Average Computer User: What they need.

I think it's interesting to see PC's and game consoles becoming gradually more alike overtime. Microsoft was intending on strengthening the PC gaming market with its release of DirectX 10 and some standards for development of the platform. For example: one of the goals was to standardize the XBox 360 controller as the controller of choice for the PC. Another goal was to make it so that users could go to the game store and rather than looking at "strange" system requirements lingo, they could simply compare the number their PC scores vs the number the product requires.

Things are heading in this direction already, but it's been total chaos so far. The biggest wrench in everything has been Windows Vista and the fact that it is the exclusive DX10 OS. Many people who have it, don't like it. Many others don't want it. Then there are those who aren't thrilled about Microsoft concepts like DRM and Palladium and will almost never consider upgrading.

Think about hardware nowadays though, things aren't quite so clear. Game requirements now often cite certain CPU speeds and major graphics card models. But CPU speeds aren't exactly accurate for measuring performance anymore. Some chips have multiple cores, etc. Wouldn't it suck to go to the store and see "This game needs a Pentium 940D or higher". Now you're talking confusing for the average user... You'll probably be seeing it fairly soon... maybe a year or two, but games will one day say something like "you require a graphics score of 4 or higher with Windows Vista".

As for hardware costs... that's due to a lot of things, most of it being competition and lack of it. I think Render's rant sums up that problem pretty well in a nutshell.

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