Console gaming vs PC gaming?

[DarthFennec]

Alright, I've been wondering this for a while now, so I'll ask. There are a lot of threads that I've seen on here about console gamers and PC gamers, and how one type is better than the other, or whatever.

My question is, what's the difference? Why this schism in the gaming community? Are these two platforms really so different that they deserve to be argued over, and sides to be taken? Is the idea of a console game really all that dissimilar from that of a PC game? There are differences, sure, but there are even bigger differences between console games and handheld games, and I haven't seen anyone take sides over which of those is better.

This is just something I've never understood about the gaming community. I've always played games on both consoles and my PC, and there are pros and cons to both. In the end, I think which system you use to play a game depends on which one the game itself works better on. Some games play better on a console, and some play better on a PC, just as some games play better on a handheld. Arguing over which is better, to me, is like arguing whether the XBox 360 or PS3 is better. They have their differences, and their pros, and their cons, but in the end, aren't they trying to do the same thing? Isn't the value of a system dependent on the value of the games you play on it? Why argue over something like this? Am I missing something?

If you consider yourself a console gamer or a PC gamer, why? What's so important that you feel so strongly about it? If you're not on one side or the other, what is your opinion on the matter? I'm genuinely confused about all this, and I'm interested to hear other's opinions, so why does or doesn't it matter so much, to you?

 

[Physics Engine]

Gaming is gaming is gaming... I play games, not platforms.

It doesn't matter what you play them on, only that you're playing them.

So the argument, like most on the internet, is pointless. I'll wait here while you go inform the rest of the internet of that fact.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It's times like this that I wish we had graphical emoticons, specifically so I could post the one that sits there eating popcorn. You've just opened a big can of worms, OP.

OT: Is it the gaming community at large, or just a vocal segment of it? I've noticed a lot of viewpoints that are common on this site, but blessedly rare outside of it. The whole PCs Vs. Consoles schism seems to be one of those points. Not that the argument doesn't go on outside of the Escapist, but it's much more of a background thing, and viewpoints like yours are much more common on the whole. I do both as well, by the way -- consoles and PCs both have their uses, and any time I have the funds to have an up to date example of both categories, I'll take it. If I only have the funds to buy one, I go with the PC because it's versatile enough to do pretty much everything a console can -- down to using the same controllers, this gen -- but I'm not a PC elitist by any stretch.

Edit: Also, a part of that versatility happens to be productivity software. I need a computer for web browsing and word processing anyway; may as well make sure whatever I get is up to at least some basic gaming. Consoles have one major benefit over PCs in my opinion, and that's their longevity. Last gen, my PS2 was capable of playing AAA games well past the point I had completely given up on new games for my aging desktop. This gen, my laptop is in danger of being useless for gaming within the next 6 months, despite the fact that I've barely had it for a year; the consoles have another 5 years in them, at least.

 

[dududf]

I like pc gaming because I can do all gaming on it, with exception to current gen consoles. Also throw in mods, and the fact that it's not limited to just my gaming experience yields, and that I can cheaply upgrade and customize my computer gives me what I enjoy and love.

I'm sure console enthusiasts feel similarly as I do on the aspects they enjoy about consoles.

Can't we all just get a long?

 

[lordnemos]

Speaking strictly for myself, I hate playing First person shooters and strategy games with a controller. My PC can accept both Keyboard/mouse and game controllers, so I have options. I can get multiple fairly large hard drives into my PC. Oh and Steam is for the PC (for now).

 

[Head Chef Dom]

I like both consoles and PCs. Is that somehow wrong on this site?

 

[Astalano]

There are many advantages of PC gaming:

-Customization of your game experience. Not only in terms of parts for your PC, but also software as well as various gamepads, flight sticks, etc., which are popular and supported in terms of games. This allows for more genre types due to various input devices, from great RTS' to flight games.

-Better graphics and generally better experience on the technical side of things.

-Better gameplay experience with a mouse and keyboard usually.

-Mods.

-Better deals (looking at you steam).

-More variety of games. We can argue to the moon and back about this, but I would be right in the end. On the PC, not only do we get dumb action games, but also smarter, slower games like Arma 2 or Stalker, Risen (360 version doesn't count because it's just BAD).

-Ability to play all games ever released (mostly). A far cry from the little backwards compatibility of consoles.

-Emulators.

-Cheaper than console gaming in the long run. It can be more expensive or the same price, but that depends on how you like to game on PC. If you spend money on the latest hardware every year, then yes, it's going to be more expensive. If you wait for deals and get the most out of your hardware, it will be cheaper. Consoles have renting, but with PC gaming games are cheap and you get to own everything you pay for. If you want to rent, consoles are a better choice, but for the gaming enthusiast who likes to own all his games, PC is more preferrable.

-Best online support, better community (in terms of content and various forms of communication, not necessarilly in terms of maturity, although I would argue that PC gamers are generally more mature), better clan support, etc.

-Better for smaller developers.

-More money per game for developers.

-Insert other advantage here.

Disadvantage:

-Needs tinkering with and involvement. Generally you need to know a bit about computers, which I don't think PC devs handle right. What I would do is have a third party that promotes PC gaming by putting a disc/file in every physical/digital copy that covers all the steps of installing various hardware and what various hardware is. This means explaining what RAM is, what a CPU is, etc, the advantages of building your own rig, so that if one were to ever want to progress further into the more technical aspect of PC gaming and get the most out of it, they would have a great starting point. The PCGA should do this, but sadly, they're useless.

-Needs work on community aspect. Involving modders and having great online support is essential.

Market aspects:

PC games don't sell as well at launch. However, they sell better than consoles in the long run. This is just an aspect of the market. The only disadvantage is that it's not good for churning out sequel after sequel. A successful PC game (built with PC's in mind) will do better than 99% of console games because the demand is great for PC-focused games. So generally, if you make a great PC game, you can be sure that the market will usually respond well and your game will sell great and continue to sell great years after release, as the PC is mostly a very stable market with stable demand (mostly) for hardcore games, but PC users don't rush to buy on day 1, at least not the hardcore ones.

Usually you'll sell around 2-3 million in the first month if you're Blizzard for instance, and sell 10+ million over 5-10 years.

Piracy shows interest for your product. The more successful the game the more piracy (Starcraft), so it usually isn't a problem. Piracy may also indicate issues with your game or its distribution (piracy of Valve games in Russia, for instance).

These are my thoughts and observations.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Console gaming:

-Better for platformers and adventure games, JRPGs and racing games and such, although it's unfortunate we see so few of the genres consoles do best nowadays.

-There should be an emphasis on simple but deep, although we see more of an emphasis on simple on next gen consoles with little depth.

-More expensive in the long run if you don't rent, unless you buy a "real" console like the Wii. Consoles should generally be as cheap and as accessible as possible.

-Many console games feel like stripped down PC games though on 360 and PS3.

-Better focus of graphics due to limited hardware which encourages various art styles.

-Couch gaming and split screen is best on console.

-Lack of variety and quality of indie and small games. Generally the biggest of the biggest are the best and smaller developers, even if they make good games, can rarely compete unless they partner with bigger companies (PCF and Epic for instance).

-Less troubling on the technical side, although this might bore hardcore enthusiasts who like fiddling with settings. This does make for a good "drop in drop out" experience, although the 360 and PS3 have diluted that feeling with frequent updates and a focus on the competitive multiplayer experience.

-Games sell well at launch which is good for sequels. The console gaming populace is much more susceptible to marketing.

-You do get a lot of copy cat games, as smaller devs feel the only safe option is to copy the most successful games much of the time (multiple Call of Duty clones), which leads to a severe lack of innovation.


Generally, both markets have their strengths, although I feel next gen consoles really don't offer a good console gaming experience. If you're looking for a great couch gaming feel, go with the Wii. If you're looking for a deeper experience, go with PC. The 360 and PS3 are just kind of stagnant and pointless in my opinion, with few games that play to their strengths. If you were to pick one though, I'd go with the PS3, as you have genres does best on consoles more prevalent on PS3 (hack and slash -> God of War, TPS -> Uncharted, Adventure -> Heavy Rain, Jack and Daxter (or whatever the name is), etc.).

 

[Wolfram23]

Oh great another one of these threads.

Well, my 2 cents...

Aside from stating the obvious (games are games, consoles are easier to use, etc) the points I care about are:
-Console hardware is significantly below the bar compared to PC. When titles are multiplatform they often get hampered by the lowest common denominator.
-Multiplatform releases also end up releasing at the same price on all systems, even though console games cost more per copy due to royalties to Sony/MS and having a physical disc to burn. PC exclusives almost always cost less. If Amnesia: The Dark Descent was multi platform the price would have been tripled.

That's really about it. The only other thing I might throw out there is the restrictions on how you use your console hardware. PC's are a nice open environment - which is both a boon and a curse. The plus side, among other things, are user created content. In many games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 and STALKER (etc) you can just download a bunch of mods and replay the game with a totally different experience. There's often more content for free than there is in expansions/DLC. The curse is because it usually means troubleshooting.

Mostly thought it's those first 2 points that I think irk a lot of PC gamers. It irks me, anyway.

 

[Weaver]

aren't versus threads disallowed here?

 

[migo]

The big difference between console gaming and PC gaming is the social aspect. While the PS2 really made almost no use of this, in general the major benefit of playing on a console is with an extra controller or three you can play with friends, together, in the same room. This gives console games a strong overlap with board games.

PC gaming on the other hand gets its social aspect online, not face to face at all. Now both of these have various advantages.

If you already have lots of friend, and they live in the same city as you, a console is great. On the other hand, if you live somewhere with a small population and have somewhat eclectic interests, you're not likely to have many friends, and more likely to find them elsewhere in the world. In that case you want the platform that offers the best option for playing with people online. As much as the 360 and PS3 have been trying, they still suck by comparison for online gaming.

Then you'll have people who either have a lot of money or have feet in both camps. They'll play both console and PC games equally.

The other difference used to be that a decent gaming PC for current games would last at most 3 years and would cost $2000, while a console of that generation would cost $200 plus the cost of a TV (which would also be around $200, and most people had TVs). So the affordable option was the console.

Now things have switched around, many people don't have TVs anymore, particularly not HDTVs, and if they do have an old CRT it's something they're trying to get rid of. A decent computer that can play a number of current games, if not all of them, costs $500 - in total. The same cost as an HDTV by itself. PC gaming also has a ton of entirely free to play games, in contrast with consoles.

This is creating some friction, because console gamers often remember that the reason they picked consoles is because they're cheaper, while PC gamers are wonder what's wrong with them as the situation has actually reversed. The only console that still is legitimately cheaper than a PC is the Wii, and that's thanks to being designed with an older SDTV in mind.

 

[rockingnic]

I have some PC games but most of my gaming is on my 360 and PS3. Mainly because I don't want to go out of my way to build a computer just do I don't have play on low settings, to play games that I can only play by myself or only online (LAN is too complicated for me and my friends <_<) to play with others. I prefer consoles because I don't need to worry if they can play Crysis 2 with high resolution graphics in HD and most of my friend play on 360s and only a few on PC. Also because I can play with 3 other on one system.

 

[HassEsser]

My question is, what's the difference?

PC lets you do (literally) whatever you want with a superior control scheme, but it can be very complicated if you don't know what you're doing. Console limits essentially everything you do but it is 100x simpler and easier in a lot of cases.

And that's the difference.

 

[Merkavar]

i think for most people its just all abit of fun. like how aussies and new zealanders hate each other or i guess americans and canadians. its just abit of fun but then there are the people who take it too far.

I prefer PC gaming for most games. 3rd person games seem to work better on consoles for me cause of the joysticks. But i like my wasd and my mouse with 4 buttons. i dont think either pc or consoles are better than each other. they both have their strengths and weaknesses.

i also like to option for mods and addons and steam.

plus i dont have a HDTV so even with my glasses on ps3 games can be hard to look at

 

[DarthFennec]

aren't versus threads disallowed here?

It's not a vs thread though. I'm not pitting them against each other, I'm asking why other people do. If you read my OP you'd see that my question was basically, why can't we all just get along?

 

[Feralcentaur]

I prefer PC's myself for the reasons of, I like Mouse and Keyboard controls for Shooters RPGs and... okay that's pretty much the only kind of game I play on the PC. I find Steam quite convenient for buying games, I can watch videos while playing games and no replacing the battery every few days, but obviously PC gaming has its downsides, like having to get the newest PC and other Hardware if you want to play a lot of the games every couple or few years. Although I also sometimes like playing games on a Console, because Co-Op is great and you can't really do it with a friend on the PC unless they have the same game and not being able to be in the same room as the friends you're playing with isn't very fun for me and the Console controls are much better for when I play Fighting games and pretty much any game in which you use vehicles frequently.