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> If none of that, I read a book, do work on the laptop or enjoy a movie.

I'd rather play a game, most of the time. And similarly, when I've had enough of the sand, sun, and water for the day, why not wind down with an hour or so playing something fun? If I'm on vacation, I might even be with other people I don't see all that often otherwise, and get to play some multiplayer games. (Board games on family vacations work for this too.)

But I don't disagree with anything in the thread about this product really searching for a user. Nearly 100% of my gaming is on PC. If I had a gaming laptop, why wouldn't I just bring that along wherever I go? Not a big deal. And consoles + one controller aren't really that much more space either. There's also the Switch, and even the GPD Win if you want PC games in a very mobile form factor.

I've lately started bringing my Steam Link (which I got for $2.50) and a controller with me when I travel, since Valve opened it up to support remote play. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I don't. It works better than I expected though. When I can access my full PC library remotely with no monthly subscription and the base hardware was only $2.50 (remote play also works with your phone, if it's powerful enough, so it can cost literally nothing), why would I ever pay Google money. Stadia is useless to me.

Your post makes sense if the only travel you do is your 2-week vacation you get every year while always returning to a permanent living fixture, like a house you own. Or if you just don't mind owning a bunch of appliances.

I'm someone who lives abroad and doesn't like hunkering down with any equipment, not even a bookcase. I don't like staying in one apartment for a long time. The only cooking appliance I own is a single cast iron skillet. Something like Stadia interests me if it can deliver.

Also, even when you're at the beach all day every day, you still come back to a place to sleep where you might enjoy some gaming or Netflix. And if you are living there for weeks, you'll find that you don't need to visit the beach every single day to enjoy your time there. It's nice to merely do something you love in a place you love. :)

I'm generally happy with the few games I have on my Macbook Pro. But even on a $2000 two-year-old machine, I have to play almost everything at minimal gfx settings and I have limited SSD space. Even a game like Civilization 5 becomes a stuttering mess. I don't see the need to dismiss Stadia without trying it.

> I'm someone who lives abroad and doesn't like hunkering down with any equipment, not even a bookcase. I don't like staying in one apartment for a long time. The only cooking appliance I own is a single cast iron skillet. Something like Stadia interests me if it can deliver.

But that's the rub innit? The only people who are going to be really interested in this product are the hypermobile, and I don't know about your experience with mobile internet, but my LTE can barely keep a YouTube video in decent quality going. With remote gaming, you're now adding controller input to that datastream, outbound, and then rendering those actions and transmitting back to the device to enable anything remotely approaching a good gaming experience seems like science fiction.

The people who will be most interested in this are those without a "home" setup, and the less "home" you have, the more appealing, but also seems like it would in turn be the most frustrating experience to try and use. Which is sort of what this piece is getting at:

- Gamers don't want it, because we already have our libraries and such tuned to existing platforms and devices

- Casual gamers may want it, but they're already spoiled for choice in a massive mobile market, where games just happen on their already very powerful phones

This puts Stadia in an awkward position of in theory being the worst of both worlds: the limitations of console, with the network requirements only high tier residential internet can deliver, over devices with limited network capability.

> but my LTE can barely keep a YouTube video in decent quality going

You'd be surprised how better internet can be outside of USA. My LTE can probably keep up four 4K streams going.

Considering I couldn't even stream steam games from my PC to my tablet at enough of a speed to make games like Destiny playable, let alone enjoyable, you'll have to forgive my skepticism.

you hit the nail on the head. I'm a digital nomad who can't afford lugging a heavy gaming PC around. I have a nice 15 inch mbp (descent at running cities skylines) and an ipad (my notebook replacement) and would love to use stadia!

only problem is it only works in north america and I'm in southeast asia right now.

Because xyz-as-a-service is anti-consumer. Unless you've been under a rock the past decade, there are many flaws with the model when it comes to consumers. It's great for business. Terrible for the user. As-a-service puts the consumer at the mercy of a company. Along with their privacy data. Steam at least is setup in a way where if they were to end, the games you have can be downloaded and unlocked. Just make sure to back it up. Stadia isn't setup for anything like that at all. If google put Reader out to pasture, something that cost them jack-dick-all to keep running, something as expensive to maintain as Stadia when it flops... "Oh, sorry, it didn't work out. Sucks for all of you."

Just because you can't see how a trap will be sprung, doesn't mean the trap doesn't exist. This will bite people in the ass a year or two down the road. Then everyone will cry, "How could this happen? We need legislation to protect us!" No, you just need to be quit being a baby and start being an adult and understand that minor comfort and convenience can come at a heavy cost.

I'm torn. Xbox game pass for PC is one of the greatest things to happen to gaming. Ps now let me play red dead 1 before #2 came out. EA access is great if you just want to play battlefield or Fifa for a month (those games don't typically last longer than that for me). But I also love my 500+ steam games. If these services keep getting better they'll definitely take over, though. Outer Worlds on Xbox pass comes to mind. You can beat that in a month for $1 right now and never think about paying retail price.

Okay, but that's a little different. Stadia, you have to buy the game retail.

Ps now (I have a ps4), 10 bucks a month to play how many different games when the hell ever I want. It totally works out for me because I normally don't care about most games after 10 hours of gameplay. I don't want to buy a game for $60 bucks and not actually have it. Generally, I don't buy a game until it's down to like $30, because I don't have to play anything immediately. At 32, I'm over the whole "ER MY GOD, I have to play this game right meow!"

Stadia Pro for $10 a month gets you a selection of games I believe. But it really is in it's infancy, and not very good. We'll just have to see if google throttles it before it can mature like most other things they do.

> I read a book, ... or enjoy a movie.

Right there. For lots and lots of people, gaming is in the same class of activity as reading a book or watching a movie.

It genuinely feels really weird for me to write that, it feels so obvious.

Yea, like eating a salad and a Big Mac are the same class of food as well. Feels so weird since it's so obvious. A salad and a Big Mac. They're both food, thus they are both equally nutritious.

Go out and get some sun.

Maybe you don't view video games as being "as nutritious" as your personal preferred forms of entertainment, but that doesn't make those preferences universal. I've brought handheld gaming devices on virtually every trip I've made in the past decade, whether for work or pleasure, and I doubt I'm an outlier.

I know people that bring cigarettes to every trip they've had in more than 10 years. Doesn't make it right either.

Always having to rely on video games and the internet is a problem. You seriously can't mature through being alone in your own thoughts? People gladly, even smugly, say I'm a bad guy because on the weekends I treat myself to a cigar. Yea, I know it's bad and I don't push that habit off as some glorious thing to be protected. I have my vices. But I don't let my vice control me or become my identity. Everyone is on the kick the last 10 years like "video games define me". Y'all need to stop and go outside to hug a tree.

Why do you bring books and movies then? "You seriously can't mature through being alone in your own thoughts?"

Yea, but I'm not dependent on them. Everyone here is just, "I need my games wherever I am at all times!" Learn to diversify. Learn to not need technology. Hug a fucking tree.

Ah yes the classic close minded fool. My hobbies are fine and great but those video games and the internet are bad mmmkay. I don't even play video games and find your opinion so backwards that I get tingles on my back.

No one said anything about needing to play video games all the time.

"You watch any good movies, read any good books, or play any good games lately?"

"No, child, I was honing my mind as one does a blade."

Someone might smugly say that indeed.

Hey, you're the one who put "read a book" and "enjoy a movie" in the same breath.

If I had just quoted "or enjoy a movie" and left of the "read a book" part of what I quoted, would your "nutritious" argument still hold weight?

Some of us vacation to relax in our own way. I like to go to Vegas because I find it enjoyable to gamble, chill at the pools in Mandalay Bay, and day drink. If I've hit my cap for those things for the day and I'm still awake I'd much rather spend the remainder of my waking hours playing games than pretending I want to see yet another Cirque show.

This isn't a defense of Stadia, mind you. Just that vacation can mean different things to different people. Video games already let me escape reality on demand, I don't need vacation for that. Vacation can just be me wanting a change of weather.

Hey, when I first visited Vegas, landed at noon, drunk by 2, vomiting by 4, asleep by 5, woke up with a hangover at 10. First time I went from sober, to drunk to hungover in the same calendar day. Fat Tuesdays margaritas man... so good... but will knock you clean the fuck out like Tyson.

But... seriously though... I like video games too. But not that much. The whole escape reality, I get it. I enjoy it too. But, if you are escaping reality more often than you are in it... that's a problem.

> But, if you are escaping reality more often than you are in it... that's a problem.

I do spend quite a bit of time escaping from reality and I do agree it's a problem.

The greater SF Bay area suffers from a large amount of empty virtue signaling and shaming others into their morality while remaining apathetic to others plights. Work, while having the potential to be exhilarating, often descends into the myopic and uninspired. Passion projects I want to work on could potentially be wrenched from me by the company I work for via employment agreement which stifles creative desires outside of work. Friends and loved ones aren't available to me on-demand (and I respect that they have their own respective lives to live).

Meanwhile, there are virtual worlds that I can still explore. Mechanics I can break. People I can meet. Adventures I can have. And if I feel like slicing someone down as an seductive shade-lady on a magical battlefield I can do so with the comfort of knowing I'm not actually hurting anyone else in the process, ego notwithstanding. When life starts offering me these opportunities for near-free (or around $1500 for around 4000 hours of entertainment, I suppose) I'll take them gleefully. Until then, reality can stand to evolve a bit.

Don't live in San Fran then? Florida has prettier beaches and nicer people. I grew up in Florida, traveled the country in my 20s, and came back to Florida last year. Plenty of social gatherings and people who want to make friends here. The Space Coast (aka NASA county) is packed with engineers for obvious reasons. Colorado was the hardest place to make friends honestly... but the scenery in Colorado... you don't need people.

Anyways, there's more to life than San Fran and video games. To me, you're complaining about the smell when you live in a dumpster. San fran is the dumpster of humanity. I feel bad that you feel disconnected from humanity, because I know what that's like. Whether or not you want to believe me, I'm speaking from personal experience derived from the last 10 years, Cali sucks if you want to be a social, well rounded human being. I highly recommend changing your environment.

Oh, and the food is better in Florida too. Get a Cuban sub from the Tampa Bay area. Happy hour is always from 10am to 9am daily. Alligator tastes better than you think. Only eat Latin food in the small mom and pop places in the bad parts of town. Literally, the best ever and well worth the risk of getting shot in a gang related drive by. Seafood... you don't like seafood? You'll like Florida seafood.

Then there's the beach. I mean... do I need to get into why?

Am I going to get downvoted, sure. Florida man don't care.

I spent a year in florida. I'll agree to some extend. the food is fantastic, the weather is nice and the snorkeling and parks are wonderful. All that said, I spent way too much time trying refuting the idea that steven miller's kids in cages plan is good for america and among other very persistent conservative talking points. Also that I don't believe in jesus seems to be an open invite for people trying to "save" me. It is what it is and SF is a dumpster right now so I can't disagree.

I have never been asked to be saved by jesus in all my years in Florida. Cali, Oregon, washington, and obviously in Virginia and Utah. But never Florida. What's the religion where they say Jesus came to America? Whoever they are, they're really active in Seattle. Especially the bus stops.

> What's the religion where they say Jesus came to America?

mormons

> I get it, everyone vacations differently. But playing video games while out on vacation is like bringing a Subway sandwich to a 3-star steakhouse restaurant. You are there to not-home.

You say you get it, but...

I like home. When I'm on vacation, I mostly staycation, because that's the time I'm not out seeing people and doing activities to perform "happy" and "fun".

> I'm not home so I can make much better money in a short timespan

I'm not sure business travel is the same for everyone, either...

I often take my personal laptop (as well as my corp laptop) on business travel, and if I were a gamer, I could totally see bringing a game system. It's not like my salary is higher when I'm traveling, so after the purpose-of-trip all-day meetings and catching up in the hotel on the normal work that still has to be done after that, I typically just want to veg for a couple hours before sleep.

When I traveled for work as a consultant, I would check the XBox more than a few times. Being alone in Sioux Falls, SD in the dead of winter leaves little to do outside the hotel.

If you need a comparison, the mobility of the Nintendo Switch is analogous, except needing an internet connection and rendering triple A games.

> If none of that, I read a book ... or enjoy a movie.

How do you think playing video games is different from those activities?

Other than your ability to relate to them.

> I get it, everyone vacations differently

> You are there to not-home

Some people take multi-month long vacations. To expect them to give up video games is a bit much.

Or multi-month long business trips (I know a lot of people in this situation); if I was in that situation, you bet I would take some form of video game system with me. I already do when I travel alone, even if just for the 1-2 hours at the hotel between dinner and bed (I've always hated nightlife, the way most people understand it). In fact these hours usually become the most relaxing moments of the whole trip.

I don't have a console or a gaming pc but I have been using the nvidia shield and its Geforce streaming service for playing a few of my steam library of games. It is not the exact same experience as you would get from a console or a gaming pc but for me it is good enough. Specially considering me being in asia and all the nvidia servers I am usually connected to are in NA or Europe as no nvidia asian server available. With the google internet infrastructure worldwide I think they can improve on what nvidia is doing which for me is already usable if not perfect.

I bring a Nintendo Switch with me when I travel because it helps cut down the boredom on flights, especially international. Books are great, movies are great, but sometimes I just wanna play some indie game on a halfway decent screen with real thumbsticks.

Could I do that with my laptop? Maybe, but I'd rather carry just my work laptop (heavy XPS 15, has everything on it, but can't/shouldn't install games) or a personal ultraportable that might not be powerful enough

>But playing video games while out on vacation is like bringing a Subway sandwich to a 3-star steakhouse restaurant.

Fun fact: the Subway I had while vacationing in Reykjavik (where I brought my Xbox One) for 3 months was the best Subway I've ever had in my life. Sometimes having something familiar in a new location is just what you need to spice up your vacation. :)

More importantly, where are people going on vacation where they have bandwidth and latency enough to play video games over a streaming service!?

I like turn based games. I don't really care about latency when playing Civilization.

I didn't care about latency on old tile based games, but now that everything is 3D with smooth scrolling and animations the latency makes a difference.

Vacation is the only time I game. Wonder how Stadia plays on the plane.

Given that plane Internet is generally satellite based with at minimum 300ms latency and at most 25MB/sec for all 150+ passengers on the plane, I’m guessing pretty bad. Even if it’s not terrible and unusable, I’m guessing it’ll be blocked fairly quickly like most streaming video providers are now.

Maybe one day the airlines will offer Starlink based broadband on-board. Then you might have a chance.

I think I'm more shocked how incredibly addicted and dependent people are to the internet and gaming. The conversations here are just, "Oh my god, I can't be without high speed internet for more than thirty seconds! I might die! Planes need super fast internet! My car needs it! My fridge needs it! My dog's food bowl needs it!"

Stop. Go outside. Hug a tree or something. You need to realize, I'm a capitalist republican. I'm telling people to hug a tree and I mean it. You people need to hug a tree. Go out, with a book and sit underneath a tree for half an hour and collect some of them vitamin Ds. Leave your phone inside because no, the world will not end if you are without a phone for more than ten minutes. Chill, the fuck, out.