There is often a stigma between console and PC gamers (particularly PC towards consoles). Where a lot of stereotypes held between the two forms, often seen as resentment, I do not know why this is. If a game is only released on consoles a lot of complaints will be made (a recent occurrence of this would be Brutal Legend). I myself have been a both a console and PC gamer, so have experienced both sides of this situation. In-between the current generation and the previous I primarily became a PC gamer, playing many shooters, real time strategy games among other games, I wished I could play some games which were console exclusive, but at that current point in time it was an impossibility.

The problem I see with this is that the games which are the problem are either reasonably niche or they are unlikely to work nearly as well on the opposing platform. Particularly with hardware between generations of console and PC hardware becoming increasingly similar in their architecture, with the strongest difference being the default interface, a decent mouse will give better precision than any current analogue stick, yet an analogue stick will give more accuracy than a standard ‘wasd’ movement key set. The advantage in particular with a PC would be the possibility of the use of ‘hot keys’ making both MMO RPGs and real time strategies ideal for use with the mouse and the keyboard, but with the flexibility with a platformer or other 3rd person game the controller is still the ideal medium to control your character. Some may continue to argue this is incorrect, but how many gamers will spend that much more to add controllers on the PC on top of the actual cost of a gaming PC, a good keyboard, a decent mouse among all the other necessary peripherals.

Often a PC gamer will claim that a console game requires no ‘skill’, which I don’t understand. The majority of genres which would benefit with the greater fidelity of peripherals are often ‘twitch’ games, where one could argue that strategy is stronger in a PC game, I would not agree with this, particularly in a strategy, in a console team based game, a decent team can often do a decent amount of damage and will usually beat those in an uncoordinated team, of random people, if not those that have played together but have developed their team work less.

One argument A PC gamer often holds is that the console will always have a maximum capability, yet a PC can always be upgraded, where the console gamer always has the retort that a game for a specific console will always work. Often those that had both were considered Spoilt, or greedy.

The main problem I see with this is the amount of bigotry held between people for using a different system to play games on, I wonder why this is? People don’t say “I am better than you because I use a Sony CD player but you use a Panasonic” do they? There is no similar bigotry between other things, so why do we have it in games? There may be a slight rivalry between brands, due to preference, but not for any legitimate reason whatsoever.

With a medium which is still fairly young, I believe there should be a common comradery between most if not all gamers. There seems to be a belief or want that every game released could be released on one console but with the concept of non-video games, this is never the case, not all games can be played on a standard deck of cards, yet if you haven’t got a standard deck you cannot play every game ever; so why think the same with video games... Another point I can make is the same argument with different consoles.