Hi All... I wrote this for you gamers. It is something only a hard core gamer can relate to and for you non-gamers, it's another look at the lunacy we gamers put ourselves through. Sit back and enjoy.
- Ron
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"Hmmm... Look at this cool game... something called Everquest"
Bring it home...put the disk in...wait...
"Gee this is taking forever to install, I wish it would hurry up."
(20 minutes pass)
Installation Complete - "Alright!!"
Click on icon...wait....wait....kicked back to desktop.
Ummm.....
Click on icon...wait...wait...kicked back to desktop, except now the screen has switched to 4 color, 320x240.
"Argh...now I can't see anything."
Reboot....wait....
While your PC is rebooting, you check the system requirements which your PC is just barely under the minimum.
"Surely it will at least run... I can deal with a little slowness."
You are sure that the "kick back to desktop" problem was just a fluke so you pray a little and then.
Click on icon...wait....wait....kicked back to desktop.
Ok, so this sucks. You go out to the Internet and download latest video and sound drivers and install them...20 minutes later your PC reboots and you feel super good about this and can't wait to get into the game.
Click on icon...wait....wait....kicked back to desktop.
Gah!!!!! - You go to the manufacturer's website which lists a different set of minimum system requirements which are higher than was on the box and it gives a list of compatible video cards. Of course your card is not on it but the less expensive card is. Ok this sucks.
On to Best Buy or Circuit City - You are going to be paying full retail for this video card, but you don't care...you just want to get into the game. You figure that you will be buying more games so what the heck...let's go all out, and purchase an ATI "Super-Radeon-Ten-Million" AGP Video card with a "Googabit" of RAM which supports super shading...you give a deep sigh and chuck down $300 for this card. Don't know why that is the magic number for video cards.
So you drive home, weaving in and out of traffic, salivating at the prospect of killing rats and spiders and then you crash your car into the curb, dart up the steps into the house slamming the door behind you, forgetting to lock it. Rip out the screws in your PC case, pull the cover off and realize...
You don't have an AGP video slot in your motherboard.
(switch to slow motion video of man shaking head an screaming...) "NNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"
Now what?
Back to Circuit City to get a PCI version of the card since you don't have enough money for a new PC with an AGP video slot. Of course Circuit City doesn't have that card and soon, you are on a mission - Best Buy, Comp-USA, Staples, Office Depot and eventually you find the card and get home two and a half hours later.
Rip open the box, take out the old video card, put in the new one...so far so good...boot up the PC... "GREAT!" it's looking for the driver disk...put that in, drivers installed and now it wants to reboot.
Rebooting...you wait...salivating again, knowing decaying skeletons are only a few minutes away...and finally your PC boots to the desktop.
Suddenly stricken with fear that you will start the game only to be kicked back to the desktop again, you pray and then realize, "Hey...this is a new video card and it's on the compatability list..it HAS to work!!" You hold your breath and.
Click on icon...wait....wait....kicked back to desktop.
ARGH!!!! You stupid piece of &*^* I ^$@#(&^ hate you!!!
Off to the world wide web we go...let's try, just for the heck of it, seeing if there are updated video drivers for this card....and you see...THERE ARE!!! WOOT!!!
*Downloading......8k per second..slow but steady*
10 minutes later you double-click on the install file and install the video drivers - It has to reboot of course.. And so it does.
At this point, you don't even want to click on the icon. You hate this friggin game and your PC and the $300 you just spent to kill decaying skeletons.
So the PC rebooted you are sitting at your desktop. At this point, if you don't have God in your life, you find him suddenly and ask him to forgive all your past sins. "Dear God...I am a wretched, lowly mortal. If you will allow me to kill decaying skeletons on this day... I will forever sing your praises...I will not pass a Salvation Army bucket without putting a dollar in and I will even start speaking again to my Aunt Josephine who spends her evening hours talking to her 6-foot painting of the Last Supper.
You double click the icon..wait...wait...wait... "Woohoo..it's taking longer now.. it works it works!!!" wait.....wait.....wait.....
You turn your head slighty sideways and start talking to your monitor..."Hello? Are you...doing something?" The hard drive light blinks for a few seconds... "Whew!"... and wait...and wait....
You realize you haven't peed in a while so you get up and do that and return and the screen is still blank, the hard drive light has stopped blinking and the PC seems to be...just sitting there.
Your blood boils, you get red in the face, you hate this &*(&$%^ piece of &(@#. You begin cursing out loud, swearing that you will someday give Bill Gates a thrashing and that one day...just one day!!!!!!!
And then...it happens...
****** SPLASH SCREEN - YOUR GAME IS STARTING!!!! *****
But holy crap, this took 10 minutes.
And then...after 4 more minutes, the "create your account" screen is up. And you create your account and then another 5 minutes later. The game begins...or does it? You see, things are moving so slowly that you realize there is something wrong...something REALLY wrong. But how can that be?
Upon inspection, you find that in order for the game to run, you should not only meet the minimum requirements for the game, but you should meet the "recommended" requirements. Well hell, this sucks.
So your pasty white gamer friend with the zits who reads all the PC magazines tells you that your PC is ok, you just need more RAM. So you look at your screen...once you get out of the game, and realize you have about half of what you need. You look inside your PC to discover that you have no more free memory slots - you need to replace your memory that's there already and buy new.
So it's back to Circuit City to spend another... $300.
You get home, remove the old chips, put the new ones in and of course, they don't fit - You see your PC takes a non-standard chip, but you remember the guy from Circuit City asking which one you needed - "Standard" you figured, but you were wrong - So you exchange the memory get back home and install it.
Power On...
This time, the PC seems to even boot faster. "Oh yeah, this is great! You double-click the game icon and hold your breath. This time the game loads in about a minute or two..much less than the 10 minutes before. Still a bit slow you think, but much better.
Finally...you are there...you spent $600 and wasted hours and hours so far, but you start the game, visit your trainer and head out to kill skeletons.
Of course...you begin to wonder why all the sounds are making this jerky, choppy noise and aren't smooth and even. Even the graphics are choppy to match the sounds... this isn't right...
So you get out of the game and figure it must be the drivers for the sound card - So you download the latest drivers and get in the game again... Better, but still choppy.
Off to the game manufacturer website...
As it turns out, your particular sound card is on their list of "known problem" cards. "**** it!" So off to your friend at Circuit City again.
This time, you get off easy and go with a Sound Blaster type card for about $75. Go home install it and start the game.
The game loads and plays much better without the choppy sound. Still, it seems a little slow. Now...off to find a decaying skeleton.
You find one....approach it slowly...with the stealth of a hungry mountain lion.. It becomes larger in your view screen and in a second, like Mel Gibson with a face full of woad, you p....o....u.....n.....c.....e You realize that you never knew jerky until you made this first attack. The frame rate is so slow you have no idea what is even happening...seconds pass...which seem like hours.... until you see....
LOADING....PLEASE WAIT...
And so you wait....and wait...until....you are alive again.
"What the hell was that?" you think. This stinks. "I just plunked almost $700 down and the game plays like crap. Grrr... I hate this!!!"
And deep inside you ... a thought begins to emerge....it's one that you fight, but know it's one that you have to obey....
It's time for a new motherboard and CPU....You need speed...you WANT speed...and you know other games you buy now will need it. You do NOT want to go through this again, so you vow to spend whatever it takes to make sure this PC lasts you another few years.
So you go to the "motherboad store" and buy a new motherboard and CPU - You are locked and loaded and you know you will show vengeance to that decaying skeleton until...
The computer geek at the store asks:
So...what time of RAM do you want? "Huh?" Ram...you want to buy RAM for this board right? "What kind does it take?" Well, you know...the standard kind. Your stomach acids begin to churn...you just bought non-standard RAM for your current PC. So you tell the guy, "I have RAM already, thanks" praying that Circuit City will exchange it for you.
The computer geek tells you "Make sure you use an 8X AGP video card instead of the 4X." "AGP?" you think? I just bought a PCI card... "AGP will give you a better frame rate than a PCI version of the same card" he says. GRRRR!!! You tell the geek that you have a card already, hoping that Office Depot will exchange your card. As you come to find out later, they will exchange your card, but they don't have the AGP version - you have to go back to Circuit City to get that. As it happens you will be going there next to exchange your memory.
Almost out of the store, the geek asks one more question...
"You do have Serial ATA drives, right?"
"Huh?"
"Your hard drive, this motherboard takes serial ATA drives only."
Ok..so you have just spent, in the course of the last 24 hours, almost $1200...well, not spent exactly, since it's on credit. What's another $150? And for good measure, the geek cons you into plucking down another $12 for this special CPU heat sink compound called "Super Silver Solution" or something..you don't care at this point, the whole day has been a blur, you hate computers and have just spent almost $1400 for a $50 game.
Then you think to yourself..."I can't put all this new hardware into that ratty old case of mine...and I would like to have a faster CD-Drive - maybe a DVD-Burner."
You look at the beaming computer geek behind the counter and figure you already are in hock for countless dollars and finally add one last $300 purchase to the list for a new case and DVD Burner.
As you leave the store, you have this strange feeling that suddenly, almost $1900 was just wrestled out of you for no reason..or worse...for a dumb reason...killing decaying skeletons. You drive home in a trance...not believing what you just spent...but yet...knowing you now have a true gaming machine.
It takes almost two full days before your machine is all put together with the help of your pasty white friend. But when you power it on, it boots quickly...it loads everything quickly and the game comes up in mere seconds.
When you start your game...you find your skeleton and deal him the thrashing he deserves. He falls quickly under your rusty blade and with pride, you bend down to loot his corpe of the 2 copper coins and bone chips...and with a sigh of accomplishment, you stand and realize that $2000 was a very fair price to pay for this victory.
Yes my friend...you realize at that point...that you are, and always will be...
* A GAMER! *
Ron Jaffe AKA Diggo McDiggity
Discussion Board Administrator
On-Line Gamers Anonymous
Edited by: Diggo McDiggity at: 10/29/05 19:48
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
Wow, that is . . . so familiar! Down to the arctic silver =) Actually, for eq2 I "only" required $400 worth of upgrades, but when PoP came out for eq1, I did exactly what you did. I remember, seriously, when I decided I wanted a second computer to 2-box in eq1, going on a campaign to convince my husband that a notebook computer really was something we needed, and $2k was not unreasonable. 2 years later, my notebook doesn't run eq2, but when I tried convincing my husband we needed a new notebook computer for family reasons (well, it worked the first time, and they kids DO use the notebook), he wasn't fooled again.
The worst part of it is, we have four children. I don't see anything wrong with using the entertainment budget to buy games and systems, especially since everyone in my family is a gamer (the kids just play on their gamecube), but 5k in four years for upgrades and the ability to 2-box -- insane. And that doesn't include the cost of games, the cost of the cable modem, the monthly subscriptions. And it also doesn't include upgrading my husband's computer, his game subscription, the PS2, the Game Cube (and its periodic replacement), the Gameboys, the kids' desktop computer, etc. That money could be so much better spent. Braces, college funds, vacations, music lessons . . .
Wow, I really never took a good, hard look at this and how much of our budget really is devoted to gaming.
Yah, sounds familiar.
I was beginning to present classic addiction symptoms around the time the EQ (classic) game engine was upgraded which required us to have Direct-X 8.1, ruled out W95 O/S's, upped the min. RAM requirement to 512mB. I needed momegs and got 'em, needed to replace my video card, check. I played a little longer then SOE did an "improvement" to subscription schedules: commit to a long-term subscription, or pay exorbitantly for your usual 3-month subscription.
I was getting very little sleep, and using none of my free time for anything but EQ. I found was willing to keep my machine up to requirements. I was having difficulty separating real life from in-game life (even at work and church). All day everyday I was planning my next sessions.
After only 7 months of play it was my indignation (read 'spite' (I have a childish temper)) with SOE that saved me. But I'm still battling the seduction that is MMORPG's. I have a very addictive personality and when I fixate on something it never leaves my mind. That gravitational force that Eww!Q and WoW has on my world gets powerful and then I lurk here for a few days reading testimonies etc. I'm using this site for one of it's main purposes: that is to aid those of us who feel we have a problem. And I have an addiction. I'm just trying not to feed it and so far so good
BTW, I've never played WoW, but sat transfixed beside a gamer friend of mine while he played for hours! drool.
Lurking time's up! Ciao
I think when the original EQ was upgraded to require DirectX 8 was when the hardware issues really started for people. But I was already playing heavily back then - I didn't think twice about the huge amount of cash I had to plunk down to build a useable system. Yet, I would hardly spend that money for something I REALLY needed.
At my heaviest point in gaming...I had few priorities straight. Having a PC that could play EQ was a top priority then.
I am still using the same PC now that I was two years ago - It won't play any of the new games reasonably - Even Doom which I bought a year ago sits collecting dust on my shelf because it won't play. Maybe someday, an upgrade, but at this point, thank goodness, it's not a priority.
The hobby gets expensive REAL fast.
Ron
Ron Jaffe AKA Diggo McDiggity
Discussion Board Administrator
On-Line Gamers Anonymous
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
Ron,
Thats **** funny! You forgot the **** patcher. It takes an additional 1-2 hours to wait on files to download! Bah! Stupid patcher!
~Chris
Oh sweet memories. Year was 1998 for me, and my computer was a blazing fast 166 MHz Pentium. I started in on playing Half-life DM and began every FPS gamers chase for the almighty frame-per-second; you had to get as many as you could if you wanted that silky smooth game play that is necessary for true fragging.
This was a beautiful time when a lot of computer parts really started making technological leaps. Processors, sound cards, optical mice (aEUoean optical what?). If memory serves, one of the faster personal computers around at the time was a Pentium 450. A friend down the hall in the dorms had a 350 he had just bought before coming to college. It was a beauty, compared to mine. New everything. Putting on his headphones and gaming, hearing the shotgun go off in game for the first time, that deep bass boom, sent shivers down my spine. Playing in a 32 person server and not feeling like you were gaming in slide-show mode.
As an fps gamer I found myself chasing the highest quality version of what my gamer friends considered aEU~secondaryaEU(tm) computer parts. A good monitor, since being able to pull off 100+ fps (frames per second, in this case) is useless if your monitor only refreshes at 85 hertz. The transition from ball to optical mice was a big conversation on FPS message boards at the time; didnaEU(tm)t those things crap out at random and make you stare at the sky and spin in circles if you moved them funny? A good BIG mousepad is a must; nothing invokes the wrath of an fps gamer like the one who gets fragged because his mouse runs off the side of his pad at a critical moment. Good headphones with surround sound were a must, since (at the time; debatable now) speakers were out of the question for serious fps gaming. And of course your sound card had to be able to give you good directional sound output...
(Picture a fly buzzing out from inside a wallet)
- Max
Have you all seen the prices of the top end video cards now days? Holy crapola! What's this world coming to??
~Chris