Blog: PC vs Consoles?

As I and my friends lazied on a stained, rusty and worn out sofa in a restaurant of questionable quality in Deira, our conversation veered from filafel sandwich to plants to seed packs to asteroids to babies on asteroids (don’t ask), and eventually steered towards a topic that I could wrap my head around, and speak about without sounding like a douche bag in front of the public. We spoke about games and gaming which again veered through mindless and pointless discussion before it hit a grave that I much dreaded off.

“So Mufaa, which platform do you prefer to play games on?”

“The PC,” I said nonchalantly.

Yeaaah, I shouldn’t had replied. What ensued was a debate so old I am sure even my grandfather must had got tired of hearing about, and I am not even sure if gaming existed back then. The topic: PC or Consoles? And the arguments the same old: PC needs upgrading in six months, blah blah. PC gaming is dying due to piracy, blah blah. Consoles are cheap and is a no fuss system, blah blah.

This custom made image is as horrible as the argument.

To be frank, I don’t give a flippin’ donkey’s ass about which is a better platform to play games on, and honestly, neither should any of you. We may have our ‘preference’, as do i, but our preference does not automatically make it the better experience. I prefer to play games on the PC and Xbox 360 than the PS3 but I am not a fanboy. I proud myself of being neutral to the whole shebang, a quality so rare in most of us gamers, it’s truly surprising to know the extent at which both ‘sides’ will go to frown upon each other. It’s amusing, often hilarious, and always depressing.

You are missing the point guys! It’s not about which system is more powerful, it’s not about which system gives better visual fidelity, it’s not about which system looks more sleek, it’s not about which system has the most exclusives, and it’s certainly not about Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo and their often misleading and overly glossy adverts. It’s about games; only, truly, absolutely and completely about games.

Let’s not be dictated on which game we should play by the platform we own, rather let’s dictate which platform we should play on by the games we own. There are so many good games across both the platforms that you must have to be seriously loose in the head to pass up. Games like Heavy Rain, Killzone, Halo, Red Dead Redemption, LittleBigPlanet, God of War, Uncharted are some of the games that are just too good to root your royalties on a platform even the owners of said platform don’t give a hoot about. So why bother?

We are the Spartans of the industry, we have the power to change. We speak with our dollars, the mightiest of wrath. Instead of fueling strategies to greedy corporates that divides us further from our original purpose, we should concentrate on forcing developers to re-think, to re-develop and to re-make the very structure of games every time they sit down to make one.

To repeat a phrase what a faux-great man once said, “And though we may pledge fan boy allegiances to different flags, deep down inside we all serve one master, one king and his name is Gaming! Forever may he reign!”

Forever may he reign.