6 ms·

So much self-serving rhetoric. How are "input methods" a major PC flaw? The platform is almost completely open! Even closed platforms use input methods that c

• ishansharma 14y ago
  Completely agree with you. However, one thing to note is that while PCs are open as of now, both Microsoft and Apple are moving in closed direction. With Windows and App Store, what is there that stops them from making it difficult to install anything outside the store? Power users will surely complain a lot, but I don't think an average customer will do much!
• roc 14y ago
  > "The platform is almost completely open!" That's kind of the problem. You can do anything, and plenty of people are. But there's no platform 'boss' to lay down standards. Aside from (fleeting) de-facto standards (particular flight sticks in years past; the 360 gamepad today) input support on the PC is a pain point for devs. Shoddy drivers, shoddy APIs, shoddy manufacturer support -- to say nothing of the state of vision, voice and touch. There's a reason PC games are treading water with support for little-to-nothing beyond kb/m and dodgy/partial support for the 360 gamepad here and there.
  • phaus 14y ago
    The keyboard / mouse combo is the ideal way to control many types of games. Edit: I was addressing this comment, not claiming that the keyboard is superior in all situations. >There's a reason PC games are treading water with support for little-to-nothing beyond kb/m and dodgy/partial support for the 360 gamepad here and there.
    • untog 14y ago
      Sure. But it doesn't fit the living room environment very well. You can dispute whether that's where the PC is headed, but it's what Valve thinks, so their logic is at least consistent.
    • dageshi 14y ago
      Not if you're sitting on a couch it isn't.
    • archagon 14y ago
      Yes, and not so great for others. Have you tried playing Batman: Arkham Asylum with a mouse/keyboard? Those combos are so much harder to pull off! What about 3D platformers, where analog movement is paramount? Racing games, where analog steering and acceleration really help? Nowadays, I find that I use my PC gamepad as often as my mouse/keyboard.
      • mitchty 14y ago
        Racing games are the perfect example of mouse/keyboard failure. As well as flight simulators or simulations of any sort mostly. It is OK for most games, but not ideal.
        • phaus 14y ago
          As I stated above, I agree that analog controllers are better than a M/K for racing games. As for flight simulators, I guess it depends on what you mean by a flight sim. Old school flight sims are where I got my start in gaming, back in the early to mid 90s when they at least tried to seem realistic. Lately, it seems that most "flight sims" are arcade shooters with historically accurate aircraft models. If you are playing an arcade game, the console controllers are superior; if you are playing an actual flight sim, console controllers and the mouse / keyboard combo are absolutely terrible, with the mouse/keyboard getting a slight edge due to the impossibility of implementing that many commands on a console controller.
          • 14y ago
• untog 14y ago
  How are "input methods" a major PC flaw? The platform is almost completely open! That's kind of the problem, though- the market is too fragmented. Microsoft can release the Kinect as the control device to buy, and everyone does. Meanwhile, the PC has has five competing devices sharing a smaller market.
• cobrausn 14y ago
  Agreed. Input devices like this have been common on PC for a while now, just for specialized games. http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/products/trackir5/ http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/products/trackir5/
• mahyarm 14y ago
  I think by input methods he means number of users with the input methods. Every wii user has the wiimote. MS heavily promotes the kinect. Not many users in PC land have joysticks for example and that limits games that would like to use it as a main control mechanism.
• cookiecaper 14y ago
  >How are "input methods" a major PC flaw? The platform is almost completely open! He didn't say input methods on PC were flawed, he said that PC gamers have been slow to accept and/or develop innovative input methods. This is pretty much his one and only criticism of the PC market, and he said this in the context of "PCs are super cool because they've been the best and coolest in everything forever (except new input methods)!" >The only thing of interest in that speech would be just how much Newell is struggling to hedge his bets, yet completely ignoring the elephants in the room, e.g. his console competitors... Wat. The whole point of the talk is that he's going to bring a small form-factor "PC box" to the living room. It will look and function like a console to the layman, but it will not require reimplementation of everything, it will automatically work with PC players online, manufacturers will be able to make and sell custom "Steam boxes" a la Android mobiles. The whole thing says, "We're going to pwn 'consoles' with our new thing, because it's the best of both worlds; the normal person sees it as a console, but it's still a free and open ecosystem, the work is already done, and the communities are already there."
• bentcorner 14y ago
  If the steambox doesn't ship, in the box, some new input method, any future new input methods are doomed to be used by a tiny minority of the market. If you're a dev and want to make a game, do you make it so that it can only be used by a few thousand people, or by everybody on the platform? I think Nintendo learned this lesson (somewhat) the hard way until they released the Wii. Peripherals don't sell.
• r0s 14y ago
  He's speaking to the lack of real innovation in input methods. Compared specifically to consoles or tablets. Now, you can argue about weather that's true, but it's not immediately dismissed as "self serving". He's nodding to consoles here.