Can someone please explain to me why PC gamers and Console gamers can't get along?

[Aprilgold]

To the post about him calling LAN splitscreen. He didn't...Splitscreen was never even mentioned in his post...

Then it lacked relevance?

At OP:

I Have no idea, I personally just don't have enough cash to invest into PC's. However I have never ran into a community who had as much PC Elitism as this forum.

So, Kind of a new thing.

Oh. And I learned a lot of people evidently hate my country....

PC gamers care too much about graphics.

Wait, what? WHEN THE HELL DID YOU COME TO THAT CONCLUISION!? I have never heard ONE pc gamer [myself included] even MENTION a games graphics, have you BEEN on Xbox Live in the past year? Hell, have you even SHOWED a console gamer Minecraft, or a Snes or even NES title before? I remember showing a young friend of mine Super Mario Brothers, and he refused to play it, and then I showed a PC gamer it, and he played it and DAMN well liked it too.... God, I'm just mad because you made me spit out ice-cream.. Still, HOW DID YOU GET THAT CONCLUISION!?

From this very forum?, It's mentioned a lot...

Thank you =3 I'm glad you answered my question =3 My army of smilies will overthrow you....

 

[5t3v0]

Its just that basic, for some reason, people on the PC side respect one another, while on console, everyone that is respectful does not have a mic, while every spoiled mother fucker HAS one and tries to be the L33EST ever. .

Is that why I've been called a Pyrofag, asked how long I've been gay, told I was a fucking shiteater, been told my mom was good in bed last night and had people describe how they're going to sodomise me on Team Fortress 2 on PC, yet on Killzone 3 I've had people listen about my day, shared some good jokes and been given encouraging advice?[/quote]

well for 2 reasons:

1. The bigger the community, the larger the amount of douchebags. You are not alone in seeing Dicks on TF2. I see them alot and I can be considered an elitist
2. You're on PS3. Xbox 360 (Specifically cod, and Halo too now I think about it) is the one where all the dickheads are.

So what you can gather here is that I'm saying Join us PS3 gamers, WHERE WE SHALL UNITE AGAINST THE XBOX SCOURGE! MWHAHAHAHA-

Oh, what... oh, I'm sorry, I don't know where that came from...

 

[Hafnium]

War. War never changes.

 

[Retronana]

I just prefer PC for mods, better graphics, steam sales and basically being able to do whatever you want with it.

Price isn't as much an issue if you add the cost of a console and half-decent laptop together it's easily enough for a decent gaming PC that can out preform both.

That being said I'm waiting for Skyward sword on consoles and that's it as nothing else grabs me at the moment, but at the same time enjoying Witcher 2.




People can't get along because you want to feel justified in your purchase in the shape of claiming and arguing it's better than the alternatives. I gave reasons why I think PC gaming is slightly better but I don't diminish other's choices. Often enough it's as simple as "I want to play with my friends so I got a PS3" which is understandable.

 

[Abedeus]

Because PC gamers spend an assload of money on their rigs, only to have to the game industry cater to the more-profitable console market. Naturally, PC gamers are mad as hell and, naturally, blame console gamers for existing.

Funny, because where I live, three games on an Xbox or PS3 cost as much as the console itself.

And I haven't bought anything to upgrade my rig (which, btw, runs games and prettier than on consoles) since last summer.

You might as well ask why the nobility didn't want the common folk to be equal. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!

[/smug comment]

Is that why I've been called a Pyrofag, asked how long I've been gay, told I was a fucking shiteater, been told my mom was good in bed last night and had people describe how they're going to sodomise me on Team Fortress 2 on PC, yet on Killzone 3 I've had people listen about my day, shared some good jokes and been given encouraging advice?

Play on Simiancage or some good servers in general. Or Escapist server. Not the "buy premium, win game" serves.

 

[Reaper195]

The ones that don't get along with each other are fanboys of their PC/console. Everyone else is not an idiot.

 

[Mindscrew]

To throw in my take on it:

PC gamers are upset that developers are focused on not only making games for consoles (with a half-hearted PC port thrown in), but also removing cherished PC gaming traditions like mods, dedicated servers, LAN, you name it (this goes for PC only developers, too... Blizzard). They're bitter about the fact that such games sell like hotcakes because (console) players don't give a fuck about that kind of stuff. This encourages the publishers, who can now say "there's a market for it".

Which is really the problem -- the people in charge of the purse strings aren't gamers themselves. They're businessmen.

Anyways, being bitter, you tend to also be cynical and elitist, which is why console players hate PC players. But when people point out the superiority of the PC platform, it's more of a weak chuckle than a firm and proud declaration. Everything that made the PC special is fighting off extinction.

Everything except indies, but half of those end up on PSN and XBLA anyway. So it's not special.

 

[zehydra]

It largely has to do with the increase in games being poor console ports to PC. They're getting annoyed at having a superior platform(but with a higher price tag) and getting games that could've had more features, but didn't because they were made for console instead.

But hell, they're just whining. I'm a PC gamer, and I do believe that I possess the ultimate platform, but there's no reason for me to blame you Console gamers for not going out and spending a whole ton of money on a gaming PC. I don't hate/blame Console gamers at all.

 

[zehydra]

Because like all things, one side thinks they are better than the other.

Kinda like how non-Mac users mock my Mac, while I make fun of them.

I take it you're part of the Console crowd then

 

[Maniclings]

As a member of the PC gaming master Race clan on the Escapist ( just change your icon and you can be in it as well) we consider ourselves a brotherhood.
Much like the Pony Club.
Better graphics- Better players - World cyber game championships, this is what PC gaming is about.
I actually enjoy playing with my xbox controller on many PC games that have come from consoles.
I just enjoy them with better graphics
Do I get emotionally involved in a console vs PC war? NO!
Well thats a lie Dragon AGe 2 really rubbed off on me the wrong way.
I still can enjoy console games for the CoOP style games like Xmen Legends- Baldurs gate Dark Alliance etc etc

After much consideration I have decided to become a member of the glorious PC GAMING MASTER RACE on the escapist. I too enjoy baldurs gate dark alliance II , but most importantly baldurs gate II. What DA2 like DAO should have been the spiritual succesor of instead of ME2 with swords it ended up as.

 

[Torrasque]

Because like all things, one side thinks they are better than the other.

Kinda like how non-Mac users mock my Mac, while I make fun of them.

I take it you're part of the Console crowd then

Eh, like a few others that posted, I'm a hybrid.
I've burnt at least a solid 3-4 years of my life on Warcraft/Starcraft/WoW/Diablo, so I can honestly say I'm not a pure console guy.
I prefer consoles, but if a game is coming out for PC or console, I actually have to take a moment and consider which I want.

And I see what you tried to do there
I have this wonderful thing called "bootcamp" that allows me to operate windows on my Mac whenever I feel like it, and play non-Mac compatible games.
Really amusing to play Oblivion in between classes, and see the surprised looks on people's faces.

 

[RadiusXd]

while I will always harbor the "PC elitist" inside of me, I tend to leave consoles alone.

Unless something reminds me of when developers sitting on piles of money made from PC exclusives then claim that they HAVE to bring the game to consoles, proceeding then to ditch their own roots and make what is obviously a console first game with a PC port. (example: Crysis 2, with months late promised hardware support)
THAT is when I get cranky.

But I am getting sidetracked, what we all should be banding against is apple! my friend plays games and for god knows what reason decided a mac book would suit his needs well. I chide him about it frequently, and it near invariably ends in me having a headache

 

[D Moness]

Personally I have a bit of envy towards console gamers. They spend about £200 or less on a console and it can play any game that comes out with no issues (besides the bugs that game has) whereas I spent £1260 on my rig a bit back and then spent another £400 to upgrade my graphics a few months back.

That is my main reason i prefer consoles. I am however slightly envious of the mod community that the pc gaming has. It is really amazing what people make just in their spare time.

My friends are a combination of pc players and console players. We never have an argument about what is better. We just like playing games.

 

[Gazisultima]

Quite a few PC gamers are stuck up and believe that they are the best people ever to have existed. They believe console gamers aren't worth the dirt on their shoes just because they can't afford the ridiculous amount of money required for a decent gaming rig, and can't afford the next decent gaming rig they'll have to build 2 months later because PC hardware goes out of date way too fast. They also believe that because they game on a PC their opinion is clearly superior to everyone elses. It infuriates the hell out of me. Woopie, you have 4 GB of RAM and a video card that can render every individual vein on a leaf on a tree that's 4 miles away from where your character is standing (yes I am exaggerating a bit, but that's mostly for effect). That of course means your intelligence is far higher than those who play games on a console (sarcasm).

P.S. I apologise to all decent PC gamers who remain indifferent or realise that not everyone can afford a top PC. That wasn't aimed at you. I love you guys. I was aiming at the elitist "master race" crowd as Yahtzee put it.

 

[predatorpulse7]

Well, I can see the bad influence consoles have on PC gaming, but since I've owned both pretty much as far back as I can remember, the argument seems kind of moot to me.

Bullshit. How does the negative influence PC games have on consoles not count for just as much? The regression of Splitscreen multiplayer is blood on the PC's hands.

No, the introduction of advanced networking onto consoles caused that...

When devs realised they could network consoles together, that caused them to stop making an effort to deal with split-screen gaming. (Notice how the console with the worst networking features has the highest proportion of split-screen or local multiplayer games?)

Just because the PC had network gaming 10 years before that doesn't mean PC's are at fault for that.

(And PC's had next to no local multiplayer gaming. It was either no multiplayer at all, or network based. I played Doom on a LAN in 1994... But are you seriously going to blame that on game consoles in 2005 no longer having split-screen games?
Or is Xbox live the fault of PC's too?)

Anyway, even if that's true, look at what consoles have done to PC's in that timeframe:

-Badly optimized graphics that underuse the PC's capabilities.
-Control schemes that don't work properly on PC.
-Gradual removal of networking features from PC games. (LAN support - almost gone; Local -instanced multiplayer from a single disk - gone; Dedicated server support - on it's way out
-Reduced complexity in games. (because console input devices can't handle them, and the genres that had that kind of complexity were only ever really popular on PC to begin with.)
- More and more insane DRM
- Loss of demos. (seriously, how many times in recent memory have I seen a game that has demos... Oh, but not for the PC version. Sorry. - Which probably needs it the most, considering the compatibility issues...)
- Reduction in the amount of patching & new features games used to get for free...
- Loss of games that would in the past have had PC versions, but now don't...

I could go on and on with this. And some (or even many) of these complaints would be quite ridiculous - especially in regard to specifically blaming them on consoles, but you had all of one counterpoint (to an aspect of what I said which I consider relatively unimportant), and it wasn't even a good one, if you're trying to blame PC's for stuff...

Pretty much this. Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I prefer Console gaming because i'd need to justify spending an ungodly amount of money just on getting a decent PC.

Plus i'm pretty paranoid when it comes to games working properly, at least on Consoles you're 99.9% sure it'll run no problem (besides any in game bugs) on PC there's a whole shopping list of potential problems. (KOTOR Y U NO work when TF2 runs fine? You make no sense Laptop?!)

And Modding doesn't interest me in the slightest so there goes PC gaming's biggest plus out the window for me and the graphics boost really isn't all that much when all console games look fine anyway so PC games looking even better seems like graphical overkill. (aesthetics over graphics, Persona 4 was the best looking game i've ever played and that was on the PS2)

But at the end of the day, if you can justify getting and maintaining a good PC then fine, more power to you. Just don't mind me playing my old 360

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Most people actually don't care. Many of us joke about the PC Gaming Master Race being superior in every way to the unwashed console peasantry but its meant as a joke. Some people just take it too personal/far.

This.

OT: I have a gaming PC, a PS3, a 360 and somewhere in my house is a Wii. I can pass fair judgement on what I think is the better platform. Can I say which is objectively better? No.
What is perceived as a massive divide in the community is actually not that great. It's only the vocal minority who actually start these flame wars and actually believe that their system is better.
Quite often it starts due to only being able to have one platform, then naturally being defensive over it.
Another cause of the rift is the lack of cross-platform play. If there was cross platform, nobody would care, because we could all play together.
Not that it's a good idea to mix PC and Consoles in an FPS environment (which is probably the largest segment of online multiplayer) because in all likelihood a keyboard and mouse player will demolish a vast majority of gamepad users. The accuracy and speed of a mouse in terms of aiming will outperform all but the best controller users.
On reflection, this statement will probably offend quite a few console gamers, but I'm pretty sure I'm not just being elitist, feel free to call me out on it if you've tried it and found otherwise.
I plan to run an experiment on this. Pitting a console gamer against a PC gamer. Both using their preferred control system, then using each others.