There's a lot to be said against PC gaming. It's often more expensive, sometimes requiring more technical acumen, more space, more power.
With a console, you just plug in the device, slap in a disk, and off
you go. [1]. PCs need you to futz around with an operating system,
worry about hardware compatibilities, etc.
But PC gaming does have one huge strength: the huge and relatively
easy accessibility of mods. From new skins for your on-screen avatar,
to player-made bug-fixes, to entirely new games made from the base
engine, the modding scene is one of the triumphs of PC gaming and is
often held up as the reason to pick the platform over its rivals.
It's also something Capcom hates.
In a recent video [
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT5bwwvDv00] [2]
the company detailed why it hates PC game mods, arguing that mods are equivalent to 'cheating', lead to higher support costs, and
reputational damage, and that Capcom will continue to try to crack
down on them in the same way it does with its anti-cheat and
anti-piracy measures.
Which, look... if you think that sounds rather brain dead,
anti-consumer, and a complete misunderstanding of the PC market, I'm
not going to disagree with you. Frankly, if Capcom does choose to go
down this course, I'm happy enough writing off their games entirely.
They've never really made any games I've /HAD/ to play, and if they
suddenly disappear from the PC market, I'm not going to be that upset.
But I do get where Capcom is coming from (I don't agree with it, but
that's not the point). Because while the obvious reasoning behind this
is economic - a big chunk of Capcom revenue is made selling players
skins and expansions to their existing games, and free user-made mods cannibalize these sales - I think it's more than that.
Capcom is a Japanese, console gaming company, and there are a lot of
societal differences from Western PC gaming. Capcom started as a
developer of arcade games, an industry where most 'mods' were pirated
copies of their ROMS and hardware. PC games in Japan were (are)
long-seen as the alternative for people interested in hentai and other pornographic games; it was the SLEAZY platform. Japanese culture is
also more constrained and respectful of an authority's singular
vision; thus, an artist's intent for his work was often seen as the
only allowable interpretation. Modding a game to add new characters or
visuals beyond what the developer created? It's almost a heresy!
So, I get it; to a Japanese audience - and to Capcom's developers (and
that's whom the video was aimed - Capcom's assertion about PC gamers
modding their games makes a certain logical sense, if you accept their worldview.
Of course, the problem is, Capcom also wants to sell their games on
the PC market and to western audiences. And if they think their ultra-restrictive attitudes will fly there, well... like I said,
they're free to try, but at best people will just ignore their demands
and make the mods anyway. At worst, Capcom games will disappear from
the PC market. It's a stupid move, but if that's what they want? Knock
yourself out, Capcom. With thousands of other games available, you
won't really be missed.
--------------------------
[1] Well, less so these days. Too many console games require
installation and day-one patches these days. But the plug-n-play
method is the ideal, and even when consoles don't achieve that, it
still handles all the non-ideal nonsense far more automatically and transparently than do PC games
[2] Nominally, the video is an open conference about developing
in-house anti-piracy methods and practices, but the speaker lumps
modmakers into the same group as cheat-makers and pirates.
The anti-mod spiel begins around the 14 minute mark. After the 18
minute mark, it goes into general ideas into HOW to prevent
piracy/mods/cheats, so unless you're interested you can stop there
(they aren't really saying anything new there, though)
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)