The Comparison of Online Gaming Communities: PC vs Consoles
Hi everyone! Chrispy99 here and I wanted to just write some observations I have seen comparing the communities between PC and Consoles and how that affects the overall market, mentality, and views of the gaming industry. To note, these are just my opinions and there is no real data or research done to back up any claims to this piece. This is just simply stating and starting a conversation within the gaming community. Hope you enjoy!
As someone who is an avid gamer who grew up on consoles and has transitioned over to PC gaming, I found some differences in community camaraderie. Within the console community, I sense a much more intimate community really revolved around the console itself. It can be assumed that console communities are smaller in comparison to the general mass of the PC community but it still achieves a level of community that branches away from sub communities focused on specific games. A simple example would be the announcement of The Last of Us Part 2 or any console exclusive in general. The excitement of new games at conventions like E3 for consoles generates buzz and appeal to the entire community rather than a specific niche and generally drives sales through the roof for a game. That is why console exclusives like The Last of Us, the Legend of Zelda, and Halo are able to thrive in the gaming industry. It is the appeal to the entire console community because they feel connected as a community member to the console through the exclusive. This idea could also be supported by the limited number of games (in comparison to PC gamers) they have access to as well as the price points they charge for these games. PC gamers have huge variations in the amount of prices for games while console gamers generally have 3 tiers of prices for games. That sense of tier system would affect the mentality of console gamers, further cementing and validating their purchases towards a game and the console. However, this game exclusivity and mentality doesn’t really apply to the PC community.
Within the last 3 years, I built a gaming pc for video game streaming and video editing. Within that time frame, I have had a chance to experience the PC gaming community which I would describe as very massive but disjointed. The PC gaming community is massive due to its appeal of free and cheaper alternative games, games sold at cheaper prices, and its increased accessibility for customization. PC gamers enjoy decking out their PC towers in various forms from size to lighting grids to custom watercooling. Or they just love saving a couple of dollars from one game in order to put it towards another game. But when it comes to the PC gaming community as a whole, it is difficult really to notice the rally of the entire community. There could be multiple causes for this sense of separation. One idea is that sheer size of the sub communities within the PC gaming community. Massively popular games on PC such as World of Warcraft, League of Legends, and CS:GO have huge communities that probably rival console communities in number that it is difficult to fully comprehend the massive scale of an entire PC gaming community. Another possible idea stemming from those examples would be the sheer number of available games in each genre. Look at Call of Duty as an example for this idea. Normally, Call of Duty would have a huge number of players in the millions online and participating while in the PC community, a fraction of that number would be playing the same Call of Duty. It is not simply because of popularity. It is because of the accessibility to alternative titles in that genre that are either more appealing to specific types of gamers. 
I want to end this post with a caveat regarding my perceptions of these differences. Looking back, it is important to note how gaming and the perceptions of gaming have changed over time in society which could contribute to the overall general sense of community. With more and more generations embracing the platform and access to gaming on mobile platforms now, the definition of communities could be naturally shifting away from what platforms games are on and redirecting towards communities built around specific games.
Thanks for reading my post! Let me know what you think in the comments down below! Have an awesome day!
TL;DR: PC gaming community is too massive to comprehend and rally as a whole with sub communities large enough to rival console communities. Console communities feel more intimate with game pricing justification and exclusivity rallying the communities.
Love the comic at the beginning. That's hilarious.
Thanks for checking out my post
Yeah I have seen variations of that comic around before and I wanted to include it hahaha
Can't you gamers all just get along? LOL Gaming is gaming,why should there be a superior. Just an opinion from a non gamer :p
lol thanks for checking out my post. It's not so much of an argument of which community is better. Its just an observation being on both sides. The argument of PC vs console is still active mainly towards the younger generations (and even the console wars at times) but its definitely dwindling and changing its focus towards which game is better rather than which platform is better.
PC gamers are more eclectic. For them it is not so much about community as it is the game and what they can do with it. You seem to focus in areas that favor consoles, but don't ever mention titles like The Elder Scrolls or my favorite, Fallout 4. These games are played in solitude, but have well developed modding communities. Consoles are fine if you are happy with the game as is offered. With PCs, you can make the games how you want them. To me, playing consoles is like going back to the 80's and dropping a quarter in a Donkey Kong machine. After a few quarters, you're tired of it and move on. No imagination required.
Hi Olmech! Thanks for reading my post and commenting on this discussion!
Regarding the Elder Scrolls series or Fallout, both games are accessible on both PC and console which was why I didn't mention them. I understand what you are saying how they both have communities that have developed within the PC community. As far as modding goes, yes that is a PC specific community but I was attempting to grasp the PC gaming community as a whole in comparison to the console communities. I guess the best way I would describe it would be like sitting down and talking to people of different communities about games. My viewpoint would be seeing console gamers talk about the console and the games they liked on it (more so probably the exclusives than multiplatform titles) compared to PC gamers who focused on one particular game and the variations you can do with it. Personally, I am the type to try different games to get a variety of experiences and although modding a game can do that, there are things that you can't fully replicate from one game to the next. Obviously there are PC exclusive titles but I have never sensed that sort of hype or unity from the entire community when it came to that. I guess a hypothetical situation for that would be if Gaben officially announced Half Life 3 with gameplay and a trailer and the entire PC community responded. I hope that makes sense. I did mention that the PC gaming community is significantly larger in comparison to the console community which can make it difficult to really sense that camaraderie. Like I said towards the end, the breakdown of the old argument of PC vs consoles is really dwindling with more access to games on multiple platforms and the exponential expansion of the gaming community in general.