Why so much hate for consoles?

[BleedingPride]

I'll be brief, I recognize PC's as superior platforms on multiple levels. However, I think the prices to buy good PCs are too high for me to afford. Instead of buying a $2000 PC, I buy a console for (lets use the PS4 as an example) $400, plus a nice game to go with it, landing at a total of $460. I still have $1540, still get reasonably good quality and I am able to play games that I enjoy. I see so much hate on consoles, but I don't quite understand why. Isn't the point to play games? Why do people seem to treat consoles like the apocalypse of the game industry? Are they? If so, why?


EDIT: I'm only using $2000 because my friend is building his own PC and this was the price he ended up with.

2nd EDIT: Actually, the price tag is more like $1300, however even if I bought a PS4 I'd still have $840 left over.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

$2000 is far, far, far too much money to spend on a gaming PC. I don't know why that's the "go to" number in these discussions, but good gaming PCs don't cost nearly that much.

But to answer your question, PC fanboys are dicks just like console fanboys. You'll see a bunch of arguments about "holding the tech back" but I kinda like that. It means I can keep the same PC for years on end instead of having to upgrade every year.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

This'll be a fun thread.

Because fanboys are fanboys and people want reasons to proclaim themselves smarter and superior to others even though any retard can build themselves a pc without knowing what they're doing (just look at the people recommending 16 gigs of ram on pc builder threads), its suddenly the sign of a super intelligent "power user". Or because some people are too self centered to understand that other people want different things.

"Steam is so cheap"
I'd rather buy most my games full price when they come out
"You can install mods"
I barely have time to play all the games I own
"Keyboard and mouse has so much more precision"
Why would I care when I only play single player games in front of a tv?
"You can plug into a tv"
Why would I want to use a shitty Windows interface for that?

Try to remember that only the annoying ones are vocal. All my pc gamer friends aren't elitist dicks unless they're being ironic about it. And of course, I do play both cause there's benefits to be had from both. Older games like Kotor 2 for $5 on Steam sale? Fuck yes

 

[Shadowstar38]

No gaming platform is superior to another. If someone attempts to convince you otherwise, you should offer them the lubricant needed to get their head of there anus because 95%, they're just an annoying fanboy.

 

[Cabisco]

They aren't. It's just fanboys being fanboys. Many of them don't even recognize it since they think only consoles have fanboys, but there is a large contingent of PC fanboys. Unfortunately, many frequent this site, so it can be exasperating here at times.

I like consoles as well and enjoy some games on PC. But by no means is one "superior" to the other - just different.

Pretty much this. It's just a case of fanboyism and this happens in everything where we are given more than one choice.

It's not so much people who think their choice is best (of course you will) it's those people who want YOU to know that their choice is the best that really grate.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Yeah fuck knows where this figure of $2000 dollars comes from in regards to building a gaming computer. 600-800 will get you a pretty decent one. Other than that though I agree, I find it more enjoyable to game on consoles than I do on PC (I have both). This site is pretty heavily skewed in favour of PC though so that might be why they get all the hate.

 

[scorptatious]

I enjoy both consoles and PC's. Yeah, each one has advantages over the other, but I think it's kinda silly to hate on people who happen to enjoy one or the other.

I'll admit though, if it weren't for PC's, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

[ThePuzzldPirate]

There is console hate? The only time I ever see it happen is when someone says something stupid(the usual case) and it get blown out of proportions by someone needing to protect their E-PEEN.

It might even happen with this thread. $2000 builds you a render-box, something that could build games/visual effects. You can easily get most games to 1080P maxed out at about 40+ frames for less than $800. Yes it is a litte more expensive up front but not at that ludicrous level unless you want it to. That is the thing about the PC that makes it great.

Consoles has its place in the chain, It helps push optimization of coding techniques and raises the bottom bar while PC aim to push the top bar. If we didn't have both pushing, I don't think we would be at the graphic fidelity we are at now.

 

[Caiphus]

Just because it hasn't been linked yet:

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

Beep boop.

I would say that, on a purely technical level (which is sort of the only objective level you can look at, maybe?) that an expensive gaming PC will outperform a console. There's no reeeeal way to debate that, I mean, it's objective. But they're also fucking expensive, and you can get a perfectly adequate experience on a console, so whatever.

Aside from that though, people shouldn't give a dingy dang. I don't understand people who give that much of a damn about the console on which other people play their games. I suppose man's eternal struggle to find consensus among his peers, or something equally poetic and wrong.

Although, I haven't noticed the PC elitism on this website to the extent that the OP clearly has. But I'm a PC gamer so I naturally wouldn't notice it.

Edit:

Why do people seem to treat consoles like the apocalypse of the game industry?

Certainly not to this level. I haven't noticed this at all. Where are these people? They sound rather silly.

 

[votemarvel]

My gaming PC cost me around £500, or $768 USD. Intel Core i5-3330, Gigabyte H61M-DS2 motherboard, 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 (2GB), two 1tb hard drives and a Corsair TX750 PSU.

It plays titles like Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, Batman: Arkham City etc as smoothly as a babies bottom at the high settings.

More expensive than a console certainly but it balances out with the cheaper cost of the games.

I own a Xbox 360 and PS3 too, so it isn't as if I am biased toward either platform. All of them have their benefits.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

For a great gaming PC, you will spend around 1200, with peripherals it will go up to around 1500 to 1600. While not as huge of a number as he says, it is still rather expensive compared to the 700 you would pay for a new console lineup ( Extra controller, a headset, and a new game or two). Consoles have always been the cheaper, and for most, better choice between the two.

Settle for less than "great" then! My PC cost about £500 ($767, apparently) including the monitor, keyboard and mouse. I already had speakers, but the monitor has them built in, anyway. Most games run great at good settings, too. I'm not maxing absolutely everything out, here, but I really couldn't care less about that.

What components are you thinking of that would get you up to $1200? I can't fathom why someone would spend that much money on a gaming machine (then again, I'd probably understand if I could afford to...)

I'll freely admit that the base cost of a PC is going to be higher than a console, though. This worked out cheaper than a console, for me, because I needed a decent PC for other things, too. Otherwise, I might have tried to find a £100 PS3 somewhere. Or nicked my brother's.

 

[Tayh]

I blame consoles for shitty UI's, QTE's, low-res textures and unconfigurable video settings - when applicable, of course.
See: Saints Row, Skyrim and any game that wants you to switch weapons through a "wheel".
Like this:

This shit needs to die. Or atleast removed when ported to PC.

 

[Windcaler]

Im not sure where this hate that you speak of is. Its true that we have a lot of PC gamers here on the escapist but enjoying playing games on PC does not equate to hatred toward consoles. I happen to own both an xbox 360 and a PS3 along with a PSVita and I play games on them regularly. I prefer playing games on my PC but once again a preference for PC does not equate to a hatred of consoles.

For me, I prefer PC gaming because I can customize my hardware to suit my personal needs and because I have a much wider variety of games then I do on consoles (which are also generally cheaper). PC also has IMO more innovation happening. In the last year we've had 3 pieces of equipment either come out or show up on the horizon (the Steambox, Razers edge, and soon Nvidia's project shield) that are changing how we play and interact with our PCs.

That said consoles have one major bonus. Pick up and play. Unlike PCs consoles benifit from the ability to just slip in the disk and start playing. Theres minimal screwing with options and settings because a console is one standardized peice of equipment while PCs are highly variable. However as consoles move toward digital distribution they'll loose this one and only advantage which IMO sucks

The thing that I really dislike about the console market is how often they simply refuse to port good games to PC while simultaneously complaining about sales. This is mostly a Japanese based phenomena because theres barely a PC gaming market in Japan. However with the release of dark souls (and Im hoping dark souls 2) Fromsoft was shown that there is a strong PC gaming market here in the west. Its my hope that other developers will follow their example. I would love to see games like Muramasa rebirth and Dragons crown on my PC. On the flip side yes I would like to see more PC centric games ported to consoles but to be fair the liscencing costs are pretty outrageous for any company outside AAA development (patching costs are even worse). This may change with the next generation consoles though

One of my other major criticisms of consoles is the lack of backwards compatibility. Generally if you look hard enough you can get an old game to run on a newer PC. If I dont want to buy it from GoG.com I can still play Descent from my old floppy drives via dosbox and a drive I can hook into my hardware. Consoles generally just dont have backwards compatibility or the BC is utter garbage (i.e. xbox 360). My PSvita allows me to play older games like Breath of Fire or vagrant story but I have to rebuy them and Im personally not ok with that. I should not have to buy something I already own just to play it on a new platform

Finally theres the whole price mark. The last time I looked at building a good PC it would have cost me just under $500 for something that would run Planetside 2 well. The average PC doesnt cost much more then that and you make that money back with cheaper games over the long haul. So while the initial investment for a good PC is more you spend less money on games offsetting the cost (which may actually make PC gaming less expensive depending on your spending habits)

For all my criticisms and praises PCs and consoles are two very different pieces of equipment. There are good and bad things about both platforms but my preference for playing games on my PC is not hate for consoles. I truly believe that our leasuire time is precious and that its a tragedy when that time is spent doing something we dont like. So play what you want, on whatever machine you want, and enjoy yourself. Thats what its all about

 

[Weaver]

I don't hate consoles at all (I've always gamed both on PC and consoles). I do, however, hate terrible ports. For some reason the PC gets awful UIs when ported over. This, of course, is just lazy developers; not the existence of consoles.

 

[ryessknight]

I hate all the console hate. Personally i find consoles faaaaaaarrrrrr superior to pcs. There easier to use less fuck up prone and dont cost tons of cash just to upgrade to play 1 game half decent and controllers own keyboard and mouse on almost all games. Pcs are only good for internet stuff and some simpler older pc only games like gog stuff to me, well and some mmos but alot of them could be a hundred times better on a console like dcuo , final fantasy 11 , and defiance are.

 

[Haakmed]

Consoles are locked into their hardware as far as controls and their own guts. That usually hinders how games work on a computer which annoys me greatly. But the greatest quality that gets PC a leg up over consoles that is a fuel for my dislike of them is that when developers decide to not to finish their games and release them anyway PC modders have a ability to finish it. But in truth its really quite a lot of fun to watch people yell at each other about why they are right and not one other person in the world is even close to correct.