This isn't a dig at Microsoft in particular (although I DO hate the new Xbox), but a bit of a cautionary arm-waving to my fellow gamers.
I'm sure you've all heard the great things that cloud gaming can do and the "unlimited power" it holds for our gaming needs. By "heard," of course, I mean"watched from a commercial made by a company that was trying to sell you a product which utilizes cloud technology." Because if you can't trust shady corporations to not be biased, then who CAN you trust, amirite, guise?
"It's practically new."
Now, before we get into the gritty nitty, let's get something straight: the term "cloud technology" is as big a PR stunt as the KFC commercials claiming there's no trans fat in their new chicken. They're both meant to sound complex and scientific to people who are not food experts or computer enthusiasts.
Just check out the first sentence from the Wikipedia entry:
"Cloud computing is a colloquial expression used to describe a variety of different computing concepts that involve a large number of computers that are connected through a real-time communication network."
That gave me a headache, and I've written server-side code.
But that's just it: the concept of cloud technology is meant to confuse Average Joe who's very impressionable when it comes to fancy videos spouting strange, complex words by people who seem like they know what they're talking about. Joe isn't going to go out of his way to read books on what cloud computing is, he's just going to trust that the person from the advertisement knows better. After all, do you go out and pick up a copy of Skin Problems for Dummies every time you watch an acne commercial that throws technical terms at you? It's just not realistic.
So when you set aside the PR BS, what exactly is "cloud computing"? What is the "cloud"? To put it simply: the "cloud" is the internet. That's it. The"cloud" is just a fancy term for the "the internet."
Which, as we all know, is a series of tubes
So, with that in mind, here are some example of games that utilize cloud technology:
- SimCity (2013)
- Diablo 3
- Every MMO ever
- Every multiplayer game mode ever
- PS4 game streaming services
What sounds better,"SimCity requires a constant online connection" or "SimCity utilizes the power of the cloud"? In one scenario, something is forced on us. In the other, we're beating up Godzilla in a giant mech while making out with Jessica Alba having just been dipped in chocolate (don't judge me). It's the same reason why people who are Pro-Choice, opponents of Pro-Life, aren't called Anti-Life.
Let's ignore the fact that Diablo 3 and SimCity are on that list to just say: cloud technology can offer some benefits to games when implemented correctly. AI, for example, could potentially be made completely unpredictable if the right people do the right things. With some code scattered here and there, developers can collect glitch and bug information. As an optional supplement, the cloud is a great addition to any game; it is when it's something that is a central part of the game that things go wrong. The cloud CAN be a good thing, it's just that the negatives far outweigh the positives.
Just like real clouds
The thing about having the internet as a core component of a game is that the moment something happens that cuts connection to the servers, be it a rainstorm or the servers being shut down, the game ends. You can no longer play it. It's a $60 paperweight taking up space in your living room. You're essentially paying full price to rent something, not keep it for your collection.
Now, this is fine for MMOGs, whose entire concept lies in the fact that you, the player, will be among many others fighting for superiority while making allies and friends. It's accepted that it won't last forever; the adventure will end when the players dwindle enough so that the game no longer becomes profitable. But what about single player games? What if you couldn't boot up Star Wars Battlefront 2 anymore because the servers supporting it were shut down? What if you could no longer play the original Super Smash Brothers with your friends? As someone who still plays his N64 and PS2, it seriously bothers me. Hell, I just finished playing Grand Theft auto Vice City a few minutes ago. I'm just not comfortable shelling out the same amount of money (if not more) I would spend on games that still work today for games that won't work in five years because the servers are no longer live.
Speaking of the servers... they cost money. The more complex the tasks are, the more expensive the hardware needs to be and the more upkeep is needed. What does this mean? It means that games utilizing cloud technology will probably use it in a pretty miniscule way.
We see this in the new Forza, for example. The cloud is used to collect statistics from the player. I may not have coded on anything nearly as complex as Forza, but I can say that nothing in the cloud features of the game, apart from having a car race for you while you're elsewhere (because who buys games to play them, right?), looked to be like something that could not have been written on the game's code to begin with. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has an insane amount of Stat collection from everything you do in-game... and it runs on the PS2, which is insanely weak compared to anything in the market nowadays. Are stat-collecting features worth paying full price to rent a game?
Let's say it totally is. Let's say you bought the new Forza and are perfectly content with the miniscule effects of the cloud technology. You're racing off in campaign mode, neck-in-neck with the best NPC racer. You're on the last lap. You can see the finish line in the road. Your girlfriend tells you she'll leave you if you lose (hey man, it's an intense race). And just when you're a few yards from the finish line and a few feet ahead of your competitor, BOOM! the game freezes for a second; enough for you to lose the race. Yep. Lag in a single player game.
At least now I'll have an excuse for this popping up every other minute.
That's not to mention the ugly errors you may encounter... Servers under maintenance? Servers full? Servers hacked? Lag spike? Your little brother hogging the bandwidth? Your internet go out? Food on the table takes precedence to surfing the web for kittens? Well, that's too bad. You can't play the game.
And what does this all add up to? Complication. And complication is not what consoles are famous for. If I want better performance from games, I'll have to deal with the problems that comes with a gaming PC: I'll have to watch the temperature, reopen the game after the annoying X or Y updates send me back to the desktop, set up my controller so that it works OK, spend 10 minutes trying to fix my controller after the program to use it with crashes, adjust settings so it runs fine on my hardware, etc. etc.
I play console games because I can just sit back and enjoy the ride. No nagging from silly programs, no having to keep on the back of my mind whether or not my hardware can handle X game and to what extent. I just put the disc inside the console, turn on my controller, and enjoy my game, whether tomorrow or 20 years from now. And that's really all I want from these GAMING devices: to play my games.
And what's wrong with that?