PC Gaming vs. Console Gaming: the debate continues

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First, a gripe. Take a look at this Joystiq post. Looks legit, right? OK, cool. Joystiq is voicing an opinion (or non-opinion, in this case) on the console vs. PC debate in gaming. Cool. Oh wait, what’s this? A little link somewhere that says “Read.” I wonder what that is. Oh, I see - that’s their link back to the “source.” Oh, this isn’t original content, it just looks like it. Sneaky bastards.

Yes, the image links there. No, it’s not obvious enough for me.

I think it’s poor form to hide your source link like that. If this is a comment on something you read put it at the top of the post very clearly.

/gripe

THIS JOYSTIQ POST, talking about THIS PLAYFULS.COM POST, got me thinking about this ongoing debate. It’s funny that something like this gets people defensive and argumentative, but it does. Something about personal preferences always makes people feel judged.

I’m a PC Gamer at heart. I’ve been playing games on a computer since Number Munchers and The Oregon Trail, and I don’t think I’m going to stop enjoying them anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean I don’t play consoles.

I’ve been gushing about Twilight Princess on the Wii (and with good reason; the game is amazing). I just recently beat Gears of War (quick note - everything I just mentioned technically belongs to my roommate, but I provide the PS2 and N64).

In short, I think any real gamer is going to be properly excited about anything that lets them play cool games.

But it’s interesting to look at the arguments, as they’re thrown about the internet. As best I can tell, it breaks down as follows: (note - there’s an entirely separate question of why a particular style of gaming sells better than the other, but that’s really just numbers and not particularly interesting)

Console gaming is better because

• Consoles are cheaper
• There’s no “installation” - you just play
• Not every game runs on every computer
• The PC can’t offer anything a console can’t (this is not true, just as the opposite isn’t)
• Consoles are more social
• Consoles are cheaper

If you go through the comments on the Joystiq post, the most commonly posed opinion is this:

well, when I can buy something with 3 3.2GHz cores and the world’s most advanced ‘consumer’ graphics chip in it for less than 1/2 the price of parts for a decent “gaming PC”, why the fuck would i play PC games and bother with buying/building gaming rigs anymore?

There are a couple of really valid answers, and they’re the kind of answers that won’t convince anyone who doesn’t want to be convinced.

A lot of people (myself included) enjoy the process of building and fiddling and tweaking with a computer. I built my own media center this summer because I like to put things together and watch them not work. It’s a masochistic thing.

The reason you can buy a console for half the price of the hardware is that MS and Sony are selling it for less than it’s worth, because they want you to buy the games (which is where they make their profit). They do this because to make a console last for its “lifecycle,” they need to make it beefy enough to go for the next six years. The hardware that ships in a console has to be capable of doing new things for the next six years.

My big desktop is four years old, and I’ve replaced the graphics card once (because my old one broke. OK - because I broke my old one), and that cost me a whopping $145. It still runs everything I want to play.

A common misconception is that you need a TOP-OF-THE-LINE machine in order to play games on a computer. That’s really just…not true. It’s a pain in the ass for developers, but a lot of them (Blizzard is particularly good at this) make sure their games will run on some pretty backwards computers. World of Warcraft, for example, runs fine on my 1.6ghz Centrino processor laptop, which has only 512mb of RAM and no graphics card.

Someone also might chose to spend oh-so-much on a computer because they’re going to anyway (most people need a computer a lot more than they need a PS3). They might like the idea of using a mouse and keyboard as a control interface (for most things, I prefer the mouse and keyboard. I play a lot of RTS and FPS).

And the computer (with the internet) offers a truly vast opportunity for people to explore games on a casual (and free) basis - Yahoo! provides all kinds of little internet backgammon matches. Windows ships with minesweeper. Macs have…well, it’s fun to use expose. Free games online? Cheaper big titles (PC: $50, Consoles (’cept the Wii): $60)? Sounds like a good deal to me.

It’s true that not everything will run on every computer. Duh. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a LOT to choose from. So these are the

Reasons PC gaming is better than console gaming:

• Building a PC can be fun (find me a DIY console!)
• You don’t need really expensive hardware to play new games
• You can upgrade a computer (do it right you can get another 4 years for less than the price of a console)
• There are a lot more games available for computers
• It’s less cool so you get more nerd cred

I personally think there’s more than enough room for both in my life. The only change that’s likely to happen is that I’ll start playing games on new platforms, like my cell phone. But I think one comment in particular on Joystiq sums up the whole situation pretty damn well:

PC = Formula 1 (tech driven, higher performance)

Consoles = NASCAR (standardized, larger audience)