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Now that my main computer is gaming-compatible again I've been thinking a lot about where I play games.

That is, so much of my Steam library got punted to the Steam Deck because it felt better to play there. It felt like a venue -- I remember years ago I felt this about the Switch, it felt the most "game-y", the most like a proper place to be enjoying games, that even when I had a gaming PC, because the Switch was so intensely a "gaming device", it was the most worthy to enjoy anything.

I initially had these thoughts when I got an Apple TV instead of a Chromecast. The Chromecast was an ad-hoc pattern: people would put things, one-way, onto the television from a phone; the Apple TV, like satellite and cable, made the television instead the broadcaster, where it brought content inward. You could pick together. You weren't independently picking quick clips to throw onto a shared space.

I think that people think about this now in regards to emulation: I have a 3DS, right? But I could easily emulate it on the Steam Deck. But it feels somehow less correct to do so. The software and the hardware are in some way tied together. But likewise, more specialised hardware seems to take precedence over generalised ones. Thus why I also felt weird about having 'gaming PCs'. I usually only had workstations.

Have you ever thought about this?

honestly i'm still inclined against handheld form factor, even though i like the switch and probably would like the steam deck. i like to have a larger screen to look at and i feel like it's better for focusing on things. most of the games i play are more suited for a full station though. mkb and monitor.

that said, this far out from the 3DS heyday i cant help but feel like it'll be a long time before we see games with a truly unique form again and i do regret that. 3D aside, the dual screen format was really neat, and was a gimmick that increased comfort imo. there's something special about two separate screens and the way it creates a hard divide, and how different games made use of that. or like the idea that you could hold it like a book for some games.. yeah you can do sideways stuff with the switch, i guess. i guess.

Woah. But we make VNs, right? I targeted 720p explicitly because of the Steam Deck, Switch, PSP, etc as a form factor. I can't actually remember the last time I sat down and played a VN at a computer monitor. Very few games feel appropriate. Even now it's like, these are the only games I felt were PC-specific:

that's really funny, because the last VN *I* played on a handheld device was like VLR on 3ds. i really vastly prefer sitting at a desktop for vns, lol. i have a really comfortable desk setup, though, and no real comfortable place to sit in my bedroom other than at my pc or laying on my bed.

Personally I vastly prefer the handheld form factor for VNs and ADVs. The Nintendo DS especially had some that used the dual screen in novel ways - "9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors" placing narration on the bottom screen and ADV-style dialogue and portraits on the top screen felt very natural in a way I was disappointed that the later single-screen ports did away with. If it were up to me I would play all of my VNs on my old DS.

post-script edit:

I don't think I could play every game on a handheld form factor. Plenty of the games I come back to often don't play well with handheld controls, especially shooters. Maybe I could get used to it eventually if the world 'twas made of pudding and there was no other option, but I feel like for some games it just doesn't work.

I tried to play a DS or 3DS game on an emulator, but the form factor coziness of a 3DS (I've played one once!) felt really at odds with my computer. I also was playing it with a laptop either in a lap or on a table, and it made it heat up. I think I've most appreciated visual novels when playing them on a big screen.

The one big exception to that was a very cute little episodic series of flip phones (like, J2ME/BREW era) that had an almost sprite-comic like style, I tore through those as a kid.

The only handheld I've actually owned was the GBA, which is an ok form factor, but definitely isn't as good as the 3DS. Smart phone are also a kinda limited form factor for a lot of what I enjoy.

I actually kinda liked how Delver handled being put into non-maximized mood so you could have other stuff going on easily, although normally FPS/action games I play fullscreen.

https://frozendepths.net/roguelike/ had an ok default "resolution" too (but couldn't handle resizing fine :( ).

ive been a computer desktop gamer my whole life and probably won't switch to anything else. if i'm going to sit down and play a game, i'm not going to want it to quickly distract me, i want it to immerse me. games that can be picked up and put down really quickly tend not to really be my thing.

ive tried portable systems before, but i'm at home so frequently that it hardly feels worth having anything of the sort. when im out and about, i just play less technically intensive games on a laptop and have fun with that. plus, the bare minimum thing i'm taking with me on any extended trip outside is a laptop. portable gaming systems end up just using more space for me if i'm going to already have another device that's just as capable.

I used to be a PC gamer who only played consoles for exclusives or portability and I'm not entirely not that, but these days I will sometimes buy a game on console even if I think it'll be worse on console (2los Principle being the most recent example) so I can play it in the living room and have it be a hangout experience, since my roommate is often chilling in the living room.

Lapis wrote:

I used to be a PC gamer who only played consoles for exclusives or portability and I'm not entirely not that, but these days I will sometimes buy a game on console even if I think it'll be worse on console (2los Principle being the most recent example) so I can play it in the living room and have it be a hangout experience, since my roommate is often chilling in the living room.

I feel like that's the whole point, right? Like, you choose to prioritise sharing an experience. And I guess games are not just "one thing", then, either; it's like, either we infer some total experience that we can approximate better with some equipment or we choose a different priority.

I tend to take the stance that games are often tied to hardware for a reason. They're creative software, written for a specific target device. And so to best evaluate them, to best experience them, I have to go after that target. That's why I still have a 3DS.

At the same time, specialised devices feel more important than generalised ones, so I prefer 'gaming hardware' over the PC as such for most cases. I don't know.

my form factor of choice depends on what's going on. sharing a game can be nice, on the television. consoles are uncompromising, unless you're doing something weird like using a keyboard and mouse on a windows box that's hooked up to your tv. though i haven't had that kind of setup in a long time. i prefer to spectate in these situations. i turn a little too dumb when i try and conversation and play at the same time, or people distract me. even if i'm playing alone, someone will likely butt in whether i want that or not.

if i'm playing counter strike i want to be locked away in my room. headphones seal the world away i will sit in the 'optimal' way on my desk, in my quality chair, with a height adjustable desk. nobody can touch me. and i'll get some kills. i'll be in there. it's exhilarating.

i never much like playing games on the switch. i've found it a frustrating little device. conceptually it's great, but it's too compromising. but that's good enough for a great deal of people. the screen sucks. the speakers suck. the controllers are awful, and every game seems to have perceptible input lag. i'm a little stuck up about these things. at the time, the lack of bluetooth support was killer for me, though this was fixed in a software update. i haven't touched it in a long time. now but i guess if you want to play a nintendo game, that's the way. i can't say there's a lot of pull these days. triple A does not excite whatsoever

i have not tried the steam deck, but it seems decent. it's obviously not for keyboard and mouse games. conceptually, i can see the issue you highlight, maru. it feels emulated. few games really optimize their layouts for strange form factors, unless the steam deck is a lot bigger than i think it is. not to mention the back catalog of "supported" games that do a bare minimum. maybe the button layouts don't line up. maybe it's something like that. but i don't know. i'm saying redundant things

i rarely have the "on the go" gaming experiene. if i'm on the go, i'm trying to get away from my daily life. playing games almost seems like i'm wasting... something. i barely play, recently, when i do its often a temporary interest that i focus very hard on for a few days. but then life usually calls my bluff and i gotta do something else. i'm almost more interested in seeing how people interface with my favorite games. my needs are met

i have a bunch of things set up on my living room tv. a switch, a steam deck and a MiSTer FPGA. i dont rly touch these myself ever. but i wouldn't wanna not have them when someone is visiting. it's not rly viable to play at a desk together. a couch is much nicer. additionally, it can flow into having other media in the background, like music.

most of the time i too prefer just playing on my pc. i have a steam deck but i don't think i've ever used it outside of my house, which is a little silly. most of the games i like to play are a bit too micro-oriented. though gyro aim is very good nowadays!!! really when i'm not at my desk i want to be doing something that has very little digital ui.

A good PC + emulator setup with keyboard is what I've spent most of my time seriously playing on, and it's definitely fairly comfortable for most of what I throw at it. Arcade cabinets are also nice when I get the chance to see them and a proper Astro City or Egret II candy cab is something I wouldn't mind having one day. For consoles, I'm not sure what the optimal setup would be but on PS4 I'm looking at the Hori Fighting Commander Octa for remappable buttons and macros, since I've done reasonably well on other pads before and arcade sticks/leverless controllers both have their learning curves which I'm not exactly adept at (I think for leverless I could probably do it except for the movement hand being on the left)