I visit gaming forums quite often and find it increasingly angering that PC elitists feel the need to drop into console forums to reaffirm their manhood in buying 3000+ dollar PC gaming machines.
All of these elite PC gamers like to make it out like all of these game developers are against them, but don't realize they are in the one percentile of people who own $3000 plus systems that can actually handle these types of visual effects that developers don't use or turn off prelaunch. They turn them off because most people who own PCs don't mortgage their houses to put a new graphics card in every three months, so they can spout off to Internet forum visitors. They try to focus more on making frame rate steady and storylines more Hollywood, for the overall enjoyment of the game.
I'm even wondering if half of these people who own these expensive gaming machines, even spend a quarter of the time they spend in the forums trying to boast about their frame rates and resolutions... Playing actual games!
You're always going to be in the minority of PC owners. Don't expect game companies to cater to your every need, because you think you need to upgrade your PC every five minutes to stay at top of your neighbor and people 10 states away who crank out one more frame per second than you... Before the next big graphics card releases.
If people actually focused on playing the games, instead of this incessant bickering, you might actually give game companies feedback they could use on making the gameplay more fun for everyone. Not just the one percentile people who think that their gaming machine somehow makes them more powerful and a better person than thy neighbor.
Why I feel this is ruining the gaming landscape for future generations to come is the constant bickering, seems to get even worse with every generation. Not just with PC Elite, but with Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo fans also. I feel as time goes on this continues to worsen, it's only going to tear the gaming community apart and send developers mixed messages as to what gamers really want. We will end up with carbon copies of games we played 20 years ago that just look a little better now, due to the increase in hardware power. Instead of innovation, we will have repetition, because gamers will be too busy arguing about which platform is the best instead of giving developers an idea of the games they actually want to play on those platforms.
Whether you own a $3000 PC or a $400 console, we are all in this together and it's our feedback that makes the games what they are. So, as the apostle Beatle Paul McCartney once said... can't we all just get along?
Edit:
I think what I was trying to point at, is it's okay to go out and spend what you want on your gaming rig, I used to do it as I was a PC gamer one time. It's one thing to go out and buy a great PC and play great games with it, it's another to go into a console forum or article and constantly try to berate people for choosing consoles over PCs that cost thousands of dollars more.
I understand that people can be happy to own such a gaming machine, but the elite PC gamer… The one who goes out and upgrades the graphics card with every generation that comes out every few months are the ones that I'm talking about. Not so much just the PC gamer, because a lot of people play both console and PC games. I do. I love playing RTS games on the PC. The mouse and keyboard are just easier to play those types of games with. But I grow increasingly tired of the PC elite coming into these threads I mentioned and causing chaos for no other reason then to display their superiority in game visuals. Which, don't make any one game better than the other. It just makes them prettier.
If the article came off any other way, I apologize. It wasn't meant to. It was just meant to bring to the attention of the people who do it, don't. We are all gamers. Whether you own a PC, MAC, iPad or console. there is absolutely no reason for any one person to berate the other for their choice in game machine. Because, let's face it, the games play exactly the same across platforms. The only thing that changes in having a more powerful machine are the visuals.
If developers gimp a particular game on the PC, that is not the fault of console gamers. That is the fault of the developer. Though, it seems it doesn't matter what the developer does anymore, because there'll always be people who will take it upon themselves to give PC gamers that upgrade for that newest graphics card. The mods for oblivion were crazy.
My whole point in all of this is we should all get along. This bickering is ridiculous. As I said, we are all gamers playing the same games pretty much across multiple platforms. I just don't understand the pissing contest as it pertains to any one title.
I think if PC gaming was easier, I would probably do it myself. But the simple fact is, there will always be driver updates, always be glitches and a whole host of other problems that keeps the experience from being instant as it is on the console. I think that Valve is on the right path with the steam machine. I think if they can make their own operating system that will allow PC gamers the same quick experience as console gamers, it will draw more console gamers over. I have been building PCs since I was probably 12 years old, for the last 20 years. For probably five of those years, I was nothing but a PC gamer. But, got tired of trying to make everything run. Not just run, but run well.
Which is what drew me back to console gaming. I have no problem with PC gamers, I have the problem with those who feel they are the elite who have to project that onto every other platform holder they can, to prove some sort of superiority they think they have over them.
I spent around £1100($1800) on my machine in 2011 on a i7 2600k 16gb RAM and GTX580... I only changed the GTX 580 graphics card (and sold for £86 on eBay) a few months ago to a 780ti because I upgraded to a 1440p screen and wanted to take advantage of the screen res.
But hey, bragging about how your computer can do 1440p60 on most games is a darn sight better than bickering that your console can do 1080p60 *sometimes* or claiming that console gaming is cheaper (aside from paying on average an extra £10 on games and paying for online)
dp
1. First off we need to get away this notion that any high end PC rig is $3,000. It's like, "let's put in a really high figure to make my point even more dramatic". Pure exaggeration. Most people are likely to spend on average $800-$1,200 for a high end PC gaming rig.
2. Most people don't upgrade very often either. At least not the major components. Good CPU's and GPU's can last for several years without the need to upgrade.
3. You wrote,
"If people actually focused on playing the games, instead of this incessant bickering, you might actually give game companies feedback they could use on making the gameplay more fun for everyone."
Have you read the comment sections at all? It is largely made up of mostly console fanboys arguing back and forth, not PC elitists.
Now that we cleared the air let's put it this way. Would you take a music mastering from iTunes and use that resource to port over to CD's, Vinyls and other digital downloads? No, you would be best served to use the best mastering process first and then port it over. Same thing with movies. Would it make sense to use a mastering on DVD and then upscale it to film and bluray? No, you take the original 4K source and convert it from there.
PC's are always going to trump consoles because of the superior technology. So stop feeling inferior because you'd rather support a $200 - $500 console. There is nothing wrong with preferring to play your games on it. In fact they still have many benefits over PC gaming, but how is PC gaming ruing the landscape? If anything console gaming is holding back the potential of what those games could be. That is purely from a technical view.
Your also going to get elitist attitude in anything because people are willing to pay for the best. I also think we would see a lot less PC elitist attitude if it weren't for all the console fanboys arguing back and forth about how this exclusive or this multiplat game looks so much better than it does on the competition console.
On N4G people spend more time talking outside of the enjoyment of the games than the real enjoyment. This is why the resolution and frame rate debates have escalated so much over the years, and you want to blame PC elitists on that? Come on now.
Want to see something very ironic, you wrote this almost a year ago about WatchDogs coming to next gen consoles,
"They just lost a sale from me. It is totally ridiculous that they cannot get this game running at 1080P and 30 frames per second on the next GEN systems, when GTA 5 looks almost as good and is running on current GEN systems at 720p and 30 frames per second.
It's a total lazy copout. I knew the game wasn't running at 1080P when I saw the newest videos. The textures look muddy and there is aliasing and the vsync issues.
I guess that will save me 60 bucks that will be spent on a better, ACTUAL Next Gen game."
Your title says people with good PCs could ruin gaming for generations. The rest of your blog doesn't touch on that at all.
So do you have a well-reasoned argument for discussion, or are you just trying to stamp your feet and make some noise because you are jealous of people with good PCs?