For those who refuse to game on a PC, what holds you back?

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mordecaii83 said:
I swear this exact thread pops up every month or so... Is it really so hard for PC gamers to just accept that some people don't want to game on PC?

And I'm saying this as someone who has built his own gaming PC's for 27 years (although I don't know if I can count a 386sx 12MHz based PC a "gaming" machine, but I played what I could!)...
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Yes it is that hard for some people

Some people just born very narrow minded others choose to be narrow minded both types are highly insecure

As someone who loves pc gaming too it is a black eye upon the whole experience because many people I play pc game with genuinely do have this elitist attitude about pc gaming the ones who don't are at least among my steam friends are more rare but are easily more friendly and the ones I keep in touch with most bc they aren't so insecure

Go on rps for example great website yet the vast majority of commenter and forum users there frown on anything non pc gaming the ones who don't keep mum bc they don't want to look uncool or against the grain it's pretty sad
 
my two cents from personal experience...

I used to play exclusively on PC 2 decades ago (Doom/xcom/Quake/Warcraft/...), then went the console way because of the diversity of games, mostly from Japan. 4 years ago, I tried a comeback to PC, building a proper rig. It's even easier to do that back then. I then bought some games: Far Cry 3, Dishonored, Bioshock Infinite, as I missed mouse-controled FPS. It was a very nice 60fps+ gaming experience.

BUT... I also (re)discovered the drivers hell, conflicts, crashes.

I am a tech-savvy person, an hacker at heart, and was able to troubleshoot all the problems. But I was detered by that, because for my gaming time I just want to be 100% gaming. Last year a friend lend me an Oculus DK2, it was a nightmare to have it working (had a blast trying Alien Isolation thus). Hacking, hand-editing stuff, tweeking parameters is still a joy to do for me, but I don't want to have to do it for games to have a good experience.

So I went back to console, keeping my gaming pc only for a few "pc exclusives" I like (Civ, some indies...).
It's no hyperbole, just my personal experience] and feeling.
 
Guys if you don't like kb+m you can, you know, just use a controller? I don't think you even need a mouse to browse if you use Steam
 
He1nekenP1ss said:
my two cents from personal experience...

I used to play exclusively on PC 2 decades ago (Doom/xcom/Quake/Warcraft/...), then went the console way because of the diversity of games, mostly from Japan. 4 years ago, I tried a comeback to PC, building a proper rig. It's even easier to do that back then. I then bought some games: Far Cry 3, Dishonored, Bioshock Infinite, as I missed mouse-controled FPS. It was a very nice 60fps+ gaming experience.

BUT... I also (re)discovered the drivers hell, conflicts, crashes.

I am a tech-savvy person, an hacker at heart, and was able to troubleshoot all the problems. But I was detered by that, because for my gaming time I just want to be 100% gaming. Last year a friend lend me an Oculus DK2, it was a nightmare to have it working (had a blast trying Alien Isolation thus). Hacking, hand-editing stuff, tweeking parameters is still a joy to do for me, but I don't want to have to do it for games to have a good experience.

So I went back to console, keeping my gaming pc only for a few "pc exclusives" I like (Civ, some indies...).
It's no hyperbole, just my personal experience] and feeling.
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You're argument here seems to be that you were using a non-consumer, developer version of prototype VR technology, and that was too much of a headache.

Duh?
 
Ive been trying to get my friends to move from consoles to pc for a few years now. I find im still stuck playing xbox games because my friends are still in that ecosystem.

Their reasons are manifold. Lack of space, they already have not too bad laptops or macs and cant justify the expense to themselves and their partners. Choice paralysis when picking parts, intimidation with the competitive online communities, lack of skill with a mouse, they already have consoles they got cheap and they do the job, so why spend more money.

Ive given up.
 
There's just too many thing to manage on a PC. Games require specs, gotta update drivers, etc. I like to load a disc into my PS4 or download a game and play.
 
Triteon said:
Ive been trying to get my friends to move from consoles to pc for a few years now. I find im still stuck playing xbox games because my friends are still in that ecosystem.

Their reasons are manifold. Lack of space, they already have not too bad laptops or macs and cant justify the expense to themselves and their partners. Choice paralysis when picking parts, intimidation with the competitive online communities, lack of skill with a mouse, they already have consoles they got cheap and they do the job, so why spend more money.

Ive given up.
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Those are all valid arguments. My best gamer-friend is console only. No problem there, I would like him to get a PC to just see what it's like, but he already has decided he won't like it.

I can't really make the argument when a nice PC costs upwards of 800 dollars and he already owns a ps4 and xbox one.

I mean, I personally think the entry cost gets balanced out by how cheap games are. People will argue that psn and xbl have started getting steam quality with their sales, and they aren't wrong, but lots of steam keys can be purchased through third parties and such.

Hell I just bought RE7 for 34 dollars, hours before it comes out.

And before people tell me not to buy grey market keys, I don't care. I buy hundreds of games a year, every now and again I buy a 3rd party key, because it's basically half-price. If it's indie I support the devs and I even buy games that are mediocre for full price day one to support my favorite developers and genres. I have a hard time believing that grey market steam keys are gonna bankrupt Capcom though.
 
MazeHaze said:
Hell I just bought RE7 for 34 dollars, hours before it comes out.

And before people tell me not to buy grey market keys, I don't care. I buy hundreds of games a year, every now and again I buy a 3rd party key, because it's basically half-price. If it's indie I support the devs and I even buy games that are mediocre for full price day one to support my favorite developers and genres. I have a hard time believing that grey market steam keys are gonna bankrupt Capcom though.
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I've always wondered how those keys can be sold at such good prices.

Is it because the third-party buy a huge amount of keys and got discounted, or buy from another region market where prices are much lower?
 
I don't like keyboard and mouse. I suck with it, feel more comfortable with a controller and while I know I can plug a controller in I know I'm at a disadvantage when it comes to certain games that play better on keyboard and mouse.

Also, most of my friends are on consoles. They don't want to go through the hassle of getting a PC and needing it to have the right compartments to play certain games. They just want to buy a game and pop it in and not have to worry about anything else.(like drivers or if your graphics card sucks etc).

Finally, it comes down to exclusives. I like a lot of Sony's exclusives, so as long as they keep having them on the ps4 I see no reason for me to stop gaming and moving on to PC.

(I do play some games on PC, with my brother or another friend that plays on it, but if I don't have to, I would rather play on my PS4)
 
He1nekenP1ss said:
I've always wondered how those keys can be sold at such good prices.

Is it because the third-party buy a huge amount of keys and got discounted, or buy from another region market where prices are much lower?
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For grey market it's usually the latter as a best case scenario, and at worst cases they literally sell stolen keys.

Which is why grey market buying is looked down upon a lot.
 
I do most (75% or so if I had to give an estimate) of my gaming on PC, but I can see why some people only game on consoles:


  • Some people just don't feel comfortable with gaming on a PC even if they get a pre-built. Consoles offer a more streamlined interface.
  • Some people don't like gaming on keyboard/mouse. If you want to play a multiplayer game odds are you're going to be at a disadvantage when trying to shoehorn a gamepad in.
  • Some people are just fine with the games and exclusives offered on consoles. They have no interest in the genres that are mostly exclusive to PC. I think anyone can find a PC exclusive that interests them if they took a look, though.
Most of the posts I've read in this thread can be summarized up as one or some of the above. Besides that a lot of the posts I'm reading are just wrong. Either from misinformation or personal bias a lot of wrong information is being repeated.
 
XOMTOR said:
I game on PC exclusively but walking into Walmart and grabbing an Xbox or PS4 and opening a box is orders of magnitude easier and more convenient. I don't fault those who'd rather not bother with any of the idiosyncrasies of PC gaming.
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Outside Nintendo and only because the updates are so small (In respect to the titles, 3DS games are significantly smaller), I can't remember even remember the last time playing any game was that easy. PS4 always requires extensive updates that are significantly slower than my PC through steam which I can download at ~25 MBps.

But of course everyone's situation isn't the same as mine in regards to internet. I just barely see a difference anymore outside of the increase in granular control. Most PC games even have a recommended settings button that is pretty effective if you don't want to mess with settings too.
 
Turrican2 said:
One word - Windows
I don't want to waste my time with drivers, optimzation and co anymore.
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Yeah, if Microsoft would just release a super stripped-down version of their OS to just play games, then maybe I wouldn't treat it as a last resort. I deal with Windows enough at work as it is.
 
ClintonBowman said:
But then...it would be a console...

image.png
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No it wouldn't be. With that logic Steam machines would be consoles.

It would be a pc that could boot multiple OSes. You could just have a partition / GUI focused on gaming. The rest of the system can be Windows/Linux or whatever environment you want.

Or better yet, have a game mode built into the OS just like how Windows 10 has tablet / desktop mode. I'm not sure if Windows 10 has a dedicated game mode outside of the Xbox app.

Big picture mode was a step in the right direction (steam) and so was Steam OS.
 
Shadowhaxor said:
Did you literally just say that? Really? How damned simple is it to go to Steam or Origin or GOG, buy the game and install it? Updates? They auto download if you select the option.

As for rest mode, I don't see that as an advantage as it just raises my energy bill. If I wanted to do that, I'd just leave my PC on.
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Read the rest of the post. I meant installing physical discs. It's a lot easier on console versus PC these days.

MazeHaze said:
Man, now that I'm thinking about it, the emulation and old games aspect doesn't get brought up enough.

Like, my TV doesn't even have composite inputs. I could purchase a composite to HDMI adapter I guess, and play games that look terrible.

OR, I could boot up PCSX2 and pop a PS2 disk into my PC and play at 4k.

Tough choice.
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Or, you could pay $350 for a good HDMI adapter (an XRGB Mini Framemeister), or you could make space for an old CRT.

This is what I was talking about when I said I didn't like how console exclusivity holds old games hostage, and how emulation on open platforms like PC has been the most effective way to preserve them.

I should probably start investing more time into emulation than I currently do. My issue is that setting up Retroarch is a a bit more complex than it needs to be. Might just settle for some quicker-to-use emulators on the side.
 
1. Price.
I'm not rich.

2. Put in the disc and start playing.
I had heard there are some games where you can't start them immediately usually because of a bad driver or something like that. One of the things I like on console is that I don't have to worry about that.

3. Couch multiplayer/playing in the living room TV.
I have friends who like to come over and play smash or street fighter. Sometimes its an old party game. The point is that I think it would be difficult to set that up on a TV in the living room as opposed to just having to set up my console.

Out of these 3 price is the biggest one for me. I can't buy a new video card every couple of years just to be able to play that hot new game.
 
Valve just needs to step up their game and work on their user interface. Steam Big Picture Mode is as close as you'll get to the console experience, but it's way too sterile and uninviting. At least give us some theme support if you're incapable of designing a good interface.
 
Neolombax said:
There's just too many thing to manage on a PC. Games require specs, gotta update drivers, etc. I like to load a disc into my PS4 or download a game and play.
Click to expand...

That doesn't happen anymore. Gamers need to stop this idea that consoles are still plug and play.

You guys have firmware/software updates. You have games that need patches. And while something like troubleshooting happens a lot less often on consoles, it happens there too.
 
He1nekenP1ss said:
my two cents from personal experience...

I used to play exclusively on PC 2 decades ago (Doom/xcom/Quake/Warcraft/...), then went the console way because of the diversity of games, mostly from Japan. 4 years ago, I tried a comeback to PC, building a proper rig. It's even easier to do that back then. I then bought some games: Far Cry 3, Dishonored, Bioshock Infinite, as I missed mouse-controled FPS. It was a very nice 60fps+ gaming experience.

BUT... I also (re)discovered the drivers hell, conflicts, crashes.

I am a tech-savvy person, an hacker at heart, and was able to troubleshoot all the problems. But I was detered by that, because for my gaming time I just want to be 100% gaming. Last year a friend lend me an Oculus DK2, it was a nightmare to have it working (had a blast trying Alien Isolation thus). Hacking, hand-editing stuff, tweeking parameters is still a joy to do for me, but I don't want to have to do it for games to have a good experience.

So I went back to console, keeping my gaming pc only for a few "pc exclusives" I like (Civ, some indies...).
It's no hyperbole, just my personal experience] and feeling.
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Not meaning to have a go at you mate but it was called a development kit for a reason.

You were also playing games that did not have vr properly built into them and it would not have even been an option on anything else.
 
family_guy said:
Valve just needs to step up their game and work on their user interface. Steam Big Picture Mode is as close as you'll get to the console experience, but it's way too sterile and uninviting. At least give us some theme support if you're incapable of designing a good interface.
Click to expand...

What pisses me off about big picture mode is the inability to change the default colour scheme, I am really tired of that dirty blue.


Sorry I meant to edit this post into my other one.
 
mordecaii83 said:
I swear this exact thread pops up every month or so... Is it really so hard for PC gamers to just accept that some people don't want to game on PC?

And I'm saying this as someone who has built his own gaming PC's for 25 years (although I don't know if I can count a 386sx 12MHz based PC a "gaming" machine, but I played what I could!)...
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Yup. And we all knew exactly where this thread would end up.

Our first PC was something like that but it turbo boosted to 33mhz with a push of a button!

PC gaming can be incredible, but that's for me to enjoy. Who cares where others enjoy their games?

Vipu said:
Dont forget the 2000$ TV while 1000$ pc is too much.
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Such stupid people right? So so stupid
 
For most of my life I've been very generalist in my gaming platforms, I'll sometimes have some consoles and PC, sometimes I'll be only PC, sometimes I'll be only console, but I've never had a real strong tie to any of 'em. Last gen I bought into all platforms, but I had a preference towards consoles as I had a strong affinity to physical media and consoles have always been less of a hassle in the past. With the rise of online gaming on consoles I was hopeful for it to bring the better aspects of the PC while having the same console conveniences I've always known. I had expectations of patching and content updates on the caliber of the Valve or Blizzard games I was familiar with.

I bought a year of Xbox Live Gold during 08-09 and I found it a huge waste. I found a rise of nickel and diming through DLC, I found consoles having stringent patching requirements, I found physical media being diminished further and further with cases getting dinkier and manuals being pared back to the point of being outright removed. I found console OS UIs updating themselves to be less functional. In the latter days of my PS3 and 360 use, I found starting up either of them always had some mandatory system update to go through first.

With this gen, I've found physical media being reduced to nothing more than a formality. They're there to install on the hard drive and the disc in drive solely acting as DRM. Along with that we have a commonality of hefty day one patches, and the added hassle of needing to manage your hard drive space with game installs. Everyone's gone on board with Microsoft and now has mandatory paywalls for mostly ho-hum online play. Backwards compatibility is in a flip floppy state, but it's a mixed bag. We have mid-cycle hardware upgrades now with its own set of issues. There are a lot of added hassles and inconvenience, with nothing to really balance it out.

In the same amount of time I've found a rise in value and convenience in the way PC gaming has gone, I've put about $200 CAD of upgrades into my current PC which I've had since 2011 and I'm still playing recent releases on it with no problems. I've played hundreds of games on it at this point and I've only ever had a single one give me any sort of significant issue, Resident Evil Revelations, in which the game inexplicably can not save with no real solution that I can find that fixes it. It's been smooth sailing otherwise. Exclusives have become less and less impactful with the rise of so many series having gone multiplatform, I'm seeing games on PC I never would have imagined before too. I own Mushihimesama and the entire Umihara Kawase series on Steam, and that's crazy to me. I also don't have to deal with any sort of hopes of backwards compatibility or remasters as the games I bought as far back as the start of my Steam account can still be played whenever. I have a good feeling I'll be playing Overwatch long after the PS4 and Xbox One versions have lost relevance due to a console generational shift.

I definitely have had my nightmare experiences with the PC gaming of yester-decades, with PCs that have had short gaming-relevant lifespans, other problematic hardware issues, patching and CD keys and various DRMS being a nuisance, driver issues and performance tweaking and everything else, but that has long LONG since been a relevant concern from my use. Nvidia notifies me about driver updates. I get Windows Updates when they show up. Steam, Battle.net, and Origin handle their own client and game updates. Games have a lot of great scaling capabilities and auto-detects now.

So I'd be interested in seeing some specific examples from those that have the idea that PC gaming is still the hassle that it once was, it's only gotten more streamlined while consoles I've found have only added more hurdles that have turned me towards PC gaming exclusively.
 
Graphics and performance aren't super important to me. 90% of my videogame time is Halo and as I've aged I don't game that much.

I'm also kind of intimidated by them. I see these PC game discussions about settings and drivers and the amount of stuff you have to do.. I think you really have to have a level of comfort with it I just don't have.

Consoles feel more like slick toys, which is exactly what I want. Something about a desktop just doesn't feel fun. And yes, I know you can still easily couch game with a controller on PC.
 
I bought my PC about 2 years ago, and its been amazing during this drought of games for the PS4. I've never had any problems that other people have had with their PC, but then I don't do much on it besides play PC games. I don't have any driver issues, graphics card problems, CPU overheating. I just run Steam (or whatever other platform is required), download the game and play. Updates occur generally in the background. Graphics in the last two years handily beat the PS4, it wasn't even a contest. Now though I do think the PS4 Pro offers decent value for money as you can't build a PC for the same specs for $399. It might not be possible for a year or two. The only issue with a PS4 Pro is, sometimes the upgrade isn't that great, or the settings are forced by the developer so you don't have a choice in resolution or framerate or detail.

EDIT: I do recall having two problems.

I used mods for Pro Evo Soccer 2016 and Euro Truck Simulator 2. When the games updated, the mods didn't work. Then I had to remember how to set up the mods again, which was a bit annoying but nothing to get too upset about. I wish updates didn't break mods completely :(
 
Vipu said:
Dont forget the 2000$ TV while 1000$ pc is too much.
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What? You think people that complain about the price of PCs are the the same people that buy a thousand bucks ssd drive and 2 thousand bucks TV for their playstation Pro? Or is this some joke I'm not getting?

Some people spend crazy money on their hobbies and more power to them I say.

I'd put the console dude with the super expensive accessories in the same camp as the sli 1080s pc gamer.

Both are getting marginal improvements over a set up that costs half the amount and neither are saying they are not buying something because it's too expensive.
 
raziel said:
I have 3 shelves of PC games from the 90s and early 2000s that probably don't even work anymore.
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Like, seriously: google that stuff. They do. I regularly dip back into my first gaming experiences for nostalgia.

Nothing like breaking out Commander Keen and getting your shit wrecked trying to show off on a pogo stick to put any Souls game into perspective.
 
highrider said:
Graphics and performance aren't super important to me. 90% of my videogame time is Halo and as I've aged I don't game that much.

I'm also kind of intimidated by them. I see these PC game discussions about settings and drivers and the amount of stuff you have to do.. I think you really have to have a level of comfort with it I just don't have.

Consoles feel more like slick toys, which is exactly what I want. Something about a desktop just doesn't feel fun. And yes, I know you can still easily couch game with a controller on PC.
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i just find it strange that performance isnt of importance to anyone these days. thats probably the sole reason why i have a gaming pc (i also have a ps4 for the exclusives, like bb for example) I cant deal with the framerates on ps4 when my pc can handle the game at over 60 fps.

And even the exclusives perform like crap. Bloodborne is damn near unplayable co-op and the frame pacing and stutter is way too noticeable. Last Guardian dips below 25 fps.

I dunno, I just expect more these days. Its still worth it for the sony first party games but other than that I stick to pc for most.
 
>Too expensive. If I went full PC I'd stump for a powerful rig and I don't want to spend that kind of cash anytime soon. Graphics on PS4 and PS4 Pro are good enough for me anyway *shrug*

>Gaming on PC isn't as smooth as on console. I know a lot of gaffers say messing around with drivers and other settings is rarely an issue but it's still gonna crop up from time to time and I don't wanna deal with all that when it does

>Nearly all my friends play on console

>I enjoy Sony/some Japanese exclusives which PC doesn't get

I have a macbook which I solely use to play Football Manager and the odd PC only game like Papers Please and that's good enough for me to be in the PC games world.
 
I can't even remember the last time I updated drivers. Wtf are people even talking about as that for a point of contention.

Tinkering to get the balance of graphics and performance I can understand, but bringing up drivers is, like, digging way too hard to try and think of counterpoints.
 
MazeHaze said:
I think it's less about accepting that PC isn't for everyone, and more about dispelling all of the silly myths about PC gaming.

I mean yeah we have this thread once a month, and we STILL have people coming in here saying they prefer console because they "don't want to be hunched over a tiny screen in their dark office while spending 15 hours downloading drivers and getting frustrated because all PC games crash and freeze every 2 minutes, and they like controllers better."

Edit: we literally had a dude in here saying I don't use my living room as a living room, and that I turned it into an office because I hooked a gaming PC up to my tv.
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It's a bit funny when you say this type of thing and just posted a thread about how you can't get your video to output correctly on a new game for pc.
 
IcyRhythms said:
That doesn't happen anymore. Gamers need to stop this idea that consoles are still plug and play.

You guys have firmware/software updates. You have games that need patches. And while something like troubleshooting happens a lot less often on consoles, it happens there too.
Click to expand...

True, but for a console, updates for firmware and software are just notifications and all I need to do is restart the console or game. I've seen threads where PC players need to tweak settings on their graphics card or change a line of code in whatever setting is in what folder (you could probably guess here now how bad I am with these things), all of this just to make a game playable.

And troubleshooting computers are a completely alien concept to me. I've had my PS3 die of YLOD, but that was the only incident where I have a console hardware failure. On the other hand, my laptop has on numerous occasions failed to detect my graphics card. I find these instances inconvenient for me, therefore I choose console gaming.

Don't get me wrong though, PC gaming is great for people who know their stuff and I sometimes do envy how far a PC can outperform consoles in terms of graphical prowess and frame rate, not to mention mods and stuff. But for simple people like me, consoles are the way to go.
 
Unicorn said:
I can't even remember the last time I updated drivers. Wtf are people even talking about as that for a point of contention.

Tinkering to get the balance of graphics and performance I can understand, but bringing up drivers is, like, digging way too hard to try and think of counterpoints.
Click to expand...

i always tweak and tinker. its one of the things i like having control over. getting the best possible performance while having the best looking visuals i can.
 
MazeHaze said:
I think it's less about accepting that PC isn't for everyone, and more about dispelling all of the silly myths about PC gaming.

I mean yeah we have this thread once a month, and we STILL have people coming in here saying they prefer console because they "don't want to be hunched over a tiny screen in their dark office while spending 15 hours downloading drivers and getting frustrated because all PC games crash and freeze every 2 minutes, and they like controllers better."

Edit: we literally had a dude in here saying I don't use my living room as a living room, and that I turned it into an office because I hooked a gaming PC up to my tv.
Click to expand...

ArmageddB said:
This x9000:

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1337189
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Yeah made me laugh when I saw his posts about PC games not crashing every 2 mins and in another thread he complains a game on pc crashes all the time
 
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