GAunderrated said:
Your example was sadly not applicable. Consoles cannot be plug and play if they require software updates in order to play a game.
No one says that "plug and play" means you don't ever have to install anything. It means the process is largely automated and requires very little to no work on the part of the user. The system prompts you and you say ok.
It means you don't have to worry about a million different software versions or hardware compatibility.
Look, there's a vast sea of difference between the PC I built myself and the ps4 I purchased. Both work perfectly but it would be absolutely insane for me to not say that PS4 practically plugs and plays itself in comparison.
However, I also reject the notion that you can't buy a PC that is basically plug and play too. It's just that troubleshooting is far more likely on the PC than on a console. So the ongoing effort is a big difference from installations to updates to anything else. Consoles are and stay plug and play as long as they don't break. I think a couple iterations of OS's will show the difference in plug and play being severely cut down. But as long as PCs have the additional considers of security they're going to have hurdles in place to access and install content in case it's malicious and as long as the components of the PC haven't been standardized and built to work together then there's going to be compatibility issues.
I have seen longer load times for consoles over Steam for example. Your example for PC gaming was for a single game.
Load times? My example was a game breaking issue. Load times are going to be directly related to software demands in relation to system hardware. Yes, my powerful PC that I spent 4 digits on building is going to outperform a $400 console. I'm not shocked. Sony's goal wasn't to cater to the high end spenders. They tried that last generation, remember? It almost crushed them because $600+ isn't want consumers are willing to spend on a gaming machine.
Do you equate load times with broken? Like, do you consider being stuck in rush hour traffic the same as being in a car crash?
However, I have yet to see a common windows update to brick entire PC. The firmware update for the PS4 makes the entire system unusable.
Great, and you've yet to see an update brick a console either. Read the article this article linked to. No one is reporting bricked consoles. At worst this just requires a hard restart, something a LOT of windows updates require. But the article stated that there is a potential for it to brick because you're restarting from sleep mode. The same thing is a problem for PC sleep modes.
And you know what? I have seen windows updates brick a computer.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-update-fails-fix/
I'd usually blame your age for not experiencing/remembering the 80's or 90's of computers but hell, the recent Win 8.1 bricked some computers and until Microsoft fixed it the only way to fix the issue was to boot from disk and remove the fntcache.dat from the system 32 folder. Microsoft then responded that that's only a temporary fix and the explained that people have to delete the registry entry too to fix the problem which God knows you want standard users poking around in regedit which is essentially performing computer brain surgery.
On a second note, never in my post did I say you shouldn't buy or use a console because of the firmware updates. You completely interjected an opinion I never stated to go on a rant that was personal and uncalled for. I stated that firmware updates that could possibly brick a system is not a selling point and I doubt you are saying that it is. I hope that someday people can actually have a rational discussion without someone taking it personal and having to defend their opinion irrationally.
You hopped into a discussion I was having with a PC proselytizer and voiced an opinion supporting them. So I responded in kind.
It's a perfectly logical progression to take. Sorry if you so deemed it as irrational somehow. But if you walk into a conversation and voice an opinion on one side you're going to be seen on that side until more evidence is acquired.
In any event, I used to work in QA. It is absolute shit that Sony didn't catch this bug.
