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Posted: Jun 07 2012 11:18 pm

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/29/the-complete-rules-for-games/

A list of Dos and Don'ts toward the PC game industry as a whole:

Excerpts include:
DON’T install DirectX without checking which version I currently have. Nor a .NET framework, whatever that is. And yes Steam, I’m mostly talking to you. Just what are you doing? You know how you could know I already have the latest version of DirectX installed? BECAUSE YOU INSTALLED IT YESTERDAY. That’s how you could know. Or you could, I don’t know, check for the version number and notice it’s exactly the same as the one you’re now insisting on installing without even asking first. Especially if I’m playing the demo for a 2D puzzle game from 1989. Oh my goodness.

DO feel free to notice that mice changed in the last decade. Sometimes they have more than three buttons now! Well done for acknowledging the wheel – we’re all very appreciative. But it’s awfully hard to find a mouse these days that doesn’t have at least a couple of thumb buttons. It’d be splendid if you could have your PC game recognise them, just like the way you make sure your PC game can recognise all sixteen buttons on the 360 controller I have. It’s a thought, eh?

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

I hate PC gamers.

Posted: Jun 08 2012 02:54 pm

A lot of these could be for other systems too but I definitely agree with the Directx and Number of saves one. Trust me I have Directx up to date, I play video games on this computer. Plus Directx never actually seems to get new updates and if they do game developers don't see the use in using the new updates anyway. As to the saves I have 2.75 TB of hard drive space, seriously go to town and let me save a million times you'll never fill that shit up.

The mouse one is not really a big deal though. I've got a mouse with 13 or 15 buttons (I forget since I'm not at home) and I use maybe 4 or 5 of them regularly; The left/right clicks, the sensitivity adjust buttons, and the back a page on the internet button. I guess it would be cool if the games would map some of those for me but each mouse is different. How is the game developer going to know which mice are being used? They'd have to sit and develop a keybind set for each mouse and then detect which one you were using and set it accordingly. I'd rather they spent that time on actually making the games playable myself, especially when I can map them through the mouse's software if I see a need to. Hunting for the f key to fire a missile mid-fight taking too long? All I have to do is alt-tab and set one of the thumb buttons to macro to the f key really fast.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

There are some good points, and a lot of bitching.

As far as DirectX... that is a Microsoft problem. Here is the thing. 99% of the time newer versions of dependencies will carry both the new and old code with them. This means that the newest game you play should install the latest version of DirectX and that should be good enough for any game older.

Yet... for some asinine reason, sometimes, it totally fucks up the older dependencies by overwriting them with different version numbers or bug-fixes that actually bomb out older games. Steam doesn't want to deal with these troubles, so it just mandates the dependency updates for every game to be safe.

DirectX is actually not the most common one, it is just the one that takes forever.

C++ Runtime redistributables are the worst and they will cause "Side-by-side" configuration errors if you don't get them... all of them...

Personally, I blame Microsoft for not fixing this and forcing these redistributable packages to be checked and downloaded via their own mechanism as part of Windows Update.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

I guess it's hard not to agree with a lot of this, especially when it comes to the cutscene and saving rules. I just hate the culture of whiny simps that pervades gaming today, especially when it comes to PC gamers.

"I have to press Q instead of E to hit swtiches. You lose my money, off to Piratebay!"

Posted: Jun 09 2012 05:01 pm

I have one:
DON'T bother with "Press Start" title screens anymore. It's 2012 and that is a holdover from several decades ago. There is no need to press buttons to advance past the giant logo when there's enough screen space to fit options next to it now. Your game is not an arcade game; there is no need to wait for player input to begin when the player is also the machine owner and operator.

Posted: Jun 09 2012 05:26 pm

Yeah the "Press Start" or "Press any button to continue/begin" screens are fucking stupid no matter what system you are on. With 1080p you can easily fit a giant ass logo and have the menu down the left or right side easily. In fact many of the games that still use that "Press Start" thing will have a big ass logo next to all the menu buttons anyway. What purpose does the first screen really serve at that point, other than to just be annoying?

As for C++ runtime and those fucking .Net frameworks, I do wish Microsoft would keep them up to date with Windows update. It seems like I'm constantly having to update one or the other to make something work properly. I think they are optional, but who ever checks it when it says new updates available? Just install it for me.