PCs were not more than smart typewriters at that time. The home computers (ZX81, C20/C64, etc.) reigned during this time and were better than the consoles of their time. The trend then jumped from the ATARIs and Amigas onto the PC.

What? PC's did not svck in the 90's most of the best rpg's came out then, the best Fps(Doom) came out then too...

You've got to be kidding. PC Gaming was quite active and popular in the 90's.

For example (all from the 90's, all from the PC, all very popular in their time):

Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
Wolfenstein
Warcraft I & II
Doom I & II
Sim City
Prince of Persia
The Monkey Island series
Out of This World
Commander Keen
Ultima series
X-Com
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Half Life
Quake
TIE FIghter
Starcraft
Baldur's Gate
System Shock
Everquest

And those are just off the top of my head.

no Fallout 1 or 2? or Planescape Torment?

I see Diablo missing on that list. Not that it matters...It is 2012 now and Skyrim wins.

Starsiege Tribes? The BEST FPS game ever made EVER?

Yeah I meant pong, I often get the name confused with Pang, the old bubble popping game. This "getting old" crap is not worth it.

While I am not against consoles, I have been a PC gamer for over twenty years. I enjoy games on the PC more than any console, but I also have owned consoles and enjoy how easy it is to run a game on those systems.

I look at it this way. When I buy an Elder Scrolls game, I know that the $60 I plunk down will enable me to play the game for the next several years. The modding community ensures that the game will remain fresh, and that in two years from now I will be playing a game that will be drastically different from the game I purchased, which keeps the game fresh. Regardless of what the sales numbers say, you just don't get that same experience from a console game as you do with the PC game.

Heck I still play Morrorwind from time to time which has outlasted any XBOX 360, or PS3 game on the market. I think I got my moneys worth from that game.

At the end of the day, RPG's like Skyrim is best played on a PC. Better graphics, performance, mods.
FPS's too. You just can't beat a mouse for accuracy.

It's no big secret that consoles are what fill up shelves in electronic stores. Anyone who's been gaming for over a decade could tell you this by how much shelf space PC games occupy in the stores now, as compared to several years ago. Arguably, Steam has a lot to do with that.

All the original post is, is a console Faanboi stroking his ego.

Not sure if troll or just stupid.

Well yes Captain Obvious, Consoles sales are higher than the PC sales & this is obvious to most people who enjoy gaming on either platform.
However, Skyrim on PC has sold a significant amount of copies & a lot more than the oft mentioned 90% propaganda that has been spouted previously.

Both console & PC versions are equally important, Console initial sales can make or break a sales target or company & PC sales are worth their weight in gold over the long term.

I don't even consider this post opinion, it's more objective fact. Howard said himself that he wants the player character to direct the storyline - if they don't like it, they can change it through modifications. They flat out give you the ability to do so for free.

This is a PC exclusive option, and for *some reason* (this is sarcasm, btw) Microsoft nor Sony wish to give this ability to their consumers.

I have friends who played Skyrim on Xbox, PS3 who seem absolutely baffled that I still play this game. It speaks on a lot of levels towards what 1) console-exclusive developers target audiences are, and 2) the behavior of that target audience.

My buddy buys a new 360 game every two weeks for about $60, plays it for two weeks, and then purchases another one. Maybe somewhere 4-5 months down the road he'll pick up an "old" purchase, but for the most part, he's playing the "latest, greatest" title.

The last, I don't know, six games I've purchased have offered me 800+ hours of gameplay without me even being slightly tempted to buy the latest CoD title, as its comprised of fluff and boredom on the developer end of things, yet is marketed to my above mentioned friend as something he "cannot live without playing".

I respect what the console industry has done for gaming development in general, but there is a trend swing in every market and currently consoles are on the downswing of technology.

Quite literally holding the industry back.

good, now you know why I said 80s-early 90s...

Look at all the mods that have been downloaded. The workshop had over 2 million mod downloads in a week's time. That's not counting the millions of downloads from the nexus. Hey OP who are downloading all of these mods? Something tells me it isn't xbox players. Steam doesn't release the sales figures for digital downloads. So in other words we have no idea how many copies have been sold for the PC. According to the records that Skyrim on steam has smashed I'm sure it's a lot more than you think.

There are people, like me, who choose to play TES games on a console because they just don't want the "headache" of dealing with a PC and all the issues PC's have (viruses, software conflicts, hardware conflicts, upgrades, etc. etc.), who are still playing Skyrim (and Oblivion and Morrowind) on a PS3 or Xbox (in my case both). Not all console players are like your friends, just looking for the latest new game.

I installed Oblivion on my fiancee's laptop last year, hoping to get into mods, but it looked "stretched" when I plugged the laptop into the HDTV with an HDMI cable and it was a pain to get the controller to work right (never got it to work as well as on an Xbox), so we went back to playing on the PS3 and the Xbox. There are plenty of console TES players who are just as serious about their roleplaying as any PC player, and who play these games for years (even without mods), just like a PC player.

There are "PC" products on the market that, like consoles, function as appliances that "just work" with little to no fuss, as long as you are willing to accept the choices that the manufacturer has made for you. Apple products come to mind. I feel these machines would broadly appeal to console players for many of the same reasons. Sadly, Skyrim has no native Mac support.

Although, that completely ignores the money issue given that Macs are considerably more expensive than PCs for the same specs.

BTW, Turija, I hope you're using a mobile phone or a Macbook to post this... since you don't want the headache of owning a PC. It would be ironic!

I guess it all comes down to what you are comfortable with a specific system. For me, the mods alone are reason enough to play TES on a PC.

I just cant pass up a pc version of skyrim, the mods man... the mawdz!!!! @_@

Sure, if you dont mind paying at least twice its real value simply because its got an Apple logo on it.

At the end of the day, most console gamers are of a similar mind that they dont want added expense just to play newer games regardless of who makes the hardware they play on. If its cheap and does a good job its good enough for the majority of gamers.


When mods eventually come for console games, a LOT of pc gamers are going to give up on the PC almost entirely.

You beat me to the price issue w/ Mac I actually edited my post to comment on that.

I think PC gamers may move to the console, but only when the console is on par with the PC in all ways, including input methods. Nothing beats a keyboard & mouse, IMO.

Yeah, that is a matter of preference. I am the opposite. I svck at using a keyboard. Cannot even type well. So, PC or console, I will be using a controller.

But the mods, yeah, eventually I am sure I will get a PC just to play TES with mods. For now, I have not done everything there is to do in Oblivion, Morrowind and Skyrim on the Xbox/PS3, not to mention Fallout 3 and NV. If I run out of things to do in these games before TES VI comes out, then that is the day I will be buying a PC, for sure.

Indeed its amazed me that MS are so bloody minded in not letting k/b & mice on the system at all. Frankly there is no reason for it other than greed, as they want everyone to buy a stupid mini keyboard for 4x the price of a normal one thats a right royal pain to use.

I know a lot of gamers are graphics hoe's, only caring about the next shiney new thing. However if you give them comparible graphics at a lowered price point they will jump at it.

I don't consider that cross platform delivery hurt 'the game' in any way...

That said though, of course elements will be created which do have to fit in the 'cross platform' generic model...but as a PC gamer, who has a lot of friends who also play Skyrim on PC (and barely a couple who use console, probably because we are an older representative group), that doesn't worry me too much, because mods will generally fix the 'consoled components'.

One thing I am fairly certain of...in ten years, I'll more than likely still be able to play Skyrim, and I'll probably still be putting mods in which turn it into a newer version of the game...whereas if I was on console, I may not even be able to play it because the next couple of generations of console may have moved beyond Skyrim compatibility.

1: Consoles did hurt the game, developers were forced to squeeze their capabilities into very old hardware. You explained how Bethesda made more money, not how the game couldn't have been bigger and better with consoles out of the picture.

2: PC gaming isn't expensive. A good gaming rig will run you $500.

You'd have to retain your old console in the attic somewhere and dust it off to play Skyrim again. Maybe an old TV, too.

The PC has this issue as well every time they introduce a new architecture, but at least they keep compatibility for a long enough time. Worst case, you can install an emulator.

Hopefully sooner rather than later interpreted languages will replace compiled machine code for games. Then it's a non-issue.