I might not want to.

The choice has just gone or is going, and at ?40+ a go its no wonder I don't want a 360, but at least if a cartridge was bad in the past I could choose not to buy it, but nowadays I'm made to feel I have to go online with the latest blockbuster in-order to play some games to their fullest. Then if not I'm made to feel like an outsider because I like or play other things, or because I'm not following the majority.

Its getting really bad in my opinion, and I'm seriously thinking whether its time to bow out from this coming generation entirely. It wouldn't be the first time either. I didn't like the like the direction things were being taken before and didn't get a PS1 till much later. I'm getting the same thoughts from watching the 360 establish itself and this growing patch it up culture.

Its certainly a console I'll never buy, but thats my choice, and upto press at least I can still make that choice. Unlike the people like me brother who buys new 360 games, and can't patch them up at all because he can't get online for whatever reason that may be, but at the moment the choice is being made by someone else, and for me personally it goes against everything I was a console gamer for in the first place.

[Dogg Thang]

I'm getting the same thoughts from watching the 360 establish itself and this growing patch it up culture.

It's unfair to single out the 360 though. It's early days yet so it's hard to know how the Wii and the PS3 will end up but signs seem to indicate that things may end up exactly the same, probably more so on the PS3. Dead machines due to dodgy updates are already being reported. In a sense, this is what brought up the topic - if it was just one console you could just choose not to get it, as you are doing. But more and more, this complexity seems to be going standard regardless of the reasons behind it.

And yet games consoles survived at least four generations without all this. Even with the new tech and the fancy graphics, has that much changed that plug and play gaming should become a thing of the past? That's not a rhetorical question by the way because maybe it has. I don't know.

[eastyy]

oh yeh console games are nowhere near as bad as PC games
its just that before the x360 i had only encountered 2 bugs/crashes in a console game
sonic adventures and knights of the republic

now with the x360 i have had various bugs and crashes with several games which is not a good sign(and even some ps2 games)

however with pc games its not just about fixing bugs and problem they can add features and stuff which is a good thing

[AdamJW]

No ones singling anything out. Its just what I've seen so far. I do agree though and it is fair to say that the Wii and PS3 may make things even worse. We will have to see and that could well be the case, but I'm only going off what I have seen recently.

Its entirely my choice how I feel about the 360 and whether I feel like I'm missing out through not having one or not going online. Whether that sits on the shoulders of 360 owners well or not is something that doesn't concern me, and if the trend does continue into the Wii and PS3 I'll be just as reluctant to buy a Wii and a PS3 aswell.

Which would be my loss completely I'm just hoping there's going to be other things that pique my interest by then, but as it stands the 360 stil does not, and neither does Wii, or PS3, but it may do in a year or so - who knows where we'll be this time next year. The problem may have gone entirely by then, and I may own all three consoles, but because of the bad broadband where I live its not looking likely.

To put it into perspective I've still got to travel over 15 miles to get to my nearest DS Wifi hotspot and we don't get digital TV without subscription, this is half of why why I've landed at my opinion, but I'm still hoping there's going to at least be more choice a bit further down the line. I just hope it doesn't get any worse because that will mean me having to sit this generation out until something comes along that does sit right with me. Which would be a poor do.

[Brats]

Pirate paranoia doesn't change the effect it has on the buying public.

There was a particular instance in which I bought a PSP game (I think it was Micro Machines), wanted to play it on a bus and couldn't. Yes it comes with the firmware but won't let you do it without a particular amount of battery power. That's not plug and play. You can argue it only takes a few seconds but if I have to upgrade the firmware in order to play a game, it's not plug and play. That's the sort of thing that has me stay away from PC gaming.

I'm sure that was a bit ****ty for you at the time, but overall I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill tbh. Getting the PSP home, charging it and then reinstalling the firmware update is hardly a daunting prospect and it's a gagillion miles away from the LOD settings and registry tweaks of some PC games.

Considering how much more stuff consoles actually do now, consoles are amazingly slick when it comes to making the process as plug and play as possible. The 360 has wireless controllers to sync, a multitude of different display signals, multiple profiles, an online marketplace, updatable firmware, parental controls, configurable themes/gamerpics and the ability to stream from a PC. And yet it makes it all so simple. Previous consoles just had games, wired controller and an RF lead and that was it. I doubt many want go back to the old ways of doing things.

oblivion did annoy me a bit in that they were far more keen to get microtransactions out rather then the patch.

Oh get off the bandwagon. Bethesda isn't a one man band, it has a team that works on content (that started work on the downloadable stuff before release as their part of the game was complete) and another team that works on the engine.

The downloadable content wouldn't have interfered with the patch. That's like saying Doom 2 slowed down the development of Quake because while Romero, American and Peterson were busy designing levels, Carmack and Abrash couldn't get to the PCs to work on the Quake engine (which is nonsense, of course).