Why don't more people play on PC?

[DPsx7]

I've always loved both PC and console gaming, but for most of the eras I'm interested in, those two markets remained fairly separate. The PC games I loved weren't available on consoles and vice versa. Nowadays, that is becoming less true, although there are still games exclusive to each platform. Until every game is available on every platform (i.e. never), I would have to consider swearing off any given platform s sacrificing the ability to play certain games in favor of others. Nothing wrong with that - there isn't enough time in the world for anyone to play all the games worth playing. But it would still be missing out.

I agree, btw, that consoles have always been more hassle-free than PC games given their closed architecture. If a game was available on both PC and consoles and there wasn't a significant difference between the different versions, I'd probably go with the console version as well, because I'd know that compatibility/performance issues wouldn't be a potential problem.

I used to feel like that. I won't play shooters with analogs so the PC was the only place for them. Quake, UT, Doom, that kind of stuff. Never was into MMO's and stopped with RTS's around Tib Sun. Now that the games they offer are so similar and I solved the console mouse problem I don't see anything I'm missing by staying with consoles. It does still have free online though...

[DPsx7]

Curious what year it was when you tried Steam that one time. Because early on it was certainly different, but there's some off 125M+ customers so they're doing something right.

HL2 was the first, last, and only. So many problems and when I called them on it they banned my account. I won't have forced updates that break my game. Won't allow malware like that to snoop through my drive looking to see what else is installed and then block me from playing because my ISP was down. When you get burned that bad, you stop gaming on PC.

I've insisted that Steam users are either ignorant as to what Steam is doing to the system, or they are new to the platform and need everything done for them. Then just to be safe I played both Portal games on PS3 offline just so it couldn't phone home.

[KiwiArcader]

Nothing beats PC keyboard and mouse for FPS shooters

Console controllers just plain suck for those......

[DPsx7]

Nothing beats PC keyboard and mouse for FPS shooters

Console controllers just plain suck for those......

Turns out a KB is more than I need. The Aimon gives me a wand with all the controls I normally use. The mouse controls the right stick and face buttons. It's a pretty good alternative considering my other option would be to give up the genre again.

[RobertDuncan]

The main reason I never liked playing on PC was the comfort level. I like to sit on a couch or lay down while playing. I also feel annoyed having a windows interface to navigate to launch a game, it just feels kind of weird. I can't explain it. It's just one of those things that always bothered me.

They do have wireless controller's for pc ya know, heck you can even stream your gaming on a gaint 4ktv or 3dtv because why not. When talking about pc you have to remember pc has options tons of it for any problems you think you have look around and there's probably a solution at YOUR disposal unlike the constraints of consoles. Don't get me wrong I love the look of consoles especially especially Sega even though they were mostly meh one thing they did have going for them is console naming and designs boy did they look slick. But the thing is you can mod your pc to lokk like anything even even a glow in the dark me trio samus ball, all ya need is imagination,resource and a little bit of a technical know. Heck consoles now look like bland pcs really not much glam nor imagination like say a old retro Saturn or gamecube. He'll the gamecube in design to me anyways looks cooler than the wii.

[Tanavin]

HL2 was the first, last, and only. So many problems and when I called them on it they banned my account. I won't have forced updates that break my game. Won't allow malware like that to snoop through my drive looking to see what else is installed and then block me from playing because my ISP was down. When you get burned that bad, you stop gaming on PC.

I've insisted that Steam users are either ignorant as to what Steam is doing to the system, or they are new to the platform and need everything done for them. Then just to be safe I played both Portal games on PS3 offline just so it couldn't phone home.

Sorry you had a bad experience, but you realize HL2 was more than a decade ago, right? Steam as a service is worlds different than it was then. I was very much like you back then, wouldn't touch Steam with a 10ft pole taped to another 10ft pole. But I gave it a shot several years later. Once I bought Osmos, Defense Grid, and Torchlight for essentially the price of two frappuccino's and had a delightful experience I was sold. No more spending all day rummaging through a half-price books for an obscure title that may or may not be complete.

Sure Steam itself is a layer of DRM, but it's DRM that provides benefits in exchange. That's win-win and the difference between DRM that's just there to make your life difficult. And the content is more portable than any console. If my hardware dies or becomes obsolete I don't have to worry about backwards compatibility or re-licensing. The machines I play on change all the time, and I never miss a beat. Once a new console generation comes out, you just have to hang on to the old hardware and pray it doesn't die. The cost / benefit analysis for the games themselves is staggering.

You can't seriously judge others using Steam if your experience is so outdated. Your claims on constant update breaking and malware is just unfounded in modern Steam.

I have a large collection of physical media and console games as well as Steam and Gog. Guess which gets more attention? Steam.

[CastleVanity]

To be honest Laot of people Play games on the PC via Steam, Most classic and current game are avalible there and they have looooots of games of my teen years as well as my adulthood.

[xisterm]

I was never into PC gaming. When I was a kid I didn't have a PC, then when I got one keeping track of the graphics cards and drivers just seemed confusing.

Edited October 8, 2020 by xisterm

[kitsunebi]

I was never into PC gaming. When I was a kid I didn't have a PC, then when I got one keeping track of the graphics cards and drivers just seemed confusing.

True, although I'd say that for the hardcore crowd, that complexity and the constant evolution of hardware is part of the appeal.

For me personally, keeping up a top-of-the-line gaming rig just isn't worth it. I'm lucky enough to be extremely patient with new things. I have no problem waiting years to see a movie I want to watch, so I also have no problems waiting until games are several years old to play them. By that time, any bugs have usually been worked out, and the hardware specs are conservative enough to run flawlessly on whatever laptop I'm using.

[formisc1]

Consoles has the advantage of buy and play. although that is changing very fast with all the first day patches and DLCs now

[90sRetroGamer]

Do less people play on the PC on consoles? I would be surprised if that's the case. Installing PC games is a hell of a lot easier than in the 90s. Other than current-gen titles, most laptops <$500 have the power to play most games that are sold and of course the indy games.

[TheWez1981]

I like Steam, I buy alot of Indie games on it,

Also I have the FInal Fantasy remasters on it.... I once bought Final Fantasy VII from Square itself, and after 3 times activating it, it stopped working, so I bought it again on Steam and never had the issue anymore...

As for indie games, I like to play: Mercenary Kings, Retro City Rampage, Shovel Knight, Stardew Valley....

And what I like on Steam is the achievement and card system.

[XFactor]

I use my PC for other tasks and rarely play games on it despite having a gaming PC.

 

I would also not want to lug my PC into the living room to play it on my HDTV.

[danowar]

If I would have the time, I would do the following on my PC:

- play Steam games

- play GOG games

- play physical PC games

- emulate the Super Nintendo

- emulate the Commodore 64

- play Interactive Fiction

- play browser/flash games

- emulate many other systems, including PS1/2

 

I think my choice has been made. Still, I really like console and handheld games. I just like to have the option to fast forward and save state. :-)

 

(What I would give for that option in many PC games...)

[zaneiken]

I used to be a big PC gamer from around 1999~2004 but got tired of my gaming hardware becoming obsolete after a year.  These days I stick to consoles.

[zephry]

I used to be a console fan, then moved to being a PC only gamer in college. But I always hated the endless meddling with settings and options and eventually went back to console only since PS3. Nowadays I am mainly on my mobile phone, 3DS, or Vita. I think as I get older, it becomes more about convenience and time.

[kitsunebi]

I used to be a console fan, then moved to being a PC only gamer in college. But I always hated the endless meddling with settings and options and eventually went back to console only since PS3.

 

I think most people felt the same which is why most modern PC games require one click to install and one more to play.  They've idiot-proofed them for the most part, which I'm sure has been a financially prudent thing for them to do, and when I play a new game, I'm grateful for it.

 

Personally though, although enjoyed my NES and SNES as a kid, my true love through the late 80s and early 90s was PC gaming, and as such I have nostalgic feels for the complexity involved in running games back then.  I learned a lot about computers out of necessity if I ever wanted to have a chance of getting my games to work.  A thick tome of operator instructions for MS-DOS was never far from my side, and those were the days where practically every game required creating a boot disk or running a memory manager of some sort to get working.  I also learned about upgrading and installing new hardware when the 360k of RAM on my Tandy 1000 SX proved insufficient for running the newest Sierra graphic adventures and I had to upgrade to a whopping 640k of RAM.

[Alex1]

I've been all over the place as far as gaming is concerned. Have owned both consoles and various types of computers. PC's, commodore 64 and plus 4, 386-pentiums etc and nowadays mostly Apple. They all have their charm. Consoles to me are just less of a hassle too. If you want to play them on the old school rigs it would be a pain. And the media used to store the software, esp. the old stuff is more fragile.

Can't tell how many  5 1/4 floppies just died on me or just being near a magnet.

Of course you can now emulate practically everything u can play the old stuff, jus (to me), without it's charm. 

[kitsunebi]

Well the good thing about old PC games is it's easy to get anything made for DOS running perfectly in Dosbox. Only once Windows reared it's head does retro PC-gaming become a challenge (sometimes). There's really no need to keep old media at this point, though. Far easier to just download a copy from somewhere than to worry about running ancient disks on archaic hardware.

[tedart]

I never was a PC guy myself until my brother introduced me to Steam. Sure, you can't sell your games or lend them out to friends, but the prices are too good. And with a Steam Link, you can enjoy the comfort from your couch.

[MisterXiado]

You would be disgusted at the number of people who claim pride in not owning a desktop computer, and would throw up yesterday's breakfast along with at least two important internal organs when others start talking about their "gaming laptop".

[magcollector]

Perhaps because the newer games are better played at consoles, I'm mean PC gaming is the best option to games up to the GTA San Andreas generation (2005-2006), I still play GTA San Andreas on PC and like it more than playing it on PS2 there isn't really much difference from playing it in a computer screen than in a huge TV screen but for the GTA V there is no way I will switch from the console to the PC, that kind of games are way better at the biggest screen you can get to fully appreciate and get the full picture of the stages, the environments, to get fully involved in the action just like watching a movie is not the same in the computer that in a TV screen that is two or three times as big just that games are interactive and you get obviously more involved in them than in any movie.

 

Also PC is for playing emulators of old consoles, I prefer playing emulators than in my old consoles for commodity and to preserve the already old consoles, if something happened to them that would be very sad and there is no repair for them these days and even if there were I would think twice before letting some ''professional'' put their hand on my beloved consoles much less the hands of so called ''professionals'' that are nothing but amateurs scamming people.

 

Regarding customization or perhaps you mean modding or both of them I really don't like mods.

[KiwiArcader]

Pretty much if you want the best graphics bar none then you'll want a loaded PC. End of story .... Well, there is a story and that's cost. If you want great graphics you hand over the money for sure ....

 

Steam and so forth have certainly made it a whole lot easier to install and maintain games so I consider ease of install between consoles and PC now a moot point.

 

What really pisses me off though is companies creating software that drops to the lowest denomination for hardware. I'm looking at YOU EA!!! How you can bring out a hardcore multiplayer FPS like Battlefield One and drop support for joysticks is not just an insult, it's just plain daft. Just because you create a console version doesn't mean you code only for console controllers for a platform that has long been the first choice for flight sims etc and which has, as a result, long had a diverse range of fantastic controllers. Flying around in a biplane using a mouse or gamepad is such a crap experience. Give us back our ability to use our flight sticks please!!! End of rant .....

[kitsunebi]

Perhaps because the newer games are better played at consoles, I'm mean PC gaming is the best option to games up to the GTA San Andreas generation (2005-2006), I still play GTA San Andreas on PC and like it more than playing it on PS2 there isn't really much difference from playing it in a computer screen than in a huge TV screen but for the GTA V there is no way I will switch from the console to the PC, that kind of games are way better at the biggest screen you can get to fully appreciate and get the full picture of the stages, the environments, to get fully involved in the action just like watching a movie is not the same in the computer that in a TV screen that is two or three times as big just that games are interactive and you get obviously more involved in them than in any movie.

 

I'm not sure I understand this particular argument.  You seem to be saying that playing on the biggest screen possible is best, but you assume that you can't hook your PC up to the biggest display in your house?  Any PC (or laptop) can easily have the video output to whatever TV you're using via HDMI.  The days of having separate things called "computer monitors" have long since passed.  Nowadays, they're pretty much one and the same.  Granted, if you're going to sit at a desk and do office work or surf the net a couple of feet from the display, you aren't going to want a screen that's too large, but if you want to sit across the room while you game on a gigantic screen, there's no reason you can't do that as well.  All you have to do is connect that HDMI cable and you're good to go.

 

Nowadays, a PC is nothing but a more versatile console (or vice versa, a console is nothing but a limited-function PC).  Assuming your PC has the horsepower, I would argue that GTA5 would actually look best played on a PC with the quality set to max, on a giant screen, if that is your preference. 

[consumer]

There are tons of hardcore gamers using primarily their PC's and and their have been for years.  You just don't hear about them because they are enjoying themselves so much, they do not go outside.  Seriously though, there are many.  You might consider to PC gaming to be the height of "hardcore" gaming.