What's your gaming platform of choice?

[Walker]

The battle is age old and rages strong today. Declare your allegiance!

[Josiah]

The DS has become sort of an ultimate machine for me. Thanks to homebrew, it's like a little laptop that can also play games. It was hard for me to not click "PC", as I'm still a huge fan of PC gaming. When it comes down to it, though, I play my DS more.

[Rial Lerum]

Consoles are dumb.

I managed to post something that added little to no discussion value, but was still technically a sentence. It's also an inflammatory remark as I'm begging console fanboys to challenge me just so I can tell them I don't care.

Actually, I'm a PC gamer through and through. I own a 360, but I play my SNES more. I'm on my PC a lot more; I like RTS games most and the occasional System Shock 2 binges. Consoles don't have System Shock 2 ergo consoles are dumb.

Catch my drift?

[Bill]

PC gaming's really dying for me. I work on a PC all day and whenever I'm on my PC at home I question why I'm not working. Though if I walk into the other room and there sits my 360 who's existence can only bring me gaming; I feel like I can finally relax.

Multiplayer is much better for me on consoles. Now this is controllers aside, assume you're playing a game on either platform with whatever peripheral makes the most sense... don't you feel better knowing that hardware wise, you have the same advantages/disadvantages? Because I never have the latest and greatest PC hardware I always feel at a disadvantage, even if I'm not. You could make the argument that with internet connections it's still possible for your personal setup to cause you a disadvantage, but latency is displayed on the scoreboards in most games. So you know where you stand, whereas with PC hardware you're never quite sure.

Because of it's ease of use and familiarity for me, I went with the 360. Though I haven't gotten my hands on a PS3, and probably won't consider it until the next console cycle.

[Josiah]

You could make the argument that with internet connections it's still possible for your personal setup to cause you a disadvantage, but latency is displayed on the scoreboards in most games. So you know where you stand, whereas with PC hardware you're never quite sure.

I don't understand what you're saying here. You can always see your latency in PC games, at least as much as on the 360. When you go hunting for servers there's always a big fat list with the latency listed right there, and then when you get in, you can view the scoreboard to see your personal latency. Did I miss something, or are you just missing something? Perhaps you're referring to DoW (a strategy game, the likes of which is unavailable on the 360).

I've gotta say, multiplayer gaming is what turned me off for the 360. For the most part, I'm a single-player gamer, exceptions being for any kind of co-op and same-system multiplayer. But when I do play multiplayer games, the PC is still the king for me. Because of the horrible Live! community, I'll never, ever be a 360 multiplayer gamer. I can actually join a game of Team Fortress 2 through Steam and have a good time. Meanwhile in Gears of War, I can't play for two minutes without a frat-boy or 14-year-old cussing me out and mocking my play style. No thank you.
Maybe if I could just join games with my friends, that'd be something I'd be interested in. But why the hell would I pay extra for that?

[Bill]

Yes, PC and Console multiplayer both display your latency, that's what I was trying saying. It's a factor in your environment and my point was hardware is never displayed like latency is on a scoreboard. So if you're at a disadvantage hardware wise on a PC, you wouldn't know and it plays on the back of your mind. Am I doing worse because I don't have better hardware? Generally frame rate will play a factor and if there's a lot going on in the game and your computer can't handle it, sometimes it's a performance problem with your PC not your internet connection.

I've heard that argument against LIVE now since the Xbox 1 came out and people couldn't stand playing online with Halo. Personally, I haven't seen a difference between the online gaming community on LIVE or PC gaming. On either platform I've played on I'm cringing because of the stupid things that are being said. It's online, there's going to be dickwads no matter what platform your playing on.

It is something I'd like to see answered though, is the average user on a console a bigger douche then the PC gamer? And what factors in to being a bigger douche, is it age? I'd say that plays a big role. But it can also be a frustration with the online service provided by LIVE/STEAM or even the game itself. If people are frustrated with the way they're connecting to games and the ease of use, of course they're going to be a tool and chew you out if you suck or weren't what they were expecting. If they had to wait in a lobby for 15 minutes just to see another soul they're patience is be running thin and the simplest thing will set them off.

I'd tried to do some digging to find the average age of users on different platforms, and came up with an interesting article that doesn't lay out ages per platform but rather the overall average gamer. Doesn't add much to this discussion, though it is still an interesting read.

The article sites that as of July 16th 2008 "Forty percent of gamers are women...the average age of game players has risen to 35" it also goes on to state that "One out of four gamers are over age 50". Interesting! - you can read it here

[Josiah]

Okay I see what you're saying about hardware. I don't see it as a problem because if my framerate is giving me trouble, I lower my settings. Most video drivers will also give you a tool that you can use to determine your framerate while in-game. I wouldn't play with crappy framerate. Though it certainly is a disadvantage to do so.

I've heard that argument against LIVE now since the Xbox 1 came out and people couldn't stand playing online with Halo.

I only use this cliched argument now because I experienced it for myself. That free month of online play you get with a Silver account only cemented that I'd never want to pay for Live!. I can play 6 hours of Team Fortress 2 on Steam and only leave 1 game because of online idiots. Gears of War, I couldn't find a single game without online idiots. Not one. You may be right that it's the game that causes the problem, though I might suggest more successful games (and therefore, probably games you want to play more) are going to be the ones that suffer from this problem the most.
With PC multiplayer, you can usually select well-managed servers as your favorites, counting on the probability that you can have fun there. Live! will always be a toss-up thanks to auto-matching, unless you play exclusively with friends. Again, something that's not worth my money.

[Bill]

That's true, there are moderators on the servers for PC games. Console games are just thrown into the wild and really the only form of moderation that can be used is on forums, either on unofficial or official forums. Now what about just simply muting voice chat while you're on LIVE? You can do that through your profile settings can't you? How would that affect your experience in playing multiplayer on consoles vs PC?

[Josiah]

Heh, good point Bill. I guess that would work out, I might be inclined to play if I weren't mocked audibly. I suppose then the only issue to address would be the cost and game assortment. Right now I have exactly 1 game I want to play with friends on the 360; certainly not worth a $50 online investment. Also, it expires in a year. I hate that.