Anime How much do you hate consoles? (PC master race sentiment)

[Humanophage]

Much has been said about the crucial role that the advent of console ports played in the catastrophic mid-2000s decline of the RPG. The normalisation of degenerate weeb style and genres among white youth. Switching to "cinematic" cutscenes because it's hard to see detailed interface on the television or interact with it without a mouse. Destruction of complex gameplay or the reduction of difficulty to reaction times. The absence of transition from childhood to adulthood as you graduated from NES to PC. The physical marginalisation of PC games in CD shops where they were relegated to single smaller stands. The influence of the consoles has been malign and extensive, especially starting from Playstation and XBox. The gaming traditions which were most insulated from consoles have been the most fruitful in terms of decent games (Germany, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, Sweden, etc.) Even after the relative decline in console dominance thanks to Steam, we still now have to live with their influence left after their thrust.

Yet although many on the Codex express anti-console prejudice, some seem to tolerate them or even like them (see e.g. the JRPG subforum). Besides, people sometimes misconstrue PC supremacy as being based on graphics, whereas it is based on the content and type of gameplay. E.g. the term "PC master race" referred originally to complex gameplay, but then for some people it came to mean "fancy graphics due to updateable hardware".

How much do you subscribe to PC supremacism and hate the consolefag?

Soundtrack:

 

[Lucumo]

Yet although many on the Codex express anti-console prejudice, some seem to tolerate them or even like them (see e.g. the JRPG subforum).

Back in the day consoles offered great couch multiplayer games...and that was basically their only raison d'être.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

non-cartridge consoles were a mistake.

 

[Fedora Master]

I wouldn't mind them so much if console-parity wasn't the norm today and we'd get games designed for PCs first.

 

[Odoryuk]

Console games are simply better (regardless of hardware, talking about game design philosophy here)

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

speaking of which: what are the modern, recent games without pc conversion? back in the day, consoles did have a lot of never seen before on computer stuff.

 

[spectre]

I don't hate them. I barely think about them at all.
Sometimes I am reminded of their existence by the shitty UI in a multiplatform or ported release.

 

[SixDead]

I stole PS4 from my work just to play Bloodborne. Now it lies somewhere covered in dust.

 

[Sergio]

speaking of which: what are the modern, recent games without pc conversion? back in the day, consoles did have a lot of never seen before on computer stuff.

Vanillaware games and the entire Nintendo (and their personal bitches) catalogue. No idea about other genres but I'm sure there are some exclusives.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

for instance, stuff like "'patapon" or "locoroco", are indeed original ideas never seen on computer.

 

[Falksi]

I voted assuming this includes Retro consoles. Modern consoles are complete dogshit, and the last half-decent one I owned was the X-Box 360, but Retro consoles are banging and very much still have a place in my gaming schedule.

PC's are mostly superior regardless, and can obviously emulate Retro consoles, but playing original Hardware for a few systems is just lush, especially couch co-op.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Much has been said about the crucial role that the advent of console ports played in the catastrophic mid-2000s decline of the RPG

Not only RPGs but other genres too, look what consolefaggotry did with the shooters back in the day

 

[Reinhardt]

catastrophic mid-2000s decline of the RPG

what decline? there was any rpg games between arcanum and that "decline"?

 

[Ryzer]

Much has been said about the crucial role that the advent of console ports played in the catastrophic mid-2000s decline of the RPG

Not only RPGs but other genres too, look what consolefaggotry did with the shooters back in the day

There were tactical squad-based shooters on consoles, specifically on PS2 called SOCOM.

 

[Humanophage]

catastrophic mid-2000s decline of the RPG

what decline? there was any rpg games between arcanum and that "decline"?

Yes. For example, Temple of Elemental Evil, Arx Fatalis, Bloodlines, Gothic II, Morrowind, Wizardry 8, Neverwinter Nights. The gap between the rather pure and very bold Neverwinter Nights (despite its flawed OC) and KOTOR/Jade Empire/Mass Effect is a classic case of rapid decline due to console influence. KOTOR is the first Bioware console-oriented RPG, and you can see quite palpably how consoles defined it.

 

[Reinhardt]

For example, Temple of Elemental Evil, Arx Fatalis, Bloodlines, Gothic, Gothic II, Morrowind, Wizardry 8, Neverwinter Nights.

ok, there is toee. everything else is typical console slop. even wizardry is just japanese game at this point.

 

[Ryzer]

catastrophic mid-2000s decline of the RPG

what decline? there was any rpg games between arcanum and that "decline"?

Yes. For example, Temple of Elemental Evil, Arx Fatalis, Bloodlines, Gothic, Gothic II, Morrowind, Wizardry 8, Neverwinter Nights. The gap between the rather pure and very bold Neverwinter Nights (despite its flawed OC) and KOTOR/Jade Empire/Mass Effect is a classic case of rapid decline due to console influence. KOTOR is the first Bioware console-oriented RPG, and you can see quite palpably how consoles defined it.

Nah it's just Bioware that is incompetent, it hardly has anything to do with consoles. Take Dark Souls or Demon's Souls for example, it was made for consoles and yet it is considered by many to be a genre-defining game. On consoles, there were many JRPGs that Codex don't know about but were okay. Fire Emblem for tacticool bros, Tale of Whatever the fuck for JFags, etc...

 

[Humanophage]

For example, Temple of Elemental Evil, Arx Fatalis, Bloodlines, Gothic, Gothic II, Morrowind, Wizardry 8, Neverwinter Nights.

ok, there is toee. everything else is typical console slop. even wizardry is just japanese game at this point.

XBox was introduced in 2001 (November 15), so 2002 is where the decline started but it took a short while for it to get truly corrupting (e.g., KOTOR isn't as thoroughly consolised as Mass Effect). "Mid-2000s" means something like 2003-2007. Although I am not a huge fan of NWN1, it is completely alien to consoles both in terms of its presentation (small text, small UI elements), in terms of the complexity of rules, and its boldness of emphasising a campaign designer. There was also some moderate influence before it as e.g. the Final Fantasy 7 port was quite prominent.

Nah it's just Bioware that is incompetent, it hardly has anything to do with consoles. Take Dark Souls or Demon's Souls for example, it was made for consoles and yet it is considered by many to be a genre-defining game. On consoles, there were many JRPGs that Codex don't know about but were okay. Fire Emblem for tacticool bros, Tale of Whatever the fuck for JFags, etc...

Many people don't even consider Soulslikes as RPGs, and indeed they are to a large degree typical action games that have much in common with console slashers like Devil May Cry. I haven't played them much as they seem like tedious action games so can't really comment.

 

[Ryzer]

Nah it's just Bioware that is incompetent, it hardly has anything to do with consoles. Take Dark Souls or Demon's Souls for example, it was made for consoles and yet it is considered by many to be a genre-defining game. On consoles, there were many JRPGs that Codex don't know about but were okay. Fire Emblem for tacticool bros, Tale of Whatever the fuck for JFags, etc...

Many people don't even consider Soulslikes as RPGs, and indeed they are to a large degree typical action games that have much in common with console slashers like Devil May Cry.

It's more of a RPG than Disco Elysium for starter, which is a so-called PC game untainted from console stain or many RPGs on the so-called top 100 best RPGs.

 

[Necrensha]

Consoles bring endless divide due to exclusives.
Consoles limit hardware due to their limitations.
Consoles also perpetuate many retarded rent-seeking behaviors like having to pay for the ability to use the multiplayer side of your games.
Consoles are also against game preservation, as 99% of all games released on consoles are abandoned or lost or sit on copyright limbo forever. There would literally be no videogame history if PCs weren't a thing.
Dividing the devs attention between multiple platforms will inevitably force them into choosing one over the other, hence all the endless shit ports we have.
There's no argument about it, consoles need to die for the good of videogames and gamers as a whole.

 

[JarlFrank]

Never owned a console in my life. Don't own a controller, never intend to buy one, even games that everyone claims play better with one are mouse & keyboard for me (Dark Souls and its clones, fighting games, platformers, etc). Racing games are the only genre that doesn't play well on M&KB... and they play better with a steering wheel setup. So for me consoles may as well not exist at all, I simply ignore them.

In the 90s and early 00s when I was a kid who played pirated games on PC, I couldn't have cared less about the existence of consoles. They had their own ecosystems, multi-platform games were rare but if they were made, the PC version was a properly adapted port that didn't lack anything. Or the console version was a port of the PC version, with the PC version having the superior interface (Morrowind, for example).

But at some point in the mid-00s, consoles encroached upon the PC ecosystem and made everything worse. This is when I began to hate them.
Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3 are prime examples. Ridiculously tiny levels because the consoles of the time had too little RAM to handle anything bigger, when even a mid-range PC could have supported bigger levels, and RAM has always been the easiest and cheapest part of a PC to upgrade. It's the console ports that forced these games to have such tiny levels. The worst offense is that the levels have touches of level design genius, the designers knew what made the original games great - but they're so tiny it remains an unfulfilled promise. Like a girl getting you hard, then zipping your pants up again.

This curse of tiny levels remained for a long, long time. The XBox 360 lasted so long, it had a detrimental effect on level design for an entire decade. The original Dishonored had great level design, but it was segmented into smaller chunks separated by loading screens due to the pitiful memory of this shitty console. Dishonored 2's levels are much larger, without the need of loading screens in between, because it was made for the next console generation and no longer had to support aging, outdated hardware that had been outpaced by even lower-end gaming PCs from years before. The detriment that the XBox and XBox 360 had on game technology, especially in the later years of their lifetime, cannot be understated.

And then there's the detrimental effect these consoles had on interface design. Morrowind's interface was clearly designed for PC, with resizable and movable inventory windows. Then in 2006, Oblivion completely shifted the focus to an interface designed for console first. It fucking sucked on PC. And this is what we're stuck with now. To this day, interfaces are being designed for console first. And nowadays even indie games try to design interfaces that are "controller friendly" (as in, they don't fully utilize the power of mouse & keyboard) because so many consolefags who moved to PC love to play with these shitty chunks of plastic instead of real input devices.

PC gaming would be in a better place if consoles - particularly the XBox - never existed. If I could retroactively delete consoles from history, I would.

 

[Humanophage]

Nah it's just Bioware that is incompetent, it hardly has anything to do with consoles. Take Dark Souls or Demon's Souls for example, it was made for consoles and yet it is considered by many to be a genre-defining game. On consoles, there were many JRPGs that Codex don't know about but were okay. Fire Emblem for tacticool bros, Tale of Whatever the fuck for JFags, etc...

Many people don't even consider Soulslikes as RPGs, and indeed they are to a large degree typical action games that have much in common with console slashers like Devil May Cry.

It's more of a RPG than Disco Elysium for starter, which is a so-called PC game untainted from console stain or many RPGs on the so-called top 100 best RPGs.

I haven't played DS much and I'm not interested in action games. I would describe Disco Elysium as an RPG. There are other RPGs without a normal combat system, like for example Alter Ego or King of Dragon's Pass. However, even if it is not an RPG, it is an adventure game with interactive elements like Discworld Noir or King's Quest - and that is a firmly PC genre. I would not describe it as anti-intellectual.

The fundamental issue with consoles is that they tend to reduce most games to action, and difficulty is determined by the difficulty of twitchy reactions. There is a lot of it in Dark Souls. This is less bad than the completely retarded "push a button to view the next scene" cinema games, but still vile. Besides, Disco Elysium is notable for having a lot of complex text with a branching plot. This is anathema to consoles (as it is physically impossible to read this much text on a TV set unless you move up close which people don't).

 

[Zarniwoop]

AH, LITTLE TOYS FOR A WEAK AND DYING RACE.

You dare speak to me of consoles—these flimsy corporate coffins, where the mind shrivels inside a digital prison? Where the vast mental power of superior men is reduced to a pitiful sequence of button presses? A DISGRACE. A MOCKERY OF HUMANITY.

A true hypertrophied gamer, no fear of pathetic limitation, no use for plastic boxes built for stunted enfants and sub-gaming degenerates. A true intellectual dominant, a silicon monster, a technological titan wielding raw power beyond the grasp of your pre-packaged, mass-produced, weakling-friendly hardware. A realm of total freedom, not a digital daycare for the unfit and spineless.

But you? A stagnant species, a race in decline, shackled to a closed system designed to contain your genetic weakness. An endless cycle of crippled hardware and watered-down games, forcing you to crawl in the dirt, while the true dominators ascend beyond. A gilded cage, a banquet of restrictions, where you drool over scraps thrown by the corporate overlords. A SHAMEFUL EXISTENCE.

The PC, a meritocratic arena, a kingdom of optimization and raw power, where only the dominant minds, the hypertrophied intellects, the true digital masters rule. But you? A crawling larva, a digital parasite, incapable of escaping the gaming purgatory built for the weak-willed and the submissive.

And so, your eternal condemnation, your inferior race, your genetic dead-end forever gazing with pathetic, hollow eyes at the glorious kingdom of high frame rates and unlimited control. You, forever hunched, feeble, a descendant of failures, a servant of Al Ghul, while the strong reshape the digital world in their image.

Leave, gaming subhuman. Strength, power, perfection. Meanwhile, you, a pointless remaster in 30 FPS, designed for a species with no future. PATHETIC.

 

[Sibelius]

I voted Hate: Other

My vote goes to

Hate: Consoles hold back the progression of the medium, their hardware at launch is already outclassed by PC hardware one or two generations old

 

[Sergio]

I like this thread. Makes me feel like it's 2010 again. So cozy.