This is NOT a thread about which is better.
Nor is it a thread exploring steriotypycal nerd culture.
It is a thread to discus common misconceptions that are often cited by people in arguments involving it.
This thread comes from someone who (as Yahtzee puts it) "is white enough to afford all the platforms".

Anyway, without further ado:

1. A gaming PC doesn't cost the earth- in the UK, ~£350 can buy a lower mid range PC. That's not the kind you get in schools which are just Toasters in a bigger case, it's the kind you can easily play games on medium with. A higher end Pc is about £7-800, and you'll be able to play most- if not all games- on high. The massive £2000 prices come from pre-built models and those that are on the bleeding edge with custom paint jobs, special (liquid) cooling and multiple graphics cards. Big retailers such as dell are also known for overpriced products. Also, computer components are more expensive here anyway, so don't just double the price to get the cost in dollars.

2. A gaming PC isn't upgraded every year- unless you're really desperate to stay on the cutting edge. A new GPU every 2-3 years, and/or cpu every 3-4 is fine, and even then you don't have to, you'll still be in the game.

3. It doesn't take an IT genius to do- granted, it's not as easy as consoles: just pop it in and it's done, but it's not as hard as people make it out to be. It didn't take me long at all to get my head around intel/amd cpus and motherboards and Ati/nvidia cards. After that, there are very few issues to worry about unless you buy hardware more than 3 years old. (ide drives, really old cpus etc..)

4. Software compatibility- is only really an issue if you don't run windows, and even then you can use wine. (I run Ubuntu and Vista hp, sp1)

5. Patches- A lot of games now come with automatic patching for the PC. If they don't, there are things like gameshadow or Xfire that do it for you. Remember that consoles patch their games and firmware too, it's just not as often.

6. Noise- Only a poorly cooled PC will make a lot of noise. Hell, my crappy Dell is drowned out by the 360 on the other side of the room.

7. Crysis- Crysis is a unique game, no other game taxes systems as hard as Crysis. Period. A PC that cannot run Crysis will most likely still be able to run all other games. With new hardware being released cheaply due to a sudden surge in competition, it isn't even that expensive to get a system capable of playing Crysis on high. For the record, if you want to do that, Crysis favours Nvidia graphics cards.

8. Complicatedness- Seriously, they are dead easy to use if all you want to use them for is gaming, work, and web. It's all double click -> go for almost every application. For commonly used things like accessing all your games or hopping on the internet, the interface is very simple. Just double click. Easy. All of this command-line code stuff comes from the lower level or more technical applications like networking and hard drive maintenance. Most people don't need them, and most never will.
And anyway, we all know a couple of computer geeks, don't we?

9. Viruses- Well really, come on now. Surf safe and so you don't get sick!

Great post. I like a lot of your points. I also would like to add that region free play is very important to some people. My Xbox isn't capable of playing many US/Can region games. Also, games quickly lose their fun and turn into work if you have to translate them into your own language.

All valid points.

I would add that if you build your own, then you can save even more money tailoring the system to your exact needs, and a PC is still the best system for backwards compatibility.

Where else could you play Crysis, all of the Tomb Raider series, Monkey Island and Space Invaders without changing platform.

I can post the £375 spec if you like. I got it from a magazine called 'Custom PC'. It might be on the intarwebs but I'm not sure.

Ah but as a PC gamer (I'm one of them) you get a little extra something that console users don't get. Bullshit. Steam, for example, can be an incredible pain depending on your system configuration. Sometimes you'll just get that one game, that takes a god damn age and a magical balance of old driver/new driver to run. It's a hassle pleanty of gamers don't want to deal with.

Oh, and the ports are terrible.

Decoy Doctorpus:
Ah but as a PC gamer (I'm one of them) you get a little extra something that console users don't get. Bullshit. Steam, for example, can be an incredible pain depending on your system configuration. Sometimes you'll just get that one game, that takes a god damn age and a magical balance of old driver/new driver to run. It's a hassle pleanty of gamers don't want to deal with.

Oh, and the ports are terrible.

Yeah, I tend to keep away from steam due to my connection. With the bullshit also comes really good free stuff though, which (afaik) you can't get on consoles.

I've never found ports a problem, I just remap the controls. Hehehe, from what my friend says with his 360, the crappy ports work both ways.

HBrutusH:

Decoy Doctorpus:
Ah but as a PC gamer (I'm one of them) you get a little extra something that console users don't get. Bullshit. Steam, for example, can be an incredible pain depending on your system configuration. Sometimes you'll just get that one game, that takes a god damn age and a magical balance of old driver/new driver to run. It's a hassle pleanty of gamers don't want to deal with.

Oh, and the ports are terrible.

Yeah, I tend to keep away from steam due to my connection. With the bullshit also comes really good free stuff though, which (afaik) you can't get on consoles.

I've never found ports a problem, I just remap the controls. Hehehe, from what my friend says with his 360, the crappy ports work both ways xD

It's not really the controller. I have four or five controllers I can plug into my pc (one of the advantages of wired 360 pads) it's just the ports tend to be badly programmed and badly optimized. I don't think I've ever seen a worse one than Resident Evil 4. No mouse support and the game looked worse than the ps2 version, i was gutted.

You're right about the mods though. But with that comes to the good ole' pc tradition of cheating in online games.

One thing I'll say about halo, you never see anyone fucking wallhacking.

Yeah, ooh man I hate hackers, even with software designed to stop them- like PunkBuster- they still exist. Scum.
Although they are a dying breed. Frequent bans and kicks must be getting them down. Seems to me to be mostly glitch exploiters at the moment, like the old pod-surfers of 2142.

One of the things i love about pc gaming though is the shit you can buy to prove how hardcore you are. I bought a razer eXact mat and arm rest from circuit city (it was on sale. I wouldn't buy a regular $50 mouse pad) and I'm on the bus home and this little ginger kid, about as wide as he is tall leans over his seat to look and says "Dude. Sweet"

That pretty much sums up hardcore gaming paraphernalia.

"the ports are terrible"

Ain't that the truth; but games sell systems, now more than ever. If I saw a game on another system that I really didn't want to miss out on I would buy the system in question. I built my PC because I wanted to play FarCry, I bought a PS2 because of GTA3, my Xbox because of Blinx (I know, I know), and my 360 because of Halo 3 (along with about 99% of everyone else).

The performance tweaking and patching can be annoying, but makes the game feel much sweeter when you get it right.

Good things come to those who wait. Apparently.

A PC generally has greater longevity than a console. A console you buy, and when it goes out it's done. A PC you can upgrade continuously for years and still have it play perfectly on new games.

Don't forget the cost of a nice T.V. that an xbox/Ps3 would need to have to look decent on. the cost of that alone is ridiculous.

runtheplacered:
Don't forget the cost of a nice T.V. that an xbox/Ps3 would need to have to look decent on. the cost of that alone is ridiculous.

You can plug them into a pc monitor and they look fine.

But when you start counting the couch and a house to play it in. Those consoles do get real costly.

Decoy Doctorpus:

runtheplacered:
Don't forget the cost of a nice T.V. that an xbox/Ps3 would need to have to look decent on. the cost of that alone is ridiculous.

You can plug them into a pc monitor and they look fine.

But when you start counting the couch and a house to play it in. Those consoles do get real costly.

Not a consoles vs pc thread guys. Just discuss things that people often get wrong about PCs. I don't want a flamewar in my shiney new thread.

Really nice post. I'm a big Pc gamer and its nice to see someone defend it so eloquintly. Not to say consoles are bad but I just prefer Pc.

I hate it when Console Fanboys try and make out as though any other gaming platform is inferior. Live and let live. :-)

Only thing I disagree with is the price of Pc gaming. It costs more than that to run games decently.

It depends on what you define as decent, right?
I mean, my Pc is an overpriced dell, it has a dual pentium 4 cpu at 3ghz, and an ATI radeon 2600xt. Not exactly a top end card. I can play all the BF games on high, all of the HL games on high, AND all the U3 engined games on high. The only games I don't play on high are Crysis and ARMA. I play them on medium. I think that's pretty decent.

"It doesn't take an IT genius to do"

how right you are. I never built a computer, and knew jack shit about it, but i wanted to build my own, and save my parents a couple hundred dollars. I just did a bit of research, asked questions, went to some of my friends who built their own computers, and i was ready to go. Got all the parts, plug stuff in, and i was done.
Not as hard as I thought it would be.

shaboinkin:
"It doesn't take an IT genius to do"

how right you are. I never built a computer, and knew jack shit about it, but i wanted to build my own, and save my parents a couple hundred dollars. I just did a bit of research, asked questions, went to some of my friends who built their own computers, and i was ready to go. Got all the parts, plug stuff in, and i was done.
Not as hard as I thought it would be.

I've got a rig that can max out crysis on 1280 and it cost me $1100 so I don't think seven hundred quid is far off the mark.

awesome thread, anyway, why is it that eveyone is always saying the pc gaming is dying even though a console dies every few years? i mean a pc you just upgrade every few years, but you have to buy a whole new console just to catch up, seriously theres something wrong with that!

When people say pc gaming is dying what they mean is that there are fewer and fewer people involved solely in that pursuit. By comparison, far more people have only a console and a netbook/desktop for the web.

But that's for a different thread :)

Misconceptions about PC gaming should also include:

Everyone who plays counter-strike cheats
Everyone who plays MMO's are addicted to grind
Every game charges for expansion packs
Every game is pirated
Every game charges for online play (I have met XBL gamers who thought this true of PC)
Only guys play PC's, Women play on consoles (seen this to)

Theo Samaritan:
Only guys play PC's, Women play on consoles (seen this to)

B-wha? That's the reverse of the misconception I usually hear, that women only play casual games on PCs and that consoles are the domain of men-children. To be honest, I've never heard your version voiced.

-- Steve

Some good points but I'd disagree with the £350 pound price tag for a system that can play games on medium to high. I'm sure if you go somewhere that can build a PC you could get a medium powered gaming rig for £400ish, but that is without a monitor and you'd need to know something about PCs to do that as choosing components is very confusing for the uninitiated.
Most people just don't feel confident enough to build their own system, and to buy a gaming rig from Dell or PC World you're talking £600.

If you do take the plunge with a medium powered system it's a calculated risk as you can't be sure how long it'll last as a gaming platform. When you can buy a console for £200-£300 and know that you'll definately be able to play games on it for the next 3-4 years you can understand why people go for the consoles.

Anton P. Nym:

Theo Samaritan:
Only guys play PC's, Women play on consoles (seen this to)

B-wha? That's the reverse of the misconception I usually hear, that women only play casual games on PCs and that consoles are the domain of men-children. To be honest, I've never heard your version voiced.

-- Steve

I have to admit I heard it only twice and both times I promptly slapped the person involved around the face with a virtual penis.

Rotating Bread:
Some good points but ... you can understand why people go for the consoles.

I'm using myself as a benchmark here, my current dell, if I get the spec from 3rd party retailers, is worth about £350 and can play all the games I need it to on medium-high. I take the screen out of the equation as consoles need screens too. You're right about the inside knowledge though, but with a whole internets worth of help it can't be that difficult. There's always 'that guy' too, who can help you out.

We can't be sure how long a console will last either, can we? 3-4 years is about the same for time a PC, if we're estimating, to get an upgrade, which shouldn't really be more than one component.
I mean, there are still perfectly good PCs with Pentium processors. That's two generations behind [Celeron --> Pentium --> Core 2 --> Quad] the top end now. The most common upgrade is the graphics card, which is normally about £200 for a high end one. Or Ram, which is dirt cheap anyway.

You're correct, more people do go for consoles. That's not the point, however, the point is to address arguments often cited against PC gaming as a whole.

You're absolutely right to say it's easy to find help to build a cheaper PC but I guess the perception is that it's difficult.

From my own experience i know that the question of upgrades is a genuine problem. I've not yet taken the plunge into this console generation yet and have been PC gaming for the last couple of years and now it's come to the point where I need an upgrade. So the dilema is do I spend £150 on a new G card and hope the rest of my system holds up or spend a bit more on a 360 and not worry about system requirements (not to mention the other console benefits i won't go into).

So I think the issue of upgrades and system requirements is a genuine problem for PC gaming but I would agree that there is a misconception about the scale of that problem.

(I'm leaning towards the xbox btw).

Decoy Doctorpus:
You're right about the mods though. But with that comes to the good ole' pc tradition of cheating in online games.

One thing I'll say about halo, you never see anyone fucking wallhacking.

Cheating in PC games is often overexaggerated. Most of the time, people have no proof or solid evidence that a person is just really good or if they are cheating. Thus people throw out the guilty verdict on cheating even if it's just to mask their own terrible playing. I can't tell you how many times I've been called a hacker in FPS simply because I've been kicking ass and the accuser is simply a terrible player.

Not to say that there aren't hackers, but a majority of the times someone gets called a hacker, they usually aren't.

In any case, the ability to produce custom maps, content, and administrator abilities greatly outweights the possibility of encountering hackers.

There have been a couple of big rumors about PCs that are utterly untrue. I had an old, clunky Windows 95 with no internet that wouldn't even run games made for the system, and so I switched to a Nintendo 64 until we got the brand new sparkly Windows 98 with lightning fast internet which had the best graphics I'd ever seen. So I'd consider myself a half-and-half gamer.

Jump to 2008 and now we have a 3 year old flatscreen Windows XP which still works fine. It plays recent games fairly well, with little to no lag. That brings me to my first PC myth.

PC games lag like crap, making them impossible to play. Untrue. Occasionally you might see a bit of a cut during a gigantic battle onscreen, but it never makes a game unplayable unless you're playing a recent game on a computer that's about five years old which hasn't been updated. Plus, consoles are not immune to lag, either. Even on single-player mode, I've seen Call of Duty lag several times. I can't even count the amount of times my connection has gotten interrupted by the host having a crappy connection, either.

The PC only has three types of games, RTS, TBS and MMORPGers. Also untrue. There are a few good shooter games exclusively for the PC, like FarCry and Crysis. Some people even think they play better on the PC with the mouse than on a console with thumbsticks. Personally, I've never been a fan myself. As a side note, Real Time and Turn Based Strategies will ALWAYS be better on the computer, no matter what you say. C&C: Tiberium was good, but it was better on the PC. If Halo Wars is a success, I'll be the first to bet that it'll be ported to the PC and be better on it.

Those are just a couple of the myths that I've heard far too much of.

kyouger:
There are a few good shooter games exclusively for the PC, like FarCry and Crysis

And the good battlefield series games.

That we're elitist. That's not true you drooling console monkeys.

EDIT that was...um...a joke; and by not getting that you disproved your own point...

EDIT AGAIN, saying console graphics are better on consoles is like saying that TV shows are better then movies. Half Life 2 was made in 2004, now go look at the pc version's grpahics compaired to the xbox's(not 360) graphics.

the monopoly guy:
That we're elitist. That's not true you drooling console monkeys.

Well, dude, you kind of confirmed that you are by calling us drooling monkeys. Seriously, I play the 360 and I'm smart enough to form a coherant sentence that doesn't end in an insult.

I think he was joking. Let's not start a flame war pleeease..pretty please?
Anyway, this is about PC gaming, not pc gamers.

Another misconception that my friend just stated is that Console games are graphically more advanced than PC games, so they look better.

thoughts?

HBrutusH:
Another misconception that my friend just stated is that Console games are graphically more advanced than PC games, so they look better.

thoughts?

Hahahahahahaahahahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahaha
*catches breath*
Hahahahaahahahahaahhahahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahaha

Tell him to shut up, when he doesn't know what he's talking about...

Hehe, his response to that post isn't forum friendly.