A challenge to the PC master race

[Evonisia]

I always assumed this "PC Master Race" shit was meant to be a joke.

It was a joke originally. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/22-The-Witcher

People just seem to either ignore that, or are ignorant of it and use the term unironically, to much pain and disappointment.

 

[Tsaba]

Biggest Complaint? Herding cats on a Arma 3 public server.

 

[BeerTent]

What's shitty about PC gaming?

1. Less technologically adept individuals seem to have more difficulties.
2. You can never say "I didn't do the work, my computer broke down."
3. Tech support has inherent risks when you don't have the resources. Malicious software? Goodbye savegames.
4. Don't meet the minimum requirements? GTAV for $40 turned into a game and a new card for $240.
5. Console ports.
6. Fucking Early Access. Fuck.
7. Consoles are designed to just work. Sometimes, Compatibility issues, or bad setups can cause to problems in social situations.
8. Sometimes, those very mods can cause more problems than they're worth. Though, this is mitigated by Steam.
9. Sharing your work-space, play-space, and social-space is bad for concentration.

That's right off the top of my head.

 

[shrekfan246]

Well, not me. I can't remember the last PC game I bought new. But enough to drive sales.

FWIW, I generally don't either.

But then, my PC is about five years old now and horribly outdated, and I can't afford to upgrade. Poorly-optimized games run even worse than is typical for me, which means that most of the time I might as well not even bother. It's not even just AAA games, either, plenty of indie games come out with rubbish performance that is hilariously disproportionate to their graphical prowess or technical depth.

On that, though, I don't think I touched enough in the "Steam/Origin/uPlay" section that, as others have mentioned as well, PC becoming almost solely digital is incredibly annoying. Fifteen years ago I could go into a store and see a wall dedicated to PC games, now there's just a tiny little rack that will have Blizzard games, The Sims, and maybe one or two really big AAA releases. Even if my internet weren't legendarily terrible, I don't like the added sense of DRM that gets chucked on top by all of the games being tied to proprietary storefronts. If Steam suddenly died, you could just lose every game you've ever bought on it. I try to not be prone to hand-wringing, but I don't think there's enough in place to protect the consumer's interests, and I think people should be speaking out against that.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Couch co-op. There aren't as many fun with friends games on PC. Never really had any problems otherwise, though the hordes of adoring fans worshipping us for our brilliance get a bit tiresome at times.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

My issues with PC:
- More effort to start playing a game
- More error prone and likely to have extra hassle. For example, to get PS3 controller working on my laptop I originally used Motion-in-joy drivers, which went on to royally screw up some of my other drivers and needed a timely manual uninstallation process to clean up everything and get it fixed.
- Way fewer options for local multiplayer
- Bit of a hassle to play on my TV from a couch. I need to set up everything every time I decide to play it. This is with a laptop too, so I have it far easier than I would with a desktop

M$.

I don't get why this is still used, Apple is considerably more expensive and money grubbing than Microsoft. It tries to make everything it can proprietary, everyone I know has burned through at least 3 $100 chargers, and you can't install their OS on non-mac computers, forcing you to buy their overpriced computers which are between 1.5 times to double what you could find on a regular laptop or desktop.

I realize it's still more expensive than Linux, but I haven't spent a cent on anything windows related since I got my laptop which came with it pre-installed.

 

[Dango]

People just really like to fuck us over.

Over-priced crap, poor ports, spyware and other privacy invasion, it's really easy for developers to milk the fuck out of consumers (Friday Night At Freddy's, 95% of early access).

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

1)Keeping up with current hardware is expensive
2)If you encounter an error, it can range from "easily solved" to "your entire system is borked".

And uhh...

Yeah I can't think of anything else.

PC is just plain better imo. It has made TV and consoles redundant to me.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

But none of this matters because I can have a gun that shoots cars in GTA V.

it took me a couple times to realize what you meant here...lol'd when I realized what you meant.

4. The space the computer itself occupies, it was what drove me from towers as a student to laptops.

where do you live, a center for ants?!?!

Even though I do have a monolith full tower that purrs at me when it's awakened, it can fit comfortably anywhere I have a flat spot to set it on (floor/dresser/chunk of wood/etc...)

As mentioned, itx cases can be great for fitting a good chunk of hardware into a tetris like space.

this case here is basically a cubic foot (idk what unit the metric system uses for volumes in your country, so that'll have to do), which is relatively a good size for fitting into lots of spaces.

yay for options! [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133260]

OT:

crappy port opitimization is an easy one, I'm relatively well versed in google-fu and knowing what might be an issue, but sometimes no amount of tinkering with settings in your graphics card or ini files will make a game run like a champ. (most of the time it will work, but as arkham knight just proved, that's not always the case.)

switching OS/hardwawre over time can cause compatibility issues in older games (having your whole library on pc is a positive, but that is the flipside to that point.) such as diablo II.

DRM is a huge one for some people, I begrudgingly accept it when I get the game for 5-10 bucks on steam/gmg/gog sales, so it's not as big of a deal to me.

there are others I'm sure, and it can depend on which dev/pub your dealing with and what games you're into, but can't think of too many more at the moment that bother me usually.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Troubleshooting's a pain in the ass.

 

[Something Amyss]

On that, though, I don't think I touched enough in the "Steam/Origin/uPlay" section that, as others have mentioned as well, PC becoming almost solely digital is incredibly annoying. Fifteen years ago I could go into a store and see a wall dedicated to PC games, now there's just a tiny little rack that will have Blizzard games, The Sims, and maybe one or two really big AAA releases. Even if my internet weren't legendarily terrible, I don't like the added sense of DRM that gets chucked on top by all of the games being tied to proprietary storefronts. If Steam suddenly died, you could just lose every game you've ever bought on it. I try to not be prone to hand-wringing, but I don't think there's enough in place to protect the consumer's interests, and I think people should be speaking out against that.

Apparently, PC gamers have decided this is worth it for the convenience of not having to put on pants.

Which is weird, because with Steam, I can walk to a store and get a disc faster. I can also fill my PS4's HDD in that time.

 

[MercurySteam]

Shitty ports.

Shitty ports

Mostly Shitty Ports.

*Blows whistle*

Foul! 'Shitty ports' is a complaint PC users have against consoles because they feel neglected in the gaming community. Since it's a jab at the console that got the better port, it's not a valid depreciation of the PC.

The problem isn't that the console version is 'better', the issue is that the PC port is the 'same' as the console version. 60FPS lock, lack of different AA options, low res textures, crappy keyboard and mouse controls are usually fair indicators that no thought went into the PC port.

OT: I would like to lodge a complaint about the expense of getting a decent PC for gaming, and then finding out later on that the parts I need to replace hardware may not be available later down the line.

If you're referring to the fact that a part you buy may not be available a year later, that's how the PC market works. We're getting replacements for hard drives, CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, etc on an annual basis. And it's what makes PC master race awesome.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Problem 1: Video game developers

This one comes in a number of forms, but I'll list a couple of the worst (or at least more common) examples. Firstly are the developers who seem to do very little testing before releasing their product. I'm not just referring to the general "we can patch it" mentality that has the industry in general releasing buggy products lately. I'm talking about developers who release a product that, in their offices, ran just fine, but runs like crap on mostly everyone else's computers. The most infamous example of this would probably be Rage, which had a large list of graphical issues when it was released, and all that iD had to say about was that it ran fine on their computers. Never mind that they had custom drivers that they specifically designed to run the game.

The second problem with developers is when we get blatantly half-assed ports, often without even replacing the button prompts from the original version. So I'm sitting here with a mouse & keyboard and being told to click the right thumbstick to aim. Okay, fine, I can just look it up. I'm used to customizing my controls anyway (that's one of the perks of PC gaming, after-all, but we aren't here to talk about those, so moving on). Still, it just smacks of showing how much effort the developer put into their port. Then there's problems where the developer didn't really consider things like UI controls. Borderlands, for example (the first one at least), has terrible controls for a UI that the player often needs to navigate as they get new gear and need to consider upgrades. Compare that to something like Fallout 3 where I can flow in and out of the menus with barely a second thought, and it's clear that one developer sat down and thought, "Okay, so where are my hands when I'm playing this game, and how can I use the keys in that area to navigate these menus," while the other one just lazily copy/pasted the commands from the console to the PC without considering that this would put a number of necessary keys in clunky areas.

Problem 2: Other PC Gamers

This one is a bit more simple that the last one, but it's a definite problem with PC gaming. Heaven forbid that there should be ANYTHING at all that you don't know how to do/fix. If you dare to even hint that you don't know how to fix a problem, then you clearly have no business gaming on a PC. There's a reason Yahtzee coined the phrase "PC Master Race" in one of his earlier videos, and there's a reason that he spent the last 30 seconds of so of a more recent video dedicating the episode to some douche he saw on the Steam forums. Having some problem with the game's shoddy online support? Well, forward your ports. Never mind that this isn't a problem for several online-focused games. Oh, you don't know how to forward ports? Go play on your Xbone, scrub. I know that it isn't every PC gamer, and there are actually plenty of people who are willing to help you with your technical issues (even if only in the form of linking you to a "How to" video), but it still counts because it's a problem I wouldn't have to deal with if I gamed on consoles.

Problem 3: DRM

I think problems with DRM are pronounced enough that I really don't have to go into detail on this one.

Problem 4: Price

For what it costs to build a computer, and replace parts that are going to break at some point, you have to really want to be a PC gamer. Honestly I sometimes wonder why I even bother with it. Maybe I'm used to the notion of needing a gaming PC from back in the day when PC exclusives were more of a thing. Maybe I figure I'm gonna have a PC for navigating the web and such anyway, so it might as well be a gaming rig. Maybe it's just that I love putting them together. Whatever the case though, I just can't see myself ever not having a high-end gaming PC, even if it means that I have to save-up for several months to be able to afford to build a new one when my old one craps-out on me.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Shitty ports.

Shitty ports

Mostly Shitty Ports.

*Blows whistle*

Foul! 'Shitty ports' is a complaint PC users have against consoles because they feel neglected in the gaming community. Since it's a jab at the console that got the better port, it's not a valid depreciation of the PC.

OT: I would like to lodge a complaint about the expense of getting a decent PC for gaming, and then finding out later on that the parts I need to replace hardware may not be available later down the line.

No no, they're right, and I agree with them. The backhanded slams against consoles that you're thinking of is what PC gamers usually refer to as "consolitis", and it isn't about ports being lousy, it's about how gaming is more and more blatantly being designed around a controller, like how most FPS's only let you carry two weapons because it's easier on a controller to just have a "Swap weapons" button than to have to toggle through several options. I could go into detail about what we mean by "shitty ports", but it'd be easier to just scroll up to my post (if you haven't read it already) and read my first complaint about gaming on the PC. To put it simply though, it isn't an indirect slam against consoles, it's about developers being lazy when they bring the game over.

 

[FalloutJack]

Snip

The problem isn't that the console version is 'better', the issue is that the PC port is the 'same' as the console version. 60FPS lock, lack of different AA options, low res textures, crappy keyboard and mouse controls are usually fair indicators that no thought went into the PC port.

OT: I would like to lodge a complaint about the expense of getting a decent PC for gaming, and then finding out later on that the parts I need to replace hardware may not be available later down the line.

If you're referring to the fact that a part you buy may not be available a year later, that's how the PC market works. We're getting replacements for hard drives, CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, etc on an annual basis. And it's what makes PC master race awesome.

I still see it as blaming consoles. It feels like a complaint that the parents are paying too much attention to the other child. The parents might be part of the problem, but you know the PC enthusiast is wishing he was the only child.

As for the parts? No, it still sucks. New and updated parts? Sure, fine. Not compatible or not physically fit-in-able with your system? No good. Laptop keyboards, for instance. I do alot of typing, and as a result the plastic nubs under the keys to make the keyboard work start to wear out. Essential letters for writing anything or playing games become impossible to use. At the moment, my laptop is fine, but they don't make that keyboard part anymore, so I may have to change alot of things. Let's not forget, of course, that you may be put into the position where the replacement of one part suddenly can't be handled by the rest of the computer. So, I do have a good claim on the problems of expense and acquisition.

 

[MercurySteam]

I still see it as blaming consoles. It feels like a complaint that the parents are paying too much attention to the other child. The parents might be part of the problem, but you know the PC enthusiast is wishing he was the only child.

The problems inherent in crappy PC ports are bought up more often these days because it wasn't always this bad. Used to be you'd get a couple of bad ports every now and then but now most games not developed on the PC platform are fair game, which is actually quite sad.

As for the parts? No, it still sucks. New and updated parts? Sure, fine. Not compatible or not physically fit-in-able with your system? No good. Laptop keyboards, for instance. I do alot of typing, and as a result the plastic nubs under the keys to make the keyboard work start to wear out. Essential letters for writing anything or playing games become impossible to use. At the moment, my laptop is fine, but they don't make that keyboard part anymore, so I may have to change alot of things. Let's not forget, of course, that you may be put into the position where the replacement of one part suddenly can't be handled by the rest of the computer. So, I do have a good claim on the problems of expense and acquisition.

I was referring to desktops. Specific to laptops on the other hand, many of them use their own unique parts and can only obtain replacements from the manufacturer, it's a common problem with laptops but I know of a few people that have had luck on Ebay. Once they discontinue the product you're all shit outta luck. Also as far as compatibility is concerned e.g. connectors, ports, sockets, memory types, motherboard sizes, etc all have a standard that they adhere to, which means any idiot with a little bit of help can replace the parts of their PC as they need to.

 

[FalloutJack]

I was referring to desktops. Specific to laptops on the other hand, many of them use their own unique parts and can only obtain replacements from the manufacturer, it's a common problem with laptops but I know of a few people that have had luck on Ebay. Once they discontinue the product you're all shit outta luck. Also as far as compatibility is concerned e.g. connectors, ports, sockets, memory types, motherboard sizes, etc all have a standard that they adhere to, which means any idiot with a little bit of help can replace the parts of their PC as they need to.

Ah, well, that is the venue of my complaint. I have a nice little laptop who has performed excellently during its time as my property and it seems such a shame that the one part that actually fails is something as ordinary as the keyboard.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

where do you live, a center for ants?!?!

A fairly large apartment actually, the problem being that our last apartment was a one bedroom apartment with no room for two desks (my wife got her desk since she was studying at the time) which left me with the dining table for area to place a computer. In our current two bedroom apartment, with one being the bedroom for our son, the only desk is occupied by various hobby articles (Flames of War, knitting etc.) and when we get our second desk it will be used to accommodate my wife's sewing machine.

It is not a problem of living small. It is a problem of having multiple interests that all demand work space. While my PS4 can fit neatly on the TV bench right next to the TV, a stationary PC, even an ITX, requires more space due to the added demand of screen, keyboard and mouse. Hence why I use laptops. I can set it up on the dining table for daily use but easily move it when we have guests.

 

[Joccaren]

Easy:
1. The extreme hardware and software diversity and the hellish problems of compatibility and stability that leads to, especially in regards to games.
2. The constant need to stay up to date on new drivers, keep up with software patches and how they might interact with your set up and what problems that might cause relating to point 1.

To be honest I don't find these problems unless you're using fairly ancient hardware, or ancient games. Haven't updated my drivers in at least 3 years and things run fine. Over 6 computer builds, I've never had a compatibility or stability issue because of the hardware. These are mostly older problems, though I'll give they occasionally pop up these days due to issue #3 you mentioned: Shit ports -.-

3. The awkward control schemes that result from multi-platform releases and the frequent inability to customize it fully (I swear, the number of games that won't let me map to Mouse 4 and 5 are getting more and more common with every year).
4. The space the computer itself occupies, it was what drove me from towers as a student to laptops.
But mostly:

Yeah, these are true. Especially 3.
4 I personally find a TV bigger, but it depends on the person. Most people probably have both a PC, and a TV, so space probably isn't too much of an issue. There have been times I wished my full tower were only a half so I could shove a fridge next to it though...

5. The expense of keeping hardware up to date to get both good graphical and aural fidelity with smooth gameplay, especially if you, like me, are gaming on laptops due to room constraints.

TBH this is only for OCD people that want max graphics, or to deal with #3. I upgrade my computer once every 3-8 years. And that's to max out graphics, not just keep them 'good'. If you only update when consoles do, you keep the costs way down.


OT: MOSTLY the issues with the PC come from negligence of the platform by developers - both for the PC [I.E: Microsoft with Windows] and for multiplatform [I.E: Many games devs].
Crappy ports are the majority of the issue. Poor control schemes. Poor graphics. Locked FPS and resolution to make it on par with the consoles. Poor FoV also is a huge issue, and motion blur annoys a lot of people and is locked on to help console performance.
Windows itself, and the fact its the only PC platform developed for most of the time [Mac and Linux exist too guys], also has issues. Windows makes you at the mercy of Microsoft, and often that's not a good thing with the direction they've been trying to take things recently. It also limits which OS you're able to use if you want to play games at all, rather than consoles where its more which games you want to play.

Size and cost are minor issues. A full tower is a fair bit bigger than a console, and whilst most people probably have room for it, it does take some out of the picture when they have other priorities [I.E: A TV]. PCs also have a higher upfront cost, though a lower ongoing cost. Makes it harder to purchase, and can delay you being able to play games. Once you have it the games are cheaper by around $10 most of the time, and with things like Steam sales and Humble Bundles... You can save a fortune. It does depend on the sort of gamer you are though.

One extra downside is the confusion that backwards compatibility brings. With Consoles, if you have an Xbox 360 game, it won't run on the Xbox 1. With PC, if you have a Windows XP game, it WILL run on Windows 7. It might need a couple of fixes - I.E: Run it in compatibility mode, with administrator privileges, with forced hardware Anti-Aliasing off - but it can run, and it introduces many of the compatibility problems that are smaller and that people run into. You can run games back to the DOS days on a PC, but older games have different methods to run it. All are simply counted as PC games though that you can run on a PC. This causes confusion for many, as games aren't clearly labelled as to which version they're meant for - its just small fine print on the back.

The final downside I can really think of is in the community and social aspect. If you game on the PC, it is still seen as somewhat niche, more for doing your thing, whereas consoles are seen as more of a communal thing, where you're focused more on playing with friends. This means that, for playing with friends, there's more pressure to get a console, and generally when playing on a PC you'll not have the same options available for people to play with, as they'll have gone console for its 'communal' reputation.
This is changing, however. Most of my friends are all PC exclusive gamers. We have to play a console at some point and we're all "WTF is this shit", and we play online together fairly often. Even my more 'dudebro' friends are split 50/50 between PC and console - and this is from all of us coming from a near exclusively console background. However, it is still the sort of thing where to play with friends many have to buy a console, and find it harder to do so with a PC.

Overall though, most of the downsides of any platform are subjective. PCs and consoles are aimed at separate audiences, and thus when someone calls out a downside [I.E: No Physical disks], its not a downside for others [My room is filled with disks. ~300 PC games, ~400 console spreading from N64 up to PS2 era. Buying physical copies also exposes me to my home town's ridiculous weather {Literal 4 seasons in one day. We don't have normal days here}, and requires me to spend money on public transport and travel for ~2 hours in total to buy the game, when I could buy it in 1 minute and just do other things important to me whilst it downloads].
So, there are a number of 'situational' downsides as well, where context is very important. Hell, really, context is important for all of the downsides, but some are more simply compensated for, rather than being an advantage to other people.

 

[RedRockRun]

It takes a lot of time to understand the ins and outs of PC's. I'm not great at research and prefer just talking to people and asking specific questions, so it can be daunting wanting to know so much but only being able to take in limited amounts at a time.

Also there's the fact that someone will always have a better rig than me.

And the looming worry of when my hardware will need to be replaced in order to play newer games. I'd really like to get more RAM and a larger HDD along with a SSD to load my OS on.

Then there's the fact that so much can go wrong. The more complex computers get the easier it will be for errors to occur. This is true with any machine. Whenever something on my PC messes up I feel so powerless.

There is just such a galaxy of information and content. It's quite daunting.