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Would you say PC is more for hardcore gamers than console?

Killjoy-NL

Member
What you’re referring to I can’t fully answer without inciting console wars. Even though I own all 3 and treat them equally, others don’t and get upset. Read my first post again.

The timing of these PC-pitching threads is what I am raising an eyebrow to, because of what has been happening on the forum this week and last week.

You didn’t see these threads pre-February.
You know, I wonder if we actually disagree.
I don't think we do, so maybe we have a bit of a misunderstanding.

If we would be talking strictly platforms, I believe between PC, PS and Nintendo, we'll have a balanced industry with 'healthy' indirect competition.
 
First, you have to tell me what hardcore exactly means because I've done my fair share of modding, setting up private servers and tinkering stuff. However there still console only gamers that eclipse my playing time, proficiency in gaming and general knowledge about gaming and specific games themselves including lore, music composition, game balance and design.
Let's say we have two individuals:

Individual A: Rides around on a very tame, kids friendly Pony inside of a fenced off small area right besides the barn. But does it for many hours, every day.

Individual B: Rides with impressive speed on a prize-winning Arabian horse through thickets and underbrush, crossing difficult terrain and manages to look good doing it. But he does it only once a week for about 4 hours or so.

Whom of the two would you deem to be a more "hardcore" rider?
 
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SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Would you say the person that builds their open platform gaming machine is more hardcore than the person that goes to Walmart to buy a plastic box?

Beavis And Butthead Yes GIF by Paramount+
 

RickSanchez

Gold Member
OP you can't just drop a question like that without atleast telling us your personal definition of 'hardcore' ? Personally i think it is someone who goes deep into atleast one aspect of gaming. That aspect could be anything like breadth of preferred genres, hours/years of experience in a few games, tinkering with hardware, tinkering with software (modding every game till it crashes), or simply your knowledge of game development and the gaming industry.

HC for me is not on what you play, but how many genres and type of games you play. A HC gamer is someone who plays from crpgs to strategy to action games. From indies to AA and AAA games.
100% agreed. You can be hardcore on anything, doesnt have to be a PC

That being said, it all depends on your definition of hardcore.

For me personally, I don't consider most 4090 owners hardcore gamers, as most of them seem to be mostly interested in eyecandy, moreso than actually playing videogames. Again, this is based on personal experiences and interpretation, but yeah, you can have a €3000 PC, if all you do with that PC is Counterstrike, Overwatch, and mess around with Skyrim and Cyberpunk mods, than I don't consider you a hardcore gamer. Or even a gamer at all. You're just someone who occasionally plays some games to kill time. You're as much as a gamer as my mother, who plays Farmville on her tablet for 3 hours a day.
Bruh, what ? I'm sure most of the 4090 owners out there have had a long upgrade journey which started with a ATI Radeon connected to CRT monitor back in the day. Like me. Nothing wrong with wanting to spend on top-of-the-line hardware and then using it to experience the best in visuals, especially if you can afford it. Doesnt automatically make you a casual. Depends on what else you do. I play both Cyberpunk 2077 and Disco Elysium on my rig.

Not necessarily. Some people like to buy pre made PCs and call it a day.

To me, if you enjoy the process of building your own PC and taking care of it software wise, meaning you're tech savvy enough to keep your GPU driver up to date and not accidentally install hundreds of freeware apps that all try to start up when you turn on the PC, then it makes sense to get a PC purely for gaming.
It's not for everyone and it is way more expensive than consoles, so there is a barrier of entry.
That's me. I got mine custom-assembled from a local business who specializes in this. On my third one now, i upgrade every 6-7 years. And yea, i've taught myself enough software tinkering to keep my drivers updated and my Windows free of bloat. I even brought back the better Win10 right-click menu on Win11 by tinkering in the registry.
 
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Hardcore PC gamers are more hardcore than hardcore console gamers, but casual PC gamers are also more casual than casual console gamers.
 

IFireflyl

Gold Member
I'm a PC gamer, and I am extremely softcore. You would be hard pressed to find a softercore gamer than me, regardless of platform. My softness is unparalleled.

EDIT: Also, my pee-pee is small.
 
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JordiENP

Member
I can play anything before atari up to almost everything right now excluding the Playstation 4/5 games not available on pc on the same machine. That's hardcore as f.
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Well, the beauty of PC is that if you are willing to learn and put the effort in, you can do an awful lot more stuff.

The counterargument is that if you aren't prepared or interested in that, its good to a have a pre-configured ready-to-go with minimal effort option.

Personally, I'd put "hardcore" way above that in its own category.
 

AngelMuffin

Member
Define hardcore gamer.

Overall time spent playing games?
Variety of games played?
Playing nothing but indie games?
Lots of enthusiasm for a certain publisher or gaming overall?
Playing 1 game like CoD or Madden/FIFA 24/7 year round?

I’ve owned about 80% of all consoles released since the Intellivision but have never owned a gaming PC. I also subscribed to all the gaming magazines when those were a thing as well. Guess I’m not a “hardcore gamer”😂.

Whatever the hell that means.
 
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BlackTron

Member
Define hardcore gamers.

No. There are all kind of hardcore gamers, and definitely there is a specific group who are only on pc, the modding community. But the hardcore gamers who also like to collect games are nowadays only on consoles. Then the speed runners who are on every platform imaginable... And the list goes on and on.
I'm a hardcore reader.

I only read dictionary's
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
It definitely takes something extra.

Buy a new console - game on!

Buy a new 4080 Super:

1. Won’t post - ah - issue with power draw, plug different 8 pin into card - success.

2. Still not ideal though - wire looks cheap - buy new wire.

3. Try new wire. Play several games - hmm - not quite as good as it could be. Fps seems a bit low - also some tearing.

4. Use overlay to check power, fps and gpu usage. Power seems a bit low - we are talking 10 to 20 w. I have the required 750w psu - it should be fine but….

5. Buy 1000w psu and install - no immediate difference with stutter, but clear that getting higher fps - good.

6. Research stutter - could be g sync interfering with v sync. Decision as to 144hz or higher (monitor can do up to 180hz) - check it out and anything over 144 is oc and so colour depth drops to 8 from 10 - hmmm - sounds best to stick with 10 so stick to 144.

7. Further research - enable vsync in nvidia settings - and gsync and something else which caps frames to 140 or so.

8. Try games again - no stutter and fps solid at 140 or so!

9. Mess around with MSI crappy cooling software for what seems like hours to avoid annoying fan noises that are now happening (due to changing psu and mobo bios deciding to forget fan curve). Not helped by windows not liking you to boot in bios anymore. Success - nice and quiet.

10. Screw around with power cables so rgb on new gpu visible outside case. Perfect.

Only took a few days and another £150 plus but now satisfied. The gpu cost twice as much as my ps5 which worked out the box. I don’t what that is if it isn’t hardcore.
The console path is definitely more straightforward.

1. Plug it in

2. boot up game

3. switch to performance mode and see frame drops and drs kill the image quality

4. tell yourself that it's close enough to 60 fps and live with it since there's nothing else you can do about it

5. go online and vehemently defend your purchase decision
 

egocrata

Banned
The truly hardcore are retro gamers who only play classic games in original hardware on classic CRTs, on cartridges and tapes hand assembled by Shigueru Miyamoto himself.
 

Chastten

Banned
Bruh, what ? I'm sure most of the 4090 owners out there have had a long upgrade journey which started with a ATI Radeon connected to CRT monitor back in the day. Like me. Nothing wrong with wanting to spend on top-of-the-line hardware and then using it to experience the best in visuals, especially if you can afford it. Doesnt automatically make you a casual. Depends on what else you do. I play both Cyberpunk 2077 and Disco Elysium on my rig.

Oh, I'm sure plenty of 4090 owners are hardcore, I'm just talking from my own experiences here. Most people I know with high-end hardware, don't actually seem to like gaming all that much. They like getting new toys, they like messing around with said toys, but they don't actually seem to enjoy gaming all that much. They just use it as way to kill time, like my mother plays Farmville. I wouldn't consider them hardcore gamers. No need for anyone to feel offended, it's just my interpretation. To me, a hardcore gamer would be someone that actually enjoys playing games and everything around it. Watching trailers, posting on forums, being excited about new games, taking the day off and keeping a night free to play said game. Being passionate about it.

I'm not sure if this comparison makes sense (not a native english speaker) but here goes: I watch plenty of movies and visit the cinema often, but I wouldn't consider myself a cinephile. Movies to me are just a way to pass the time, not something I'm really passionate about. To me a hardcore gamer would be the equivalent to a cinephile
 

RetroAV

Member
IMO, PC gamers are the most hardcore because they're willing to go the extra mile to get the games running at their absolute max! And console gamers who put up with all the downgrades must mostly be casuals or fanboys.
 

Fbh

Member
Not really, I think it depends more on which games you play, how much you play, etc.
PC is just very wide. You have mega hardcore gamers with $5000 builds and people playing the Sims on some basic work laptop.
 

FrankWza

Member
IMO, PC gamers are the most hardcore because they're willing to go the extra mile to get the games running at their absolute max! And console gamers who put up with all the downgrades must mostly be casuals or fanboys.
What happens when that person buys a switch? Because I do see a lot of 4k60 switch games comments but that's not possible on a switch.... Hmmm
 

_Ex_

Member
I was a hardcore PC gamer back in the '90s, when PCs designed for playing games had to built from scratch, and it was far more difficult to get PCs to run games well, and PC games back then were exclusives designed for the 1990s PC gaming audience, not homogeneous releases also appearing on consoles simultaneously as we have today. Now ~25 years later 99% of my gaming is done on console and handheld. Modern PC gaming isn't as interesting to me as it was back in the '90s.
 
If we would be talking strictly platforms, I believe between PC, PS and Nintendo, we'll have a balanced industry with 'healthy' indirect competition.
Part of my eyebrow raise comes from the insistence of people suddenly shoving PC into this picture, implying two things:

1) That many people here, including yourself, feel that a 'Big 3' is still a necessity, and I simply don't feel that to be the case.

2) That PC is now being pushed in place of another platform in order to 'win' over the other two.

I'm saying that neither make sense because PC is in a different echelon of gaming. PC has always been around, and Steam has been around for 2 decades at this point. PC has no set specs, no closed ecosystem, no sense of 'generations', and the only reason it would have exclusives is because either the developer couldn't afford the budget, the game's systems are too complex for a controller(RTS), or the game was too graphically advanced/processor heavy for consoles to run.

And still, all of the above does not matter to those who simply prefer consoles.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Part of my eyebrow raise comes from the insistence of people suddenly shoving PC into this picture, implying two things:

1) That many people here, including yourself, feel that a 'Big 3' is still a necessity, and I simply don't feel that to be the case.

2) That PC is now being pushed in place of another platform in order to 'win' over the other two.

I'm saying that neither make sense because PC is in a different echelon of gaming. PC has always been around, and Steam has been around for 2 decades at this point. PC has no set specs, no closed ecosystem, no sense of 'generations', and the only reason it would have exclusives is because either the developer couldn't afford the budget, the game's systems are too complex for a controller(RTS), or the game was too graphically advanced/processor heavy for consoles to run.

And still, all of the above does not matter to those who simply prefer consoles.
That's why I said that I think there is a misunderstanding, because I think exactly like you.

But there will be 3 platforms to play games on regardless.
You say the same thing as me, but for some reason make it so that I (and probably others) somehow turn it into a new 'big 3'.

I consider it PS vs Nintendo in the console-space with PC in it's own regard in parallel.

And I think it's going to be healthy  indirect competition between PC and consoles.

PS vs Nintendo I can see becoming direct competition if Switch 2 gains proper 3rd party support. But it's not going to be similar to PS vs Xbox.
PS and Nintendo demographics are in large very different when it comes to their core installbase.
 
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That's why I said that I think there is a misunderstanding, because I think exactly like you.

But there will be 3 platforms to play games on regardless.
You say the same thing as me, but for some reason make it so that I (and probably others) somehow turn it into a new 'big 3'.

I consider it PS vs Nintendo in the console-space with PC in it's own regard in parallel.

And even Nintendo vs Playstation isn't similar to PS vs Xbox, as I think it's going to be healthy  indirect competition between PC and consoles.

PS vs Nintendo I can see becoming direct competition if Switch 2 gains proper 3rd party support.
The problem with this statement is that you're speaking as if PC is new which is the part of your post that doesn't make sense. When you're talking in regard to PC, you keep saying 'going to be' as if they are some party stepping into the picture and are now relevant. They have always been relevant. They have always been around. One platform that would devalue their exclusivity doesn't suddenly change this.

It may change the console space, but the PC space remains unaffected and unmoved.
 

Shifty1897

Member
Lame generalisation, seems your only experience of PC gamers is forum nerds. PC offers the most eclectic gaming experiences out there and it's not even close. Hundreds of thousands of games of all differing genres at your fingers tips. True hardcore gaymers know this, bruv
My source is I am a PC gamer and a huge graphics nerd.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
The problem with this statement is that you're speaking as if PC is new which is the part of your post that doesn't make sense. When you're talking in regard to PC, you keep saying 'going to be' as if they are some party stepping into the picture and are now relevant. They have always been relevant. They have always been around. One platform that would devalue their exclusivity doesn't suddenly change this.

It may change the console space, but the PC space remains unaffected and unmoved.
"Going to be" as in "post-Xbox".

PC has always been around, but people act like there will be no competition for Sont whatsoever. PC will always be indirect competition in a way.
 
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StereoVsn

Member
Let's say we have two individuals:

Individual A: Rides around on a very tame, kids friendly Pony inside of a fenced off small area right besides the barn. But does it for many hours, every day.

Individual B: Rides with impressive speed on a prize-winning Arabian horse through thickets and underbrush, crossing difficult terrain and manages to look good doing it. But he does it only once a week for about 4 hours or so.

Whom of the two would you deem to be a more "hardcore" rider?
Wait, is this secretly a thread about Porn?
 
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