I have enjoyed my adventure into PC gaming. The super smooth frame rates, cheap deals, and jaw-dropping graphics have been quite a joy. But like an MLM evangelist on Facebook, whenever I tell people about PC gaming, I’m met with some odd looks. Usually followed by some questions such as, “But how do you play on your TV” or “Wasn’t that expensive”. I’ll admit: there are a lot of misconceptions out there about PC gaming. Let me debunk at least 5.
1. You Can’t Play On Your Couch/In Your Living Room
I’ll be honest: I have no clue why people think this. It’s as if people think a PC is some archaic device that lacks an HDMI port. Some HDTVs now allow for Display Port connections, offering smooth data transfer between the PC and TV. A standard tower can be an eyesore (my current tower is roughly a foot and a quarter tall) but you can buy smaller towers for more discreet placement.
2. I Have To Spend A Lot of Money
Yes, but actually, no. Depending on what you want to do, this can drive the price up. When you add how COVID-19 has affected just about every area of industry, parts will cost more. Depending on what you want to do, you may need the pricey graphics card. If you’re just starting, you can join our Discord server and hang out in the #pc-building channel to get guidance. Even if your build costs a pretty penny, you need to shift your thinking when it comes to PC gaming: you’re building a PC, not a game console. A PC is capable of doing so much more than just a game. My $1,000 PC is capable of video/audio editing and processing, streaming to Twitch, writing for awesome websites (like this one), and, yes, creating spreadsheets. If you only see building a PC as just a game console, you’re only seeing part of the value.
3. I Have To Constantly Mess With Drivers & Settings
In the whole 4 months I have had my PC, I have never had to mess with my settings or toy with drivers. Except for that time, I played Cory in the House. A lot of modern games have “Benchmark Tests” that run the game and select settings for you based on your hardware. Other games just automatically do this upon start-up, Gears 5. While I did have to do maintenance to older games (I’m talking games that are 15+ years old), it has always been a simple enough install and enable a checkbox. Trust me, you’ll be playing more than waiting.
4. I Have To Play With Mouse & Keyboard
No. You don’t. Take any Bluetooth controller and pair it with your computer. If your PC doesn’t have Bluetooth, connect any Xbox/PS4/8bitdo controller via USB and have it at it. Don’t tell anyone but I play 90% of my PC games with an Xbox controller.
5. Backwards Compatibility
This one isn’t so much a myth as it is a very valuable proposition. When I booted up my PC and began shopping around Steam, I was shocked to see how many of my favorite games from past years were there. Dead Space, Metal Gear Rising, Tales of Symphonia, Tomb Raider, oh my! While many of Playstation’s incredible exclusives are not available, they seem to be bringing more of their games to the platform. So far, we have seen Death Stranding and Horizon Zero Dawn; I wonder what we will see next.
What have you worried about jumping into PC gaming? Let us know in the comments below and I’ll see if I can answer them.