Games as a Service – People Power

Posted on by

With the recent release (and success) of Apex Legends, there’s a firm footing for “games as a service” as a monetary model.  In particular where that model is not based on buying vertical power (e.g. FIFA) but instead meant on selling horizontal flavor (e.g. cosmetics).  I should add that this model only applies if you’re dramatically exceeding expectations. If you still manage to break the previous year’s profits, yet below expectations, expect people to get fired.

I would say this is the flavor of the month, but it’s really hard to argue the sheer market penetration these games are now seeing.  UO was a “huge success”, followed by EQ, then completely dwarfed by WoW.  We went nearly 10 years trying to find a WoW killer (which, as expected, ended up being WoW itself).  Fortnite makes more money in a day than WoW makes in a month (purely on subs – the game services are a whole other bag).

But similar to MMORPGs, today’s games are all competing for the same eyeballs.   And there’s only so much time in a day to be spent, and people follow the shiny.  Fortnite is on season 7 – after 1 year.  WoW in contrast is entering season 2 since the launch of BfA in August.  If there isn’t new content, new material, then sales go away and people get saturated with what’s present, moving to the next thing.

From all that I can see, Apex Legends isn’t bringing new gamers to the table, simply pulling folks from Fortnite/PUBG, and the curious few wondering what all the hubbub is about.  What this means is that it’s pulling money from a limited pool.  This is a problem if a company is directly competing against itself – but these 3 games are from different groups.  Mind you, it will take a month or two for them all to get a similar ping system.

Which brings me to Anthem.  While in terms of direct competition it’s closely linked to Warframe, Destiny 2, and Division 2.  (Quick side bar – the demo for Division 2 is getting nothing but positive press.  It would appear they learned a ton of lessons and are applying them.  Too bad Bungie didn’t do that with Destiny 2.)  If we look at “games as a service” competition then Anthem is competing with the big ones (in relative size):

  • Fortnite
  • PUBG
  • BLOPS4
  • Apex Legends
  • Rainbow 6 Siege
  • Overwatch
  • Destiny 2
  • Warframe
  • For Honor
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Monster Hunter World

Many of which have little to no barrier of entry.  Warframe and MHW are quite insane in terms of what they give for “free”.  Twitch streams are not the only metrics, but damn.

Again, this isn’t to say that Anthem won’t have success, but tempered with reality here.  It’s not like there are 6m people sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting to play only this game.  And if they do manage to get 6m eyeballs on this in the first quarter, what kind of insane release schedule is needed to keep those eyeballs?  We’re in perfect storm territory here.

And then what happens for the “next big thing”?  You have to believe that all the big companies are licking their lips looking at the insane income from this model.  But this isn’t luck, this is a huge level of effort.  There were dozens of MOBAs, only 3 left.  There are Battle Royale modes everywhere, but only 3 that really count today.  WoW’s only true competition has been FF14 – and it needed a complete rebuild to do so.

It’s really something to watch all this develop, and in such a small timeframe.  Practically impossible to keep up with the news, let alone the developers trying to play guessing game on what will or will not work.  I don’t see how this is sustainable in a glut of online games.

Fingers crossed that BioWare has the magic sauce.

Dark Clouds at Acti-Blizz

Posted on by

If rumors are true, then today/tomorrow will see some significant cuts at Activision-Blizzard.

The consumer in me is happy that the company is taking a hit.  That is market capitalism at work, where the consumer demand determines the health of a large company.

The human in me is upset that people are going to lose their jobs through no fault of their own.  In larger companies, the cuts are rarely in the correct places (decision makers) and instead point to the lowest level possible.  Well, perhaps a bit less in this case, since both CFOs were fired.  Bobby Kotick is still going to get his $30m+ this year, rather than taking a pay cut.  There are some good people who are going to lose their job, and I hope that they land on their feet quickly.

The gamer in me is mixed.  On one hand, this doesn’t mean that Acti-Blizz is going to actually start making games with gamers in mind – in fact I would argue the opposite.  The whole Destiny 2 roadmap since launch is textbook “how not to make a sequel”.  BfA isn’t doing too hot either – but at least you can buy a literal flying pig.

We’ve lost the battle on MTX.  Outrage for horse armor has been replaced with joy on the Carleton dance.  Most people are ok with cosmetics in the store, it’s simply the price point that is debate point.  I do not believe we’ve lost the battle on lootboxes, rather that this battle is just getting started.  Specifically on the lootboxes that are pure RNG on rewards.  With both Fortnite, PUBG, and now Apex Legends hitting like a meteor in the market, it will be very interesting to see what games currently in the dev pipe end up delivering.

Maybe this will be a wake up call to the industry in general that they need to find a different path.  That the sheer glut of gaming options means people can spend their time/money on quality rather than quantity.  Counting on the horde of locusts to buy a reskin of last year’s game… pretty sure that model is going the way of the dodo.

Best of luck to those impacted by the layoffs.

 

 

Content Expectations

Posted on by

The more bits I get from the Anthem devs, the more I am both fascinated and curious.  I don’t think my expectations for a AAA game are high for 2019, but maybe I’m in the wrong.  For a multiplayer launch, I would expect:

  • Social tools
  • Player customization (non-power related)
  • Solid mechanics (with numerical balance over time)
  • A dual path for progress
    • Learning the game/story/mechanics (e.g. leveling)
    • Repeatable and engaging content (e.g. end game)
  • Build / role diversity
  • Game stability

I realize that this is quite generic, and that there are multiple ways to achieve this.

Social

Destiny has an alliance mechanic, which provides some weekly benefits.  Off your friend’s list, the top 5 provide give a score that gives extra coins at the end of the week.  Those with no friends, there’s a catch-all bucket for the randoms you play with.  That’s neat and actually better than most other games.

There are no guilds at launch, which seems like a really odd choice.

The social hub should be there, which is good.  The game really feels empty, in particular Freeplay mode where the world can fit 100+ javelins and you’re only ever 4 at max.

There’s matchmaking for everything, so that’s a serious plus.  Not being able to see other people’s loadouts beforehand is going to make the top-end content a pain to manage, pretty much forcing pre-made groups.  Will be interesting.

Customization

Javelin-wise, Anthem has this nailed.  The outlines of Javelins make them recognizable, but the attachments, colors, textures, vinyls – all of it really does add a sense of individuals.

There are no gun customizations that I can see.  Maybe the legendary drops will look a bit different.

Mechanics

I think flight works really well, adding a 3d portion to most combat.  I am extremely hopeful that the devs never add another swimming section to the game.

I think the gunplay is average at best.  It is very loose, and makes weak-spot based combat ineffective.  I also can’t seem to find a realistic difference between all the gun types.  Pick the rifle with the largest magazine.  (‘Cept the heavy weapons for colossus).

The abilities are really quite awesome.  Primers and triggers make for some interesting combos.  I like that there’s a requirement to work together, and that some targets must be flanked.

Bosses have interesting mechanics, though there’s a tad more focus on bullet sponge than deserves to be present.

I like that combat is built for offense, since there are very few defensive options present.  There’s no cover, shields are barely enough to get outta dodge, and you need to actively pay attention to succeed.

Leveling

Not sure how this will work.  From what was presented, the core storyline has more potential than delivery.  There’s just something off about Tarsis, and the way the people move/talk.

Missions do not appear to be repeatable, which seems a terrible waste of resources.  Warframe really did an amazing job on this front.

End Game

From what I understand, there are only 3 strongholds (dungeons) at launch.  We saw one in the demo (Tyrant), and that one takes about 30 minutes to clear.  What was there was enjoyable, but certainly not enough to keep attention for more than a week.

There are weekly/daily quests through contracts.  Haven’t seen how that works, so no comments.

Freeplay has random events.  The spawn rate in the demo was very low, and it looked like we could access 25% of the map.  I don’t understand how that will work at release.  3x the map and the same amount of players?

There are also game generated events, like shaper storms.  Demo spawned a large titan, which was neat to see but a bullet sponge.  Curious.

BioWare has stated plenty of times they have big plans for end game.  There’s a general lack of detail on this.  I haven’t seen any content release plans after launch, so maybe I’m just in the dark on this.

Build Diversity

In the demo, there was a lot of this.  Each javelin plays much differently than another.  Abilities make a huge difference in playstyles.  It’s a lot of fun to experiment.  There are QoL things here to provide more info on builds and options (to avoid having to reference a wiki), but that’s more than manageable.

Again on guns.  There’s not much here – they feel more like stat sticks.  That’s mid-game though, so perhaps end game has a reason to pick a 4-burst rifle vs a high ammo version.

Stability

I am not getting my hopes up for this.  Great that those issues came to light before launch.  Bad that those issues were so pervasive before launch, from a publisher (EA) that makes a living on on-line games with the Frostbyte engine.  Feels a bit like the ice cream machine always being broken at McDonalds.

There are some rather significant PC optimizations required for people to play this game.  I’ve generally been able to play any game at high or ultra, without much issue. For this, I’m running 95% CPU and peaking over 90s in temperature.

 

For now, it’s mostly conjecture until launch.  There’s a lot in the game now, a lot more than should be coming by launch, and ??? after launch.  I’m sure that next week we’ll get a view at the service roadmap, if not the week following.  It’ll be hard to get people who are on the fence to commit if what’s there now is all there is for the next few months.

Given EA’s recent report on a bad quarter, and pointing to Apex & Anthem as the next thing, it’s important to note that Anthem’s business model is nearly entirely built on box sales.  And EA wants to sell 6m of those.  Dollars to donuts, Anthem doesn’t hit that number.  Horizon: Zero Dawn sold 7m total.  God of War was 5m in a month.  Combined with Origin Access essentially giving you the game for $20 for a month’s access…the math here just isn’t going to work.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine game, but it is far from blockbuster.  This entire paragraph was an unpleasant typing experience.

Gift for the Family

Posted on by

Personal on this one.  My wife and I are celebrating our 10 yr anniversary in March.  We’ve been talking about a bunch of different things to do, which are all complicated by the fact that a) it’s during March break and b) we can’t realistically leave our kids behind for a week without some serious planning / support.

We’ve been fortunate enough to take the kids on quite a few trips over the years, including two down south.  We also took a couple trips on a cruise (just the two of us) and I personally enjoyed that experience more than an all-inclusive.  Thinking was to see if we could find a cruise that was more family-friendly – and that generally means Royal Carribean.

Also motivating – we’re both on the edge of burnout through work.  The winter holidays were good to refresh, but we are clearly in need of the “no need to make big decisions” for a while.

We ended up booking a trip on Harmony of the Seas.  That’s around 5,500 passengers at double occupancy.  And has full time kid activities if the wife and I want to do something else for a bit.  Oh, and an ice rink.  Ridiculous.

0_a9eb2_461d3a4e_orig

I was in the ship to the far right, and I thought that was immense.  HotS is the 2nd most right.

I am utterly fascinated by the logistics of running a floating city, with people talking different languages, and a very high standard of cleanliness and service.  Just the linen service takes an army.  If you ever have the chance to watch a documentary on how these things run, you should really take the time.

There is one port in particular – Labadee, Haiti – that is entirely self-served by the ship. Over the course of 2 hours, enough food/drinks are pulled off the ship to shore in order to support an 8 hour day at the beach.  Amazing coordination.

I won’t hide the fact that this is entirely a luxury, and one that we are lucky enough to afford.  Every time we bring our kids out on something, we make it a point to have them recognize this fact.  Entitlement is a concern for both my wife and I.  My kids experienced more by the age of 4 than I did until I was in my 20s.

It’s good to have things to look forward to.  Makes driving through feet of snow and ice a bit more bearable.  I’ll see what kind of photo collage I can put together when I get back.

Anthem – Post Weekend

Posted on by

A few additional thoughts since the the previous post mid-weekend.  The same general thinking applies, but perhaps a few more bits and bops.

Technically I did see the Shaper Storm on Sunday in-game.  Sadly, the game server crashed 3 times before I could do something about it.

Optimization

This is the Frostbite engine, which EA has mandated all games use.   Not quite getting why they haven’t figured how to optimize it though.

My CPU runs in the high 90%, GPU is similar, and temps are crazy.  Only thing that has any effect is enabling vsync.  Detail has no impact.

The load times on PC are just too long.  Considering that there are no environmental effects (aside from water), I’m not quite getting what is actually going on here.  I have my fingers crossed that this is better at launch – in particular when you end a mission and do not have to go back to Tarsis in order to see 2 load screens for the mission map.

The controls are meant for consoles.  The menus are a clear example.  Flight/swim are actually manageable with a controller.  When you pick up items, the screen displays a D-pad icon.  I can live with most of that.  ‘Cept the flight/swim controls.  Feels a bit like Blizz and “do you guys not have controllers?!”  I’m guessing XBOX/PS4 players are going to have the best experience for some time.

Server stability was a serious issue this weekend.  Saturday/Sunday, I was never able to complete a single mission due to server crashes. The forums seem to have a similar issue.  A game cannot find a successful launch with this type of issue (or the infinite load, which seems fixed now).

On the flipside, the game is ridiculously good looking.  I’m looking forward to more enemy types, but the ones there now are impressively detailed.  Near everything is extremely fluid, and combat is predicated on always be moving.  That part works exceptionally well – arguably better than WarFrame due to the open areas and focus on vertical.

Numbers

I do expect some tweaking to a lot of numbers before launch.  This weekend had a bit too much bullet sponge for my tastes.  I realize that is a terribly hard thing to balance.  Even with max level gear (19 power), it was only a marginal improvement in damage.  Maybe this was a bug fix from the VIP weekend, or an actual purposed tweak.

The flipside is that combos dominate the damage department.  To the point where it makes more sense to take self-combo skills (e.g. frost and fire) even if they are not terribly practical or numerically sound on their own.  It will be a challenge for BioWare to manage the meta at top levels if this combo bonus sticks as is.  Let’s put it another way, I find that group clearing goes significantly faster if I stick next to another player and solely place an ice build, as everyone and their mom seems to combo off ice.  Instead of playing like a mage, I end up playing an enchanter.

Betas (and make no mistake this is a beta, not a demo) are a really poor way to judge metas.  I mentioned that exact point in a previous build.  Quite curious as to how that ends up a few weeks after launch.

Time

I really do think there’s a lot of potential here, and I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt at launch.  It is miles beyond recent online dumpster fires (*cough* F076 *cough*), but clearly there are some bits that need work.  If server stability can be sorted out (and I am sure BioWare hasn’t slept since last weekend), then there’s more than enough here to keep people busy until level 30.

What happens after that…I don’t think any game has actually ever figured that out near to launch.  Destiny took multiple expansions, Warframe took a few years, Divison was nearly 2 years.  I’m not holding my breath.  Get me to max level, and then we’ll take another look.

Anthem – Quick Thoughts 2

Posted on by

The good news is that the infinite load screen seems gone.

The so-so news is that there are so, so many bug fixes that it sometimes feels like a different difficulty.

The bad news continues to be that all rewards being predicated on getting to the mission complete screen.  In theory, that makes people spend more time playing rather than inventory management.  In practice, I have experienced quite a few server crashes that meant 30-45 minutes were just wasted.  Not crash as in I can jump back into the mission.  Crash as in the mission server (or whatever it is) crashes and I get sent back to Tarsis.

Also, this game makes my laptop hit 99% CPU, and 95+ degrees.  It is much more demanding than I had imagined.

Bug Fixes

Seeing as how I completed all the quest content last weekend, all I have now is exploration and the stronghold/dungeon/strike.  I’ve pretty much memorized all the spawn triggers/points by now, so it’s more about optimizing the execution.  In practical terms, when to use my ultimate.

I will assume this is bug fix territory, since AI behavior has tweaked a bit.  They tend to work in groups now, more than solo.  They are also harder to stun, and take more damage before dropping.  The final spider boss is also more challenging, as it now seems to spawn more spiders than before.  End result, I find myself dying more this weekend than last.

Still some kinks to work out, as I find myself getting hit by bullet fire while behind walls, flying controls are greatly improved, swimming still feels like a drunk tank, and some chargeable skills do not work consistently (e.g. they do while hovering, but not while on the ground).

Storm

I won’t say I have a huge amount of time in the game, but let’s say that I am surprised anytime I see anything other than a Colossus or Storm in my group.  Rangers are there when low level, and I have seen a total of 2 Interceptors since last week.  Storm is my bag of fun.

I’ve been trying more loadouts to see what works for my playstyle.  There’s a large attack and a quick one, and each can come in one of 3 elements – ice, fire, and lightning.  Ice slows/freezes enemies, fire does some AE and DoT, lightning just seems to be pure damage.  I honestly expected lightning to have more effect on shields.  Even in 18 power (blue) skills, it takes every cooldown I have to take down someone with shields.

There are also variants in the attacks.  Like one is a giant fire explosion, and another is a fire element that skips through enemies.  You’re provided a numerical representation of what the skill does in terms of damage, recharge and so one.  But until you actually see it, you really don’t know if it works for you or not.

I am really liking the chargeable fireball attack as a quick attack.  The large attack, I’ve yet to find one I really do like, though it’s hard to argue with something with big numbers (lightning explosion seems the one).

Not being able to add more options to my gear (due to level restrictions) is less fun.  I’ve found quick a few upgrades to elemental damage that would certainly complement the playstyle.  Stacking 5 or so elemental boosts would make a huge difference.

Progress

I have two distinct thoughts on this matter.

First – this weekend’s build should have been there last weekend.  There are a lot of things from the previous build that appeared 90%+ of the time, and that was the build meant to appease the people who have forked a lot of money over.  It’s really great that the wholly open demo works, but there are still some optimizations/fixes that are missing (swimming is absolute garbage).

Second – The content presented here is at most ~4 hours worth.  Since you’re dropped into the middle of things, there are many systems that are simply not clearly explained.  Why would you explore?  How do you get recipes?  How does experience work?  What makes the ultimate skill get stronger/recharge faster?  What do the stats actually mean?  And when the demo content “ends”, it should present some sort of message to the fact since I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out if I could do more than kill a spider.

Clearly the weekend isn’t over, and the “cool event” of Sunday hasn’t come to pass.  I know there are more things to discover here, and I am certainly motivated to see them come.  That’s a good thing.  I will certainly wait until release to put more thoughts to this, but right now it seems fair to say that there’s a market for this game.  Maybe not as big as some hope (this will not steal Fortnite players), but a decent sized one at least.

 

Demo Weekend 2

Posted on by

I won’t be talking about Epic “stealing” Metro.  Or Steam saying it’s unfair.  Or the review bombs that clearly show why Steam reviews are a cesspool.  Or the entire irony of the situation.

I won’t talk about WoW’s recent patch that still doesn’t have Zandalari or Kul Tiran unlocked.  Or that the Horde/Alliance buff bonus caused Limit to faction change in order to take advantage.

I won’t even talk about the dumpster fire of Fallout 76 re-introducing old bugs with a recent patch.

Maybe I’ll talk about Facebook admitting to committing a crime when they harvested data from teenagers who “consented”?  Nah.

Glorious Friday is here.  Time to do things outside of the office, and take advantage of the small break in this polar vortex.  Keep shopping for some gaming laptops (kinda set on a GE73 or a GS73).

Oh, and maybe play some more of that Anthem demo.

Expectations

I have such a ridiculous distaste for EA’s business practices, yet a fondness for BioWare that this is causing a weird internal debate.  Ethically, I cannot pre-order any game, least of all from EA.  In terms of lockboxes and general RMT, EA’s model hit peak insanity with Battlefront 2.  And people still pre-ordered it.

Yet here I am contemplating an EA game.  It’s said that there are no lockboxes.  That there’s no paid DLC (which seems a bit odd… but ok).  It will likely have new javelins at cost (I guess like Rainbow6).  And there are customizations out the wazoo (at some pretty crazy price points).  We’re not talking $3 horse armor anymore.

I do like what I see so far.  When the game actually loads, the moment-to-moment stuff works, and works well.  There’s much more class diversity in terms of skills and weapon choices that’s more in line with Warframe than Destiny – a model I really liked.

The gaps that remain include:

  • the integration of story / player choice
  • the diversity of activities / creatures (Warframe’s model here is really hard to beat)
  • the diversity of sytem-wide events (e.g. Shaper Storms), though apparently that will happen on Sunday afternoon
  • the scalability of playing with people of different levels, and at different points in their quest line
  • the long-tail portion of the game at max level

All but the first one have significant impacts on the long term viability of the game.  The group interactions, multitude of events, and continual progress of the grind for loot drive engagement.  Quite curious to see how that plays out.

For now, it looks like a fun purchase.  And that’s the point, right?

Mock-Up Prices

Posted on by

I’m Canadian, so we pay for things in Timbits.

Let’s start with assumptions first – any piece that is listed as the same for PC and laptop, the laptop variant will have at least 15% less performance.  HDD and RAM are the only 2 components that can be swapped on laptops – restricting upgrade paths.  PC have much larger screen areas, and much better options.  I used the canadian version of NewEgg  as the price search tool, just for consistency’s sake.

Now understanding that this is not ever going to be apples to apples, at least conceptually it should be close.  The requirements are then:

  • i7 8700 (8th gen CPU)
  • 16GB DDR4 3000 RAM
  • 512 GB SSD HDD1
  • 2 TB HDD2
  • GTX 1070TI video card

Laptops

Given the fact that I can’t build a gaming laptop, I will be paying a premium for the build.

  • ROG Zephyrus M is $2500
  • MSI GP series for $2100
  • MSI GS series (thin) for $3600′
  • Razer Blade 15 (GTX 1060) for $2100

A “regular” sized laptop with a 1070 and a 60mhz screen seems to be the best price point, just around $2100.  It’s ~$500 more for a thin version, and another ~$500 for a 144mhz screen.

PC

This is more complicated, since I need all the parts, and arguably there is 10x more selection.  For the sake of simplicity, I will add baseline parts that are “middle of road”.

CPU  i7 8700K 500
MB Asus PRIME Z390-P LGA1151 160
RAM Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz 185
1HDD Samsung 970 PRO NVME M.2 2280 512GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 SSD 220
2HDD Western Digital Purple Surveillance 2TB 3.5″ SATA HDD 100
VIDEO Asus GeForce GTX 1070 TI 8GB GDDR5 570
COOL Corsair Hydro Series H60 90
SUPPLY EVGA 750 B3 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply 100
CASE Corsair Carbide SPEC-06 Tempered Glass Black Mid Tower Case 120
WIN Windows 10 180
Total 2225

Now, I could shop around for better price points, hopefully all from the same supplier.  I still would need a new monitor.  And again, this rig would be ~15% more powerful than the laptop, perhaps a bit more.

Getting a custom PC build with this setup is ~$600 in extra costs as a minimum.  Some places had it closer to $1500.

One suggestion was to build a cheap box with my kid as a learning experience.  A quick search on that comes to around $700, assuming I don’t want it to catch fire.  Pretty much everything is 50% less cost, the video card is $0 (for onboard instead), and the CPU is around $100.

Conclusion

There is no viable conclusion on a blog, when cost comparing PC parts.  That’s farcical.  However, my gut telling me that I can pay near the same price between two products and get more for my money is quite attractive.  Further understanding that the PC build will last longer since it’s parts are inherently replaceable is also motivating.

I guess religion, politics, and PC/Laptop are topics that have no easy answers!

Technology is Crazy

Posted on by

Or maybe we’re the crazy ones.

After my daughter and I finished up her hockey practice, I decided to go and pick up the RAM for the laptop.  I had already done some digging into which specific specs I had in the box.  I need to properly set the picture.  We had stopped at Booster Juice so she was standing in the computer store with this big container and straw, looking at what most sane people would call a junk store.

Anyhow, I catch the guy at the counter and he asks if I have the old stick.  I don’t, but I spit out the important bits:  DD3, 8Gig, 1600Mhz, 1.35volt.  (Say that out loud for a second.)  The look from my kid like I was talking some sort of space language…It’s enough, and he looks through a wall of RAM to find what’s needed.  This tiny little thing and we leave the store.

There were a lot of questions in the car ride back.  I start explaining what all that jargon means, and she asks that golden questions “why is it so complicated?”, followed by the geek question “can we build a computer?”.  To answer “to make people feel smart” and “sure, but we need to to some studying first.”

Computer Jargon

Or perhaps, I should say the abundance of ridiculous choice.  There are a half dozen viable choices of thermal paste today.  RAM comes in multiple sizes, speeds, and voltages.  CPUs are near indistinguishable (i7 has been around for 6 years).  It’s near impossible to pick a motherboard, or know what you’re buying.  And video cards…sweet baby jeebers – the GTX1080 has 3 variants (base, VR, TI).

And that’s aside from things like proper cases, power supplies, hard drives, and cooling systems.  Feels like I need an engineering degree so that I have a chance to see reflections in a puddle.  It’s such a ridiculously high barrier of entry.

I won’t talk about POST tests… argghgg

Simple Solutions

The PC market isn’t dying, it’s simply getting a smaller form factor.  I do get that PCs are even more niche now, but let’s be honest, laptops are the way forward.  At $500 you can get one that can do nearly everything you need, including some basic gaming.  For $2500 you can get a super slim ultra powerful laptop too – know that it’s entirely covered by warranty, and that it will work when you boot it up.  And with decent power management options, it can get through a day of work without charging.

I could build a PC for half the cost, but it would be physically stuck in a single place and 3x the size.  It’s pretty hard to “co-game” with someone with a PC, while a pair of laptops is stupid simple.  A port replicator gives that desktop feeling too.

Next Steps

As much as I would like to build a PC, I think for practical reasons it will be easier to get a gaming laptop.  Practical in terms of use, not purchasing.  Looking at options:

  • Sager/Clevo custom build (exact specs, great price, massive size)
  • MSI make some amazing rigs, at different form factors.  Stealth is almost an ultrabook.  Titan is a tank.  Raider seems a reasonable size.
  • Alienware was bought by Dell and reports are all over the place.  Build quality is strong, but cooling & fan noise seem to be a problem.  They look amazing.
  • ROG fits in-between the last two, with odd price points.

Key points I’m looking for:

  • 16GB of RAM
  • 256 SSD + 1TB of hard drive
  • Upgradeable storage/RAM
  • Thunderbolt 3 port (for docking/daisy chain to other things)
  • GTX 1070
    • Not enough games actually support ray tracing, and this card is still gives 4K, at less than half the price of an RTX2080.
  • 8th gen i7 CPU
    • 9th gen is marginal performance (5%) for ~$100 more.
  • Solid cooling to keep CPU < 80, and physical laptop < 32
  • Low noise levels when fans are at load
  • Screen size isn’t all that important, but a 17″ would be nice

That fun stuff runs around $2500 – with that Thunderbolt port being the tough one to find.  More digging required…and no real rush either.

Gaming on the Move

Posted on by

I’ve been building PCs since middle school.  Not sure why it clicked back then, but it was a pretty big deal for a long time.  And frankly, back then I could build a PC in about 30 minutes – with the OS build being the longest part.  Today?  It’s still easier than most people think, but it’s more of a science.

It’s been about 10 years since I built my last box.  I certainly enjoyed it, and the super flexibility of applying upgrades over time.  Replacing RAM or a video card is pretty simple.  Replacing a CPU… well that gets rougher.  Cooling options were starting to get a bit too complex for my tastes.  The next upgrade was a gaming laptop – a Clevo tank.  It provided all the benefits of desktop gaming, but allowed me to move around with it.

There are downsides to laptop gaming.  Replacing parts is more complicated.  Hell… just getting the parts is hard, as most video cards are only sold to resellers.  Plus, it’s not like you can get a new keyboard, or a new monitor.  It’s a complete package, and you’re going to pay a premium for it.  Plus, the thing can get hot as hell so a laptop tray is often a good call.

The last one I purchased in 2015.  Solid box at the time, with a 970M card.  The 1070M  is ~100% better, but I can’t really find one to buy.  Box currently has 8GB of RAM, which could certainly use a boost to 16GB.  CPU is an i7 but a 4th gen.   I am pretty sure I can upgrade to 7th gen, if I can find a chip, again not exactly common.  I can’t get an 8th gen (let alone 9th), that will require a new motherboard and new RAM – essentially a new laptop.  So really the only viable option here is more RAM – $50 should be able to get a new 8GB stick.

I think I’ll spend the new few weeks scoping out other options.  I like the idea of building a great gaming rig and then streaming that in the house.  Pretty sure I could build an entire super rig for ~$1500.  Another top end laptop, that’s more like $2500.   Been a while, and the rust is showing.  Still, fun to shop!