What's the big deal about PC games?

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

The know-how and the time? Most people I know. At least, most people I know that also have the know-how and time to play games at all. And the money, as I said, could probably be spent as frequently and as much as for buying new consoles when they are released while remaining on the same level of power as consoles.

Most people you know have the know-how, but you can't seriously think that the majority of people on the market have the know-how, do you? There's a reason they still answer tech calls with 'have you tried turning it on and off' and 'is it plugged in'. The majority of people lack the tech knowledge to build their own PC.

And as for the fact that new products keep comming. I don't see the problem. Well, I do see it, but I don't see how it exists less on consoles. Spending some money on a gaming PC and knowing that people who wait some time then spend the same money will have a more powerful machine is no different than spending the same amount of money on a console, and knowing that people who wait some time then spend the same money on a gaming PC will have a more powerful machine than me.

Most people will still dismiss PC gaming because they are under the impression that they will have to spend a good £100 each month to stay on top of PC gaming. If you do your research, yeah PC gaming isn't that expensive. But most people won't do their research and will simply dismiss PC gaming entirely. They don't give a flying fuck if a PC is 'more powerful' than a console, a console will run whatever they want whenever they want.

Fact of the matter is, the majority of people don't know enough about PC gaming to go for it. They don't care either. They look at a console, something that they know is ready to go after plugging it in and is ready to run any game they put in, and they buy it for it's simplicity. To them, PC gaming is too difficult and too time consuming for them to care about it.

 

[Eldan]

What hassle? I have a store-bought, off the shelf computer with most of the stuff I need pre-installed and most games run fine on it.

 

[Evilpigeon]

Fact of the matter is, the majority of people don't know enough about PC gaming to go for it. They don't care either. They look at a console, something that they know is ready to go after plugging it in and is ready to run any game they put in, and they buy it for it's simplicity. To them, PC gaming is too difficult and too time consuming for them to care about it.

Exactly this man right here gets it. But the only thing you forgot to add is this, why should I have to do all that research, get a pc built, upgrade it, etc just so I can play the exact same thing I could on a console. Some people just dont want to have to deal with the hassle of PC gaming, and dont deny it there can be alot of hassle if you are new to it.

If you're looking for the performance of a console, you could get it by buying a reasonably cheap pc with everything you need pre-installed off the shelf. The thing with pc gaming is that you could get a much better machine than this for the same price by takign the DIY approach. You also get higher quality from games by having a good pc. Even if you aren't in for the graphical improvements, can you do other things whilst playing a game on any of the consoles? Can you play multiple games at once? (I have some awesome little platform games that I play whilst in queue for league of legends) Can you get mods for console games?

You really do get a lot more from pc games than you do from consoles, it isn't a direct comparision.

 

[jamesworkshop]

I think I have found the best piece of evidence

 

[Chibz]

The PC gaming master race just doesn't want to give up their multi-thousand dollar PC's.

SNIP

Yeah, higher quality games. That's why most games on PC are just butchered console game ports. Because they're better.

Mods? That's basically just a more accepted form of cheating. Take your cheats elsewhere, foo.

 

[Eldan]

That's not what mods are. Look up Morrowind 2011 on youtube. Fans have updated a game from 2002 to look as good as a new one. For other games, there's new campaigns, new user interfaces, improved (harder) AIs...
Europa Barbarorum is another great example. A mod for Rome: Total War that removes historically unrealistic units from the game, increases the size of the world map to reach eastwards to India and South below the tip of the Arabian penninsula, adds dozens of new units and factions...
Of course there's "cheat" mods. But few are, really.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The PC gaming master race just doesn't want to give up their multi-thousand dollar PC's.

And why should they? A lot of people are happy with the stock standard, straight out of the box way of doing things and other people aren't. Just because you like taking the bus doesn't mean I can't drive a car... on the footpath... in reverse... wearing welding goggles.

Mods? That's basically just a more accepted form of cheating.

Errr... that's some interesting 'logic'. Care to explain why you consider mods as cheating?

Most of the mods I've used have been custom models, reskins, graphic improvements and 3rd party bug fixes. Some have been user-made quest lines. Stuff like that is usually the most popular type of mod for any PC game... how is the hell is that sort of stuff 'cheating'?

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Of course there's "cheat" mods. But few are, really.

That's because it's almost always less fucking about to just put in console commands to cheat.

 

[Chibz]

Errr... that's some interesting 'logic'. Care to explain why you consider mods as cheating?

Most of the mods I've used have been custom models, reskins, graphic improvements and 3rd party bug fixes. Some have been user-made quest lines. Stuff like that is usually the most popular type of mod for any PC game... how is the hell is that sort of stuff 'cheating'?

The vast majority of mods people use are things like additional content. This is artificially adding things to the game world, thereby making it easier. Ergo cheating. Visual mods are just rampant graphic whorism, and it's pretty obvious what I think of graphics whores.

 

[Evilpigeon]

The PC gaming master race just doesn't want to give up their multi-thousand dollar PC's.

SNIP

Yeah, higher quality games. That's why most games on PC are just butchered console game ports. Because they're better.

Mods? That's basically just a more accepted form of cheating. Take your cheats elsewhere, foo.

Cos Counter Strike, DotA, Alien Swarm, Red Orchestra etc are just ways to cheat at the original game...

There's also stuff like OOO for Oblivion, Fan patches that are virtually required to make Vampire the maserade playable. It's a pretty big benefit.

As to the console port thing: Though some ports are a little shoddy, most are fine I get the best looking of the game and often the most content. Then again I don't play many console ports because I tend to play strategy games.

But yeah, there's nothing wrong with consoles you just sacrifice benefits for ease of use.

 

[Eldan]

Errr... that's some interesting 'logic'. Care to explain why you consider mods as cheating?

Most of the mods I've used have been custom models, reskins, graphic improvements and 3rd party bug fixes. Some have been user-made quest lines. Stuff like that is usually the most popular type of mod for any PC game... how is the hell is that sort of stuff 'cheating'?

The vast majority of mods people use are things like additional content. This is artificially adding things to the game world, thereby making it easier. Ergo cheating. Visual mods are just rampant graphic whorism, and it's pretty obvious what I think of graphics whores.

Adding things to a game does *not* make it automatically easier. How does Rome: Total War become easier when my segmentata armoured legionaries are replaced by more period appropriate slingers and unarmoured skirmishers? Why should the game be easier just because the Scythians are replaced by the Sauromatae? How does a strategy game become easier with a mod that makes the AI more intelligent? How does Morrowind become easier if there's an alternative campaign thread that allows you to join the bad guy? How about adding about a hundred more books to Oblivion (all of which do not change anything about your character, they just contain more world history)?

 

[Chibz]

Adding things to a game does *not* make it automatically easier. How does Rome: Total War become easier when my segmentata armoured legionaries are replaced by more period appropriate slingers and unarmoured skirmishers? Why should the game be easier just because the Scythians are replaced by the Sauromatae? How does a strategy game become easier with a mod that makes the AI more intelligent? How does Morrowind become easier if there's an alternative campaign thread that allows you to join the bad guy? How about adding about a hundred more books to Oblivion (all of which do not change anything about your character, they just contain more world history)?

Because, again, these aren't the mods that most people are realistically going to add. Actually, now that I think about it the books is adding items to the game which are worth money.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The vast majority of mods people use are things like additional content. This is artificially adding things to the game world, thereby making it easier. Ergo cheating.

Interesting 'logic', again. How does additional content make things 'easier'? By that same logic DLC and expansions are 'cheating' as well.

Visual mods are just rampant graphic whorism, and it's pretty obvious what I think of graphics whores.

They offend your 'vanilla game experience only' Puritanism?

 

[Shirokurou]

I was a PC gamer once, but then I switched to consoles.

the appeal. Different controls. RTS and FPS, I guess.

Right now I only use it for retro-gaming.

But overall, the PC is like any other console and it's appeal is it's own specific game library

 

[Eldan]

Adding things to a game does *not* make it automatically easier. How does Rome: Total War become easier when my segmentata armoured legionaries are replaced by more period appropriate slingers and unarmoured skirmishers? Why should the game be easier just because the Scythians are replaced by the Sauromatae? How does a strategy game become easier with a mod that makes the AI more intelligent? How does Morrowind become easier if there's an alternative campaign thread that allows you to join the bad guy? How about adding about a hundred more books to Oblivion (all of which do not change anything about your character, they just contain more world history)?

Because, again, these aren't the mods that most people are realistically going to add. Actually, now that I think about it the books is adding items to the game which are worth money.

Really? Look at the top 100 on Elder Scrolls Nexus. Few of those increase character power. Europa Barbarorum is so popular, Steam includes it in Rome by default.
And books costing money? If you ever have money problems in an Elder Scrolls game, you are doing something wrong. There's tons of loot everywhere.

 

[Chibz]

Interesting 'logic', again. How does additional content make things 'easier'? By that same logic DLC and expansions are 'cheating' as well.

They offend your 'vanilla game experience only' Puritanism?

1. Additional content makes things easier usually by providing unintended (often unbalanced) access to new powers/gear/money. Or even easier access to EXP. In fallout 3 (for example) a set of side-quests is the equivalent of me running my D&D character in another person's campaign and gaining gear/exp/etc for use in the main campaign.

2. It's more that I hate everything that graphics whores stand for. Visuals over gameplay. I still say that 8bit is enough.

Really? Look at the top 100 on Elder Scrolls Nexus. Few of those increase character power. Europa Barbarorum is so popular, Steam includes it in Rome by default.
And books costing money? If you ever have money problems in an Elder Scrolls game, you are doing something wrong. There's tons of loot everywhere.

Just because it's a small cheat doesn't make it any less of a cheat.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

If you ever have money problems in an Elder Scrolls game, you are doing something wrong. There's tons of loot everywhere.

The weight to sale value to non-skill boosting books makes them worthless as loot anyway.