I started gaming when I was an infant - some weird talking parrot thing on the PC that was DOS based. I had to have been 3 or 4 so my recollection of what it involved ends there, but my first experience with gaming was on a PC. When I was 5 I also got a SNES and NES. I played lots of Super Mario on the SNES and the classic Mario on the NES - but my library for these consoles never exceeded about 15 games or so. I rented games a lot as a kid, but didn't really ask for a lot of them. At the same age I was playing PC games (Namely Duke Nukem 3D - but also Wolfenstein 3D, Raptor, lots of other early 90's classics). I asked for way more PC games than console games.
By the time I was 10 I had a PS One and an N64 - I played the games that were exclusive to each on them and liked them in their own ways. But I had a lot more PC titles - just off the top of my head I can recall having Age of Empires II, Dungeon Keeper, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Theme Hospital, Theme Park, Half Life (Boy as a kid did I want this game so bad for what seemed like forever), Command & Conquer (Original), Twinsen's Odyssey, Transport Tycoon, SimCity 2000, Abe's Oddworld, Descent, MechWarrior - just to name a couple. I dunno about kids and teenagers today, but affordable and easy computer hardware has come a LOOONG way since the '90s. No more complicated sound card IRQ and DMA settings - none of that crap, it's just plug and play and self configure. You don't even need to have the drivers for anything anymore because everything auto-installs pretty much.
I cannot imagine not playing PC games...that would be a miserable existence and I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't play PC games. You miss out on tons of titles and stuff that wouldn't work on a console very well or just plain won't be ported. Tons of strategy games which would feel wrong on a console, so many classic titles that are just weird but very fun and cool that wouldn't have the budget to be on a console. Hell, you can't play Minecraft on a 360 or PS3 and given its startup nature - things like it at best will be ported to the console in a year or two, but maybe never.
So for people to act like PCs are too expensive, and they'll just keep their consoles...what poor souls you people are. So much goodness you miss out on - and exchange you get mediocre games, with mediocre graphics (compared to PC), limited by manufacturer updates and limited with NO modifications of the game (So no "Garry's Mod" for the 360 Half Life 2 or anything like it). I'm more of the nature these days that I'm about to give up console gaming. The games have all been rubbish for the past year. There were a few highlights here and there, but even so many of the games that were good on the console came out on PC so you aren't missing anything. I do enjoy consoles for their exclusive titles (PS3 for MGS, 360 for Forza, Splinter Cell) - but the plethora of mediocrity on the consoles is just mind boggling. And to pay an extra $10 over the PC price for a more limited version of the game? Psh - I can just wait for it to have a sale on Steam and that $50 new PC game is now $25 and has the option of being modded and everything.
To be totally honest, I haven't spent more than $20 on a new game in half a year - I've bought several new titles on the PC through Steam for nothin'! Most of the Total war games I've bought for under $10, I bought Metro 2033 for $20, Minecraft was in Alpha when I bought it so it was $14-ish. I'd go broke buying new 360 or PS3 games all the time - renting games is the biggest factor consoles have going for them IMO. If you had to buy the games - it would be much easier for me to just say "No more" to game consoles. I like consoles and PCs for gaming, but in a real comparison nothing holds a candle to PCs. You know, those console games are made on PCs...they just lower the requirements to run on consoles. I will always love the tweakability of a PC as opposed to the locked down nature of game consoles (George Hotz v. SCEA anyone?)
