PC versus Consoles - help me understand

[Doom972]

Many PC gamers think that console games hold the medium back, and in my opinion, they do.

I felt exactly the same way as you do for many years. However now I'm not so sure. As I grew more aware of the way the gaming industry functions I cannot help but wonder if it's bad busines prectices that hold the medium back.

Bad business practices are definitely a large part of it as well. Publishers mostly approve the development of games that use proven formulas and rarely take risks with new ideas. Another related issue is trying to appeal to the widest audience possible, which creates very bland games.

 

[sjd1984]

I?m with you, I think that when it comes to PC vs. Console it?s a personal preference. I am a console gamer myself and have always been so. I can probably attribute this to the fact that I grew up with a Mac in the house. While I loved my Apple computer (the thing still runs to this day), there weren?t a whole lot of options for an interested gamer. I have played quite a bit of PC games but the novelty of them for me pretty much ended with DOS games. They never compared to the wonder of sitting in front of the tv with a group of friends spending hours trying to kill each other or solve the puzzles of respective games. I find that console gaming brings people together more than PC gaming ever could, but PC gaming has it?s strong points, it is just not for me.

P.s. Sorry about the random punctuation, French keyboards suck!

 

[thiosk]

I simply favor the complexity that the PC control scheme enables. There is no experience on consoles that remotely taps into the kind of strategic and tactical gameplay possible on PC. The Xboner will never know the joy of timing a cavalry charge into the flank of a macedonian phalanx to concide with a volly of pila and a charge by legionarries.

The infinite backwards compatibility is a big pull, as well.

 

[NiPah]

I've always been a fan of both, on my console I play JRPGs and niche Japanese titles, on my computer I play strat games and civilization style games. The way I see it, if a fan enjoys one system like the console and feels the need to tell others how bad computers are (or vice versa) it's more of a personal issue on their part.

Now there is something that annoys the shit out of me, all of these PC fanboys who come out of their holes to preach the good word of PC gaming in every goddamn PS4 vs Xbox One topic. It's kindof like that creepy family member who comes up to you at the reunion and starts talking about how dangerous immigrants are, you want to correct all their false rhetoric that they copied off of the last Reddit topic they read but you don't want to derail the conversation, god those pricks are annoying.

 

[Weaver]

I'll be getting a 3DS soon

You going to play Animal Crossing? I'm playing Animal Crossing. I love Animal Crossing.

...

Animal Crossing.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

People are ass holes with no empathy can't understand that different people have different needs to be filled when it comes to their hobbies. People also have the mistaken idea that somehow, the way they game makes them better than others. "Only skilled players use a mouse. As such, I'm better than other gamers." I wish I could think of an example for console users acting like annoying dicks to pc gamers other than the outdated "lol, pc gaming is dying". I play on both. Some games are simply better on pc (Skyrim, Fallout, cheap Steam games) and others I'd rather play on a tv with a controller, no hassle (new games and AAA's)

And that's it. Some people are just too dense to understand "different strokes for different folks"

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I'll be getting a 3DS soon

You going to play Animal Crossing? I'm playing Animal Crossing. I love Animal Crossing.

...

Animal Crossing.

It'll be one of the games I get, yes

Love me some pointless time wasting.

 

[Zardozzz]

I consider myself a nintendo kid. I remember being 5, and watching my dad unbox the NES he bought on his way home from work one day, and being in awe of duck hunt. I've had different systems (SNES, Genesis, N64, xbox, ps2, 360) throughout my life, but never a PC.

As an adult gamer, I am no longer limited by what my family could afford; and as a gamer I want the very best experience I can afford so I built my own PC. I have a ps3 and a 360, and I hate them now; the cross platform games available are just so limiting on consoles, both graphically and in terms of size/scope of gameplay.

PC gamers should be excited for the new consoles to be released. With x86 multi core cpus, 8 GB of ram, and directx 11 gpu's, it means consoles are finally catching up to (and surpassing) what pc gamers already have in general capabilities http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=pc

This should mean that when games are released multiplatform, we'll get competent ports, or even parallel development. We're finally all on the same page.

 

[Ren_Li]

Are we talking about discussion and debate, or arguments and flaming?
'Cause we like to discuss and debate things we like, we like to pick them apart and point to the good- and bad- parts. That's not just about platforms.
As for arguments and flaming, well... Some people like to froth at the mouth and just scream about how their choice is so much better. And some people are foolish enough to get sucked into responding to that, and get wound up at the frothing screaming being directed at their faces.

It's nothing to do with the platforms we choose- they're the subject, but not the reason for the discussions, whether civil or just an excuse for internet screaming. The reason is that the people partaking care about it, and want to either have a discussion/debate- or just want to scream about it. It can be seen in just about any for-or-against, like-or-hate-or-apathy. I had one just the other day with my fiance about keeping cats as pets. The subject matter varies; but the core reasons for the actions don't.

 

[nevarran]

Also what baffles me is the sense of triumph some PC gamers have after Micrososft's latest cock-up like it was their personal trimph somehow.

What? Really? I haven't seen any triumph from the PC gamers.
Besides, what's there to be happy about? "Hello, X1 gamers, welcome to the fucked up DRM world we live in..."?

 

[HippySteve]

Nobody likes feeling like they've bought the wrong gaming platform, and some will argue to the death because of it.


Not me though.

I'm lucky enough to own a good PC gaming rig, all the current gen consoles, a WiiU, I'll be getting a 3DS soon, and I'll most likely get the PS4.


I like games.

I don't care about platforms, as long as I get great games.

This. Fucking this. I'm the exact same way, and I just don't understand why it's an issue. I buy whatever games I think are cool for whatever system it's available for, or for whatever system I like it best on, and I really don't see anything to argue about or look down on.

 

[Callate]

Partly, it may just be an either-or: If someone else's system is getting publisher and developer attention, yours is getting less. For people who own gaming PCs, this can be a particularly hard pill to swallow: gaming PCs have had expansive RAM, generous amounts of hard disk space, optical disks and whiz-bang video capabilities even when gaming consoles were still dallying with cartridges. By all rights, they feel, they're the market the publishers should be courting- but between differing hardware configurations, a harder market demographic to penetrate, and the ever-present threat of piracy, that hasn't been the case.

This generation is particularly threatening because Microsoft is clearly looking to see how much they can corral and control their market. Between the more closed Windows 8 platform and the 24-hour check-in of the XBox One (among other things!), it feels very much like Microsoft envisions a future where people constantly act in ways that benefit Microsoft over their own good because they either don't remember they have other choices or they simply don't have any other choices, short of what amounts to a messy divorce.

I myself am primarily a PC gamer, but I don't look down on people who get most of their play on consoles. There are advantages to that as well, and I'd be lying if I claimed I didn't see them. Lower-priced, standardized hardware that publishers are actively courting? Used games? Rentals? Yeah, that can be sweet.

But I really find myself hoping that this generation the vast majority of people choose the PS4 or even the Wii-U if they go console. Just because I'm running Windows doesn't mean I feel I owe Microsoft a market-space where they can kick competition and variation to the curb and write whatever rules they want.

 

[votemarvel]

Other than a lower initial purchase price, I feel that the Xbox One and PS4 have kind of given away the advantages of console gaming.

Where once you'd just plug and play with a console, you are now going to have mandatory installs and online DRM schemes.

By making consoles into multi-function devices they push them into PC territory and I already have one of them. Heck we are almost there now, with a USB keyboard you can do office work on a 360 via the Skydrive website and its online version of Office.

It was the Xbox 360 and Mass Effect that got me back into console gaming but I kind of feel that it is going to be the Xbox One (and the PS4) that is going to push me back to being just a PC gamer.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I would switch to Linux in a heartbeat if Microsoft didn't manage to also kind of monopolize gaming on the PC with their use of DirectX and certain programs like Adobe Photoshop and similar came out for it. This is also why I find the Steam push for Linux intriguing and am hoping for success of their "SteamBox" and more and more games being available for the OS.

What keeps Windows "relatively" safe from over night becoming a closed-off platform are a lot of business interests involved (Microsoft is making the most money by selling their software to offices and big business, which run a lot of third-party programs etc. and even develop software themselves that rely on Windows being an "Open platform") which wouldn't be too pleased and would similarly show them the middle finger.
But they are absolutely greedily eyeing Apple and all the money they are making by selling software and content over their store.

Amen to that. Fuck Microsoft, I wish I wasn't typing this on Windows 7 pc. I'm hoping either Valve or Google make an OS that knocks Microsoft off the top of the pyramid. I've worked in tech support at my college for 2 years and so much time is lost because we're stuck using Microsoft crap because "its the standard". I spent an hour once trying to fix someone's printer because it stopped printing bar codes properly. You know what fixed it? Printing the page off Google Chrome. But the school can't even recommend people just install Chrome to fix their Internet problems because of bull like "its not official" or some shit.

The main reason I still use consoles is because I don't care much for pc things like modding and bargain hunting for the best tech to run games at higher settings and because Windows isn't optimized to run on a tv and control everything with controller without a bunch of cocking around. I'm hoping Valve changes that with their SteamBox but they have trouble finishing projects these days