feat(blog): rps100

1 files changed, 87 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/content/blog/2024/rps-100.md b/content/blog/2024/rps-100.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f0597e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/blog/2024/rps-100.md
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
++++
+title = "The Rock Paper Shotgun 100 and PC gaming"
+author = ["Michał Sapka"]
+date = 2024-11-17T22:14:00+01:00
+categories = ["blog"]
+draft = false
+weight = 2001
+image_dir = "blog/images"
+image_max_width = 600
+Abstract = "on PC gaming and it's demise"
+Listening = "Michael Land - Curse of Monkey Island OST"
++++
+
+Recently, the web page Rock Paper Shotgun published [a list of best 100 PC games.](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-rps-100-2024)
+And what a list that is.
+100 games from close to 45 years of PC history.
+
+However, I consider it to be a complete misunderstanding of what made PC gaming different.
+
+Currently, the biggest differentiating factor is the presence of thriving indie scene.
+Ignoring it, all the mainstream games, are released everywhere.
+And they are the same games, running on the same engines, having the same boring designs, having the same control scheme.
+Yes, you can use keyboard with a PC, but you can pretend that it doesn't exist - gamepad _will_ be supported.
+What I'm saying is that there is no difference between PC and console gaming in 2024.
+
+20, 30, 40 years ago, it wasn't the case.
+Not only were there a lot more systems ([Amiga! Commodore 64! Saturn! BBC Micro!](http://retro.ruben.com)) than survived till today, but they all had their strengths and weaknesses.
+Consoles were action-focused.
+NES games were fast.
+PC, for a long time, was catching up.
+It was far behind of what Amiga was capable of.
+
+However, at some point in the 90s, those gray boxes exploded as gaming machines.
+This is where imagination ran wild, where a game from a year before looked ancient.
+But most importantly, different genres rules the PC marked.
+
+First, it was the adventure game.
+We had Sierra, with it's Quest series, Phantasmagorias, Gabriel Knights and son.
+We had Lucasarts, Tex Murphy, 3 Skulls of the Toltec, Flight of the Amazon Queen, or Discworlds.
+PC inherited those genres from older computers, where text-based adventures were _the thing_.
+This is where the children of Zork found their new homes.
+
+Then we moved to RPGs, a genre for which I was too young for.
+Gold box games, Dungeon Master, Wizardy, Might and Magic, and so on - just to limit ourselves the early ones.
+Later, there was no competition of Fallouts, Baldurs, or Diablos.
+
+Then RTS were everywhere.
+C&C, Warcraft, KKND, Polanie, Total Annihilation, Age of Empires...
+
+Yes, most of those games moved to consoles, or came from other _computers_ but they were designed with a computer person in mind.
+Someone sitting in a dark room with a notepad, ready to draw a map.
+Someone who was ready to click all things on other things for the entire evening.
+Someone ready to do the same thing, all over again - build base, exterminate enemies, build another base.
+
+Those games are almost absent from RPS's list.
+Those were not action-oriented games.
+They evolved into such, but action was not at their core.
+
+But things changed dramatically.
+No other company changed the gaming landscape as much as ID Software.
+There were 3d games before, but none were Wolfenstein.
+Duke was great, but it never got the never-ending popularity of Quake.
+It may have been a better game, but it was not as fast.
+
+For a long time, PC became the FPS machines.
+There was no better platform for it, and there was not better input device than keyboard.
+Console may have had better platformers, but it was the PC where angry, stinky teens shot rockets up each other's asses.
+This changed, as I stated at the begging.
+
+Meanwhile, RPS list names mostly games which DNA is rooted in modern unification of gaming as best PC games.
+Yakuza?
+Witcher?
+Resident Evil?
+Nier?
+God of War?
+Those are as different from what PC gaming was it gets.
+They may be great, but they are action oriented spins on the old ideas.
+They don't represent what PC gaming was and can be.
+
+In fact, the only few games from the list that are _trully_ PC are Crusader Kings, Factorio, Dwarf Fortess, Monkey Island, Fallout, and Deus Ex.
+They were designed for PC, they are complex and slow - up to fault.
+They not only _allow_ playing on keyboard and mouse, but mandate it.
+
+Yes, Doom and Quake were a PC games primary, but only because consoles of the time were unable to process data fast enough.
+If they were, they would be a great place for them.
+
+And where the hell is Nethack!?