In today's PC gaming market, it can be painfully difficult to find a game that is both well done and well worth its price. Just like every other kind of media now a days, game creators look to make a game they can hype up, rush out, and blow off, but unlike console gamers, PC gamers are not content with a game like, oh lets say, Halo. Or maybe...Call of Duty.
As PC gamers, we have the horse power to actually run hardcore games, so we don't want a medicore done-in-three-hours kind of game. We're looking for replayability as well as a good story and graphics that are aesthetically pleasing. When a game gets tons of hype and no support for its fanbase after release, it's fair to say we get a little pissed off. It doesn't help that console gamers are buying into this whole scam.
As I was walking through Best Buy with my boyfriend one day, we saw a huge fancy box labeled as Halo Reach. We could have crapped ourselves when we saw the price. When is the last time you paid eighty bucks for a video game, never mind one that is seriously overdone like terrible remakes of a movie you never even liked? Even on release day, console gamers tend to pay at least ten to twenty bucks more for the same game you can buy for PC.
People constantly make excuses to not PC game, but we have a huge range of games. Not only that, you use your computer for just about everything else, why not game on it too? From my experience, most console gamers are obsessed with social networking, so they must use their PC at least once or twice a day for Facebooking as well as surfing Youtube, doing homework, and who knows what else. How is it less convient to game on your computer as well? When a console gamer can make a logical and intelligent argument on the subject, I hope to be among the first to hear it.
The whole concept of consoles being considered a gaming platform is ridiculous anyway. They're nothing more than a toy and I will say right now, it's the only reason I have any respect for the Wii. Because they know it's nothing more than a toy. So you can play Transformers on it; this does not make you a gamer, this makes you a child being introduced to the basic foundations for being one.
Look at all the consoles there are now. There are three Playstations, two Xboxs (and I say 2 because the "new" XBox is just a refurb of the original 360), not to mention the consoles no one even remembers anymore like the Gamecube or the Super Nintendo. Every time a new console comes out, game creators only make their games for the newest consoles and PC, leaving you screwed out of playing new games unless you buy a console or get/upgrade your computer. (Unless you're the creators of Gears of War, in which case you only get the first one on PC and are forced into buying a PS3 or 360 if you're really that desperate to play 2 and 3. Neither I nor my boyfriend are that desperate.)
When a new console hits the market, you pay an absorbatent amount of money to purchase one, as well as purchasing the games you want ten to twenty bucks more than if you were to buy them for PC, as I mentioned. You pay at least five hundred bucks even on eBay or Craigslist for a new console, but you can upgrade your computer to run new games acceptably for less or equal to the amount you pay for the console. You also don't need to upgrade as often as most people believe. In the long run, you'd pay less keeping your PC upgraded than buying a new console every time one comes out.
Nothing can be done for console graphics since its hardware is limited, whereas a PC can be upgraded constantly. For most PC games, it's only a requirement to have parts like a Raedeon 5850 if you want to come off as a badass since most decent video cards will still run video games at acceptable frame rates. Furthermore, you generally don't require more than two gigs of RAM to run a game well. Everything else is more or less for bragging rights.
I've known someone who is an avid Halo fan and games strictly on the 360. What infuriated me to no end about her fanatiscism was the fact that she had no idea what the storyline was about in it because all she did was troll on XBox Live all day. I did my fair share of trolling on Diablo 2's Battle.net US East server, but I can tell you what the game is actually about. I really played the campaign single player multiple times before getting broadband and letting my friends rush me so I could do said trolling. I also actively played without rushing and trolling since that is in fact, the whole point of the game.
This childish trolling virus has spread into our community via World of Warcraft. I played WoW, so I can honestly tell you I think it's terrible. (On a side note, I hate when people hate something without knowing anything about it or even trying it.) The fact that Blizzard made a shirt that says, "I survived Barrens chat" should say it all, but who am I to judge what should be obvious to half a million people? When I played WoW, it was never about the game or the story. People thought I was crazy because I actually wanted to do quests and understand what was going on around me. I was even laughed at by my own guild for not making up a fictional name. Due to the fact it wasn't about the game, but about the social networking (or lack thereof), I decided my money would be put to better use in any other fashion than paying for WoW. Like letting birds make a nest with it.
Trolling is nothing new, but the whole reason I love to be a PC gamer is because most people actually cared about working together and knowing what they were doing (at least as long as you aren't playing Left For Dead...) instead of feeling like a man telling people they "couldn't possibly be female because girls don't play video games." I have girl parts and I bet I'd kick most male ass in games like Unreal Tournament 3 or Borderlands. Lately, the only decent way to play PC games is not online, but at LAN parties.
Finding enjoyable games to play in multiplayer is getting increasingly difficult as well. Apparently every game made for 360 can be played in multiplayer, as opposed to most PC games becoming less multiplayer friendly. Torchlight can only be played multiplayer thanks to a mod made by fans. Dragon Age can only be played with the AI. For the most part, most multiplayer friendly games for PC are FPS, not RPGs. After all, Battlefield 3 will supposively house 64 players in multiplayer. That's an FPS. On the up side, XBox players will only get half of that capacity for multiplayer.
In conclusion, the PC market and community is falling downhill fast and it's both heartbreaking and infuriating. We don't care if console gamers want to continue on their delusions that they're real gamers, as long as it stops affecting us. What do we want? Better games worth the money. When do we want it? NOW!
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