HD is to Wii as PC is to HD

[TheBleeding]

Wow... the shear utter stupidity that this thread has is hilariously awful. Now I've been both a console gamer and a PC gamer for about as long as I can remember, so I'm gonna fill you in on some things I've noticed over the years.

PC:

PC has always been the highpoint of gaming since the early 90's, but that all kind of changed since more and more people are finding the convenience factor of consoles a pretty nice selling point. However, they fail to realize quite a few things.

1. Tech prices have dramatically fallen in comparison to back in the early 90's, where getting a good solid gaming PC is a hell of a lot cheaper then in those days due to technological advancements and far cheaper manufacturing processes.

2. A lot of people are turned off by PCs because of the "OMG VIRUS DOOM" bullshit. Well I'm going to inform you on a little trick of the hacking trade: EVERYTHING has security flaws. Making a virus for Windows is no different then making a virus for OS X or even BSD for that matter. Granted the language used to make the virus and the methods of exploiting security flaws is different for each OS, the concept is the same.

3. A lot of people are also turned off by the "complexity" of PCs. Funny thing is that learning how to properly maintain a PC is no different then learning how to maintain a fish tank or a Corvette. You're going to have to learn how to properly care for anything, so why are PCs so different?

4. The reason why PCs are so much more expensive because the components that make it all work have to be capable of doing more then just one dedicated task. Plus you're running a full fledged operating system on top of the games you're playing, so you're obviously going to need additional resources to run both the OS and games, as well as all the other programs you have running on top of those two.

5. If you buy a 6 grand Alienware then you're a dumbass. Building a PC is not hard at all, basically all you do is play Lego and match each part to it's spot. If it looks like it won't fit, then it obviously isn't gonna fit, nor work. Assembling a PC from spare parts is not only much cheaper, you can get exactly what you need instead of a generalized package.

Consoles:

The main selling point of Consoles is by far the price and convenience factors. While they don't exactly need the extra resources that PCs need, the games still need to be made on the PC because you can't exactly compile texture files and scripts on the console itself without it either catching fire or exploding, or perhaps both at the same time. The social factor for Consoles plays directly with it's convenience factor, because you don't need 4 Wii consoles with 4 copies of Brawl to play with your friends. But the problem with that is that not everyone has that kind of luxury because you know, life like to fuck up your plans once in a while. Now THAT'S where Online Multiplayer comes into play. Another huge problem that not many people realize that if you buy a PS3 and are playing it on an ancient 80's era CRT TV, you're not going to get the full benefit of the color depth it can produce. And seeing that may or may not be a major problem, you may have to go and buy yourself an expensive HDTV to get the full experience.

PC Vs. Console Multiplayer:

I'll start with Consoles first, because there's a lot more to cover then PCs. I'll start with a fun fact: The Sega Dreamcast was THE first console to support Online Multiplayer, but it didn't catch on due to the fact that back in 98 most of the US didn't have easy access to Broadband Internet. Another flaw with the Dreamcast is that Console Developers didn't really know how to utilize it properly because it was such a new concept, plus the service itself was pretty lackluster in comparison to other services (LIVE, PSN) that we have nowadays. Obviously Online Console gaming exploded with the original XBox Live, when people would say that the only reason they'd buy an original XBox was because of Halo and Live (Because remember, the original XBox launched for over half a grand). Why was that? Because they figured out how to pull it off right. Another contributing factor was that DSL was becoming more available to non-urban areas, but the fact that XBox Live was miles ahead of what Sony and what Sega offered before it got brutally slaughtered by the PS2 at the time. Now you have PSN and the second generaton of XBox Live as we know them.

PCs online Multiplayer's major selling point was always, and continues to be Dedicated Servers. Chances are that someone playing on XBox Live who happens to be the host of the match and his asshole brother is downloading some gangsta rap or some shit off of Limewire, his bandwidth that is being used to host the match is gonna take a major hit. And since he's hosting and has considerably less bandwidth that can be used, everyone else playing in the match feels it and then everyone bitches about lag. Another big key factor in the Dedicated Servers argument is dedicated bandwidth, so if the data center that's hosting the servers somehow gets shut down, you have solid bandwidth and some rare lag spikes. But client-side (being you), there are problems that can happen as well, but I'll let you be resourceful and Google that shit for yourself.

So in conclusion? Both have their merits and flaws. I know for a fact that all this is gonna spark a huge flame war, but oh well. All I did was attempt to bring a neutral perspective for each because I've personally used both for many a year.