PC vs. Console vs. Tablet

Technology continues to forge ahead even as Christmas fades into the past and everyone just gets to the task of using all of the new gifts they just received this past year. This is the most exciting and most frustrating things about purchasing or just following technology … you are never going to have the “latest and greatest” for too long.

This goes for any sector of technology and a choruses I hear ever-increasing are the “end of PC gaming” and “end of console gaming” choruses from many different choirs.

• Console gamers telling PC gamers that it is all over
• PC gamers telling console gamers that they’re underpowered consoles just won’t cut it anymore with the latest X/Y/Z technology coming out
• Tablet/mobile gamers telling PC and console gamers that they’re time is now done
• Everyone agreeing that something is going to change (duh)

There are more permutations, but it’s getting pretty ridiculous … but it has also always been this way.

From where I sit as a slow gamer, not having tons of time to devote to just playing video games or the want/need to play most types of games, it all sounds so silly and petty. Why?

I hope that all types of gaming stick around. Isn’t that the idea? “Variety is the spice of life” some people say, but then we huddle around the idea that we need to have some sort of dominant technology type to fulfill everyone’s video gaming needs. It seems rather silly to me.

I play different games on different platforms, and I don’t think I’m alone.

On the PC I play real-time and turn-based strategy games. I also tend to keep my first-and-third-person shooters on the PC as well. A mouse and keyboard are just better for many of those actions. Fine control and a myriad of key combinations are almost requirements. I tried Mass Effect 3 on a console and I couldn’t do it. Dual-analog sticks are not the same as a mouse and keyboard.

On my Wii U or other home console I play platformers, adventure games, and other games that are tailored to the unique control schemes that Nintendo has supplied for me to use. I’m not going to play a Zelda game on anything but a console because that is what it was made for. That is where that game grew up. I’ve played emulators and it is not the same.

On the iPad I’m sticking with games that are quick and easy to pick up, play, and then set aside. The same thing with my iPhone. These are not games I am going to sit around and play for hours and hours because these devices haven’t been made to do that. They’re not contoured to be use as primary gaming devices, they have other, more important roles to play.

This doesn’t mean that there is not going to be overlap (many prefer Mass Effect 3 on the Xbox 360 for example), but I like to think that there is more than enough room for many different types of gaming machines. People are varied and we don’t need to go off and distill every key sector down to just a single player or two to be successful.

This nonsense needs to stop.