A Gamer is a Gamer; they like to play video games. A lot of gamers, for whatever reason, like to get into the PC vs. Console or Console A vs. Console B wars. While debates over these topics flame the internet daily, it is also why the gaming industry is so successful; and why PC gaming is here to stay.
As with all commodities, competition drives better products. The gaming industry recently pulled in $31.6 billion in video game sales alone in 2006 and that number is projected to grow to $48.9 billion in 2011(1), hardware and accessories not included. We’re not going to get into a PC vs. Console war here. Just know that the competition for game sales is what drives the game industry to make better games and both sides benefit. They want your almighty dollar.
So, why are certain gamers PC Gamers? One of the many reasons is we have an “I gotta have that now” mentality. We also like to tinker with our toys. Developers, both hardware and software, are constantly pushing the edge of technology. They show it to us; we drool and then follow every detail of the development process waiting in complete agony until we can get our hands on it. We’ve got the latest and greatest of everything that is awesome about gaming, as long as we’re willing to spend the $$ for it. The hardcore PC gamers spend thousands of dollars on their rigs every year to keep up to date. Obviously that is the biggest Con for being a PC Gamer, but man do we have some great toys to play with. We’re very picky about our frame rates, always pushing the boundaries to get the best rates and the best quality. At our disposal are firmware and driver updates from the vendor and from some very smart enthusiast that make their own. We can also tweak game files to optimize performance and quality to our liking. It's more of a hobby within a hobby
Building the Software that Builds Change
So what makes PC gaming so good then? The biggest Pro has to be the almost total lack of constraints on PC game development. With a console, developers are limited by the consoles hardware for whatever life span that console may exist. When the console first comes out, it may be on par with that of PC hardware, but it is quickly left behind, usually within 6-12 months after release. Developers may have ideas of cool things they want to do, but the console won’t handle it gracefully. The game Crysis is a prime example of this. There isn’t a video card on the market that can handle the full potential of this game. This game is hands down the best graphical game and game engine to date and forces graphic card companies to scramble for hardware to play it. ATI and nVidia are trying to outdo each other to produce a product that they can claim is the best and can handle anything. Intel and AMD are at it on who can produce the fastest processor. Various hardware vendors are competing with each other to prove their motherboards or complete systems can run all these products together better than the other. Don’t you just love Free Market and all this competition? It even translates to better products for the console gamer. The PC’s ever changing environment forces all gaming hardware to change.
PC Gaming Creates More Addicts
A lot of PC Gamers are also crack heads. Although not the first, Ultimacrack (Ultima Online) and EverCrack (EverQuest) along with WarCrack (WarCraft) are credited with making this PC genre so popular. These are MMORPG, Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. How massive? World of WarCraft hit 9 million users earlier this year(2) and their servers generally have a couple of thousand people playing at one time. At the time of this article, you will only be able to name a small few of MMO's on the console (FFXI anyone?). Consoles seem to be generally limited to 16 players max, and in some cases lower depending on the game. How cool would it be to log on to LIVE and have 38 of your 100 friends online and you could all play the same game together? Playing with more people can be a lot more fun. Same goes with the FPS (First Person Shooter) genre. Well, that and the fact FPS fanatics are keyboard mouse > controller lobbyist. I can recall the awe of playing Battlefield 1942 on the map Aberdeen with 48 players online, that’s 24 vs. 24 people. The map is a tank battle map and I remember coming over a ridge in a Tiger tank, looking at the battle going on down below, and just taking a moment to watch. It was one of the most incredible gaming events I had ever seen. Having that many people playing at the same time makes a War game feel like a War game.
It's not all about Expensive Rigs
You don’t have to have the latest and greatest to be a PC gamer. The SIMS franchise is one of the most popular PC titles around and it doesn’t require a lot of horsepower to run. The previously mentioned MMORPG games generally don’t take the latest and greatest to run either. In fact, many of our members can play Warcraft on a simple work laptop. Depending on the audience, most game developers will put out a product that will run on older hardware or create cheaper versions of their top of the line products. The game may not look as good as it could, but in many cases it can be on par with current console versions.
PC Gaming is here to stay. We love the bleeding edge of technology, the ability to individually change the game to meet our needs, and playing with more people online. All these ideas are only just now reaching the console gamers living rooms. PCs are a driving force in the competition for your gaming dollars and we all benefit from that competition as the gaming industry strives to put out some superior products. Sure we get a lemon every now and then, but you have to expect that. Someone sees a multi-billion dollar industry; they’re going to want a piece of it. In reality, a gamer is going to have it all, PC, console, handheld, and phone. We don’t really stick to one gaming platform. I don’t think you can call yourself a true gamer if limit yourself to a single platform. I know I don't.
This article is the winner in our "We Love PC Games" Contest. Congratulations to T3muJin and runner up Sirpoonga for writing some quality editorials. We hope you all enjoy the 2old2play contests and the kickass content it produces from our members. Winners will be sent their prizes in 2-3 weeks. See you all next month!
