Dispelling the Myth

I love computer hardware. To me, there is little else more exciting in our hobby than ordering all the components for a new build and spending an entire day building, setting up and stress testing the rig into oblivion (the metaphor, not the game). The pleasant whirl of new fans, the joyful smell of a fresh PCB… maybe it’s just a tech nerd thing, but I love every second of it. To me, PC gaming is just as much about the hardware as it is the games – it’s a delicate ying-yang balance between the two, fighting over precedence in every hardcore PC gamer’s mind.

Yet as time progresses and gaming as a whole becomes bigger, larger, and more powerful, top of the line computer hardware seems to be losing its purpose. There was a time when hardware was what the PC gaming experience was all about – you either had the hardware to run the latest games, or you didn’t. PC gaming was about tweaking, modifying, and adjusting the games to get them running on your rig at a playable level, and boy, once you did, you were in for a treat. In reality, it was rather elitist. Very few people could thoroughly enjoy many games without endless hours of work – games were “system breakers” in the same vein as Crysis was (and many cases still is). For years, this has been the “bane” of PC gaming. We’ve been hounded by our console brethren over the fact that high-end gaming PCs are, in fact, quite expensive. “U needz a NASA compooter lolololzlolz!1!!!111shift+1,” they’d laugh, while joyfully dropping a disk into their x-stations or play-boxes and carry on their gaming.

My friends, those days are over. The days of ludicrous system requirements are behind us. While I personally will miss the days of system-crushers, I’m optimistic about PC gaming’s future – and here’s why.

Computer hardware is more accessible to gamers

Hard to believe this was once a system crusher.
Where has the time gone?

It wasn’t all that long ago when a rig capable of running the latest and greatest games playable at high settings would have set your average gamer back two to three thousand dollars. And yet, I helped a gamer friend put together his first gaming rig about two months ago for $550.00 (including shipping), and it blasts through anything currently on the market. Gaming ready hardware isn’t a dream anymore – it’s a reality. Any kid who can pick up a decent grunt-work job over his summer break can easily save up enough to build a competent gaming computer (likely with some cash to spare for games!). It’s a hell of a lot easier to find your parts, too. With the Internet at our disposal and with excellent vendors such as Newegg here to serve us, it’s easy to find the best prices on performance hardware; you’re no longer limited to what brick-and-mortar vendors sell in your local area.

Gamers can “do their homework” like never before

Benchmarking computer hardware has been around for a long time. In the old days, it used to be that a gamer could only get his fix of the latest hardware performance through print media such as magazines – and obviously, these mediums have limited space. This meant that much hardware often would go unreviewed, unbenchmarked and unknown to many consumers. With the Internet, that isn’t the case at all. Just about every piece of hardware imaginable, from processors to graphics cards to fan controllers, has been reviewed by someone, somewhere at some time. Of course, it’s important to note that there are many sites out there with superior reputations to others, and it’s important when doing your research on computer hardware to stick with reputable sources.

Game developers are getting some brains!

“Okay, we’re going to develop this game to be so graphically intensive that only 2% of our potential audience will be capable of running it!” Doesn’t sound like such a smart business plan, eh? It wasn’t very long ago that developers went into computer gaming with a very similar mindset (okay, maybe they weren’t intentionally alienating their audience, but still…). Look, the fact of the matter is that games are a big expenditures now, and that they simply cannot risk failure. These aren’t two-man jobs in some guy’s garage anymore; there’s a lot of money at stake for these developers, and they have to try and design games which fit into the largest portion of their potential audience – which, more often than not, are people with subpar PCs. Stardock, Blizzard, Valve, and Maxis are a handful of big names in the industry. They make everything from strategy games to MMOs, to shooters and casual games. What’s the only thing these companies have in common, aside from kickass names? They design their games to fit the lowest common denominator of hardware possible. And the successes of all of these companies just hammers home the next point.

Games don’t have to be graphical powerhouses to be successful

I know I talk about Team Fortress 2 far too much in my articles (this is the last time for a while, I promise!), but I just cannot resist using it as an example. Team Fortress 2 is, in my not-so-humble opinion, the best multiplayer shooter in the past five years. And graphically, you could easily run it on the same five-year-old hardware that you had when you last great multiplayer shooter was released! Graphics have grown to the point where the average developer has the resources to produce games which don’t hurt your eyes to look at – and honestly, that is all this gamer cares about. I personally enjoy it when games take a stylized approach to their graphics. Not only does it keep system requirements low in contrast to “hyper realistic” graphic design, but additionally it keeps the games looking good and fresh for years after the “realistic” looking games stop looking realistic.

Despite being far from “realistic”, Mirror’s Edge looked great!

Hardware is following console trends

I was hesitant to include this in my list, because I didn’t think that it was something good for PC gaming. Yet, after thinking it over for a bit, I realized that this is actually an excellent phenomena for the consumer. The advancement of PC gaming hardware, as well as the demand for higher performing hardware, seems to have a correlation with the release of each new tier of consoles. For example, when the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii were released, the hardware requirements for your average game increased. Not massively, but just enough to coax many gamers into the “time to order new parts” mentality. This, of course, was met by the production of new hardware that was faster, stronger, and better than before. PC hardware is always improving, and yet with consoles acting as an inhibitor for the required hardware new games demand, it gives the PC gamer “breathing room” between upgrades. Instead of doing a constant stream of minor part upgrades like in years past, PC gamers only have to spend money on hardware every four to five years. Pair that with the previously discussed game optimizations and lower performance-level hardware costs, and the “extreme” gamer barely has to spend any money upgrading!

A lot of people complain that PC gaming is being “killed” because consoles are limiting its potential. While consoles may be killing the “system breakers,” they’re only helping the industry as a whole. If you were to hop into a time machine and head back nine or ten years ago and tell any hardcore gamer they could play the latest games for five hundred bucks, they’d have laughed you back to 2009. But nowadays, PC gaming truly is no more expensive than console gaming. And while we may be losing exclusive focus from many developers, we’re also getting more refined, optimized, and polished products – even if each new release doesn’t revolutionize graphics like in years past. After all, at the end of the day, what you really remember about games are the story and gameplay. Graphics can be outdated, but fun and intuitive gameplay never goes out of style.