PFCboom said:
AC10 said:
PC gaming is when you play games on a PC.
It doesn't matter what game it is. It doesn't matter what genre it is.
If you're playing Scribblenauts Unlimited on the PC then you're PC gaming.
I think we can call that a /thread right there. The state of PC gamING might be ever fluid, but as long as you play games on a PC, you're a PC gamer.
I think it is complicated, though, too. I think it is just one of those things that varies from person to person on the meaning. Like with jRPGs and wRPGs. What's a jRPG? What's a wRPG? Depending on who you ask, you'll get a different answer.
I feel like I've always been a PC gamer in terms of software because I always wanted to feel the captain of a media hub. I romanticized programmers and hackers and felt like the commander of some kind of weird space ship just having a computer. I always wanted a system to grow and improve with me like
Mega Man. And the PC was more like that than the console. To me, the PC was like Mega Man, it always grew and changed and would take on the powers what what you put in it. Becoming a stronger warrior than before instead of just using new tools to be thrown away.
If software, and in terms of convenience, however, I was always a console gamer. In fact my PC gaming hit a huge spike when I first discovered SNES emulators when I was a teenager. A system that is still my favourite of all time. For when I was a kid, I did play and enjoy some games like Tank Wars [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-rAY1VSVNY] and Scorched Earth [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDw_mpjKlpg], console gaming was not only more approachable, but it had the games I cared about most.
Sure, having a PC felt like Mega Man, but I didn't have the money to spend on building up that Mega Man. In fact I didn't even have the money to afford a fraction of the games I cared about. I couldn't use that PC, that "Mega Man", that was growing and improving, to even play Mega Man. Sure, emulators and PC ports of Mega Man games even, actually did exist. But I didn't see Mega Man games as the store, and I had no internet connection to even discover emulators. I discovered emulators within the first month of even having an internet connection. Because I spent most of my time on that internet connection looking up information about console games.
My childhood was all about console exclusive games. I didn't consider myself a "PC gamer" because 1, I could not afford one, 2, because the games I wanted to play weren't released on the PC, and 3, because I associated "PC gaming" with the PC games that Wal-Mart sold or the games that existed in PC magazines, which were not relevant to my interests, and I ignored for Nintendo power.
Despite for all intents and purposes, I was a "PC gamer" that played most of my games on the PC in the 90s and 2000s. I considered myself a console gamer. Because my childhood was defined by me being a Nintendo kid whose first system was an Atari 2600, then an NES, and then a Super NES, and then a PlayStation. And you can guess which genres drove my hardware purchasing habits.
Japanese RPGs, platformers, and Fighting games. I spent my childhood struggling to find and buy games like Final Fantasy II(IV), Final Fantasy III(VI), Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Mega Man X, Disney's Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse, Disney's Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey & Minnie, Popful Mail, Lunar Silver Star, Grandia, Final Fantasy VII(which was my FIRST 32-bit game), NiGHTs into Dreams..., Super Street Fighter II, Samurai Showdown, Grandia, Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country 2, and other gems like these. These were NOT PC games and I did NOT consider myself a PC gamer. These games were what made me a gamer, not hardware of any sort. And these games were on the console.
Now, I'm definitely a PC gamer. I own several gaming PCs because I have several years of recycling parts. And I spend the vast majority of the time gaming on the PC. I own a Steam account with several titles, as well as Desura and Good old Games. But the realm still feels as alienating to me as it once did. I struggle to get Japanese RPGs and other games I care about legitimately on the PC. For every person on Steam that wants jRPGs on the PC, there's someone who say something like "PC gaming doesn't need this junk". I struggle to get the games I want on Steam even with Greenlight. That which I love is an underdog in the PC gaming world and it makes me still feel like I am not a PC gamer. In fact, despite being a PC gamer, I feel like PC gaming is somewhat my enemy. Lots of people say that PC gaming is dead in Japan, and that "we don't your [negative statement about jRPGs ect. here]". The last I checked out the Agarest War Greenlight page, there was someone saying that the "PC shouldn't have jRPGs" because the "PC deserves good, mainstream respected titles". As if to say, "the PC shouldn't have Japanese games unless they're something like Resident Evil 6."
That being said, things are growing and I'm becoming ever more comfortable with PC gaming. Carpe Fulgur, Nyu-Media, PLAYISM, and Rockin' Android are all localizing doujin titles. Record of Agarest War got Greenlit with flying colours. And things are just looking up for PC gaming for people like me. People like me are still newcomers to the PC gaming world, however.
As of right now, I only buy consoles for exclusives. Usually Japanese exclusives like jRPGs and Fighting games. Which is something I still very much have to do, since most of these games are console exclusive. And this means that I still spent a great deal of time on the console rather than the PC. Because aside from the Wii, which is possible to emulate, all of the exclusives I care about are on the PlayStation 3 and/or XBOX 360. Usually the PlayStation 3.
