How would you convert somebody to pc gaming?

I decided to move from consoles because my xbox had red ringed for a 4th time and I was sick of it.

I fixed the xbox then started messing around with an old pc (over 7 years old!!) Then it dawned on me that pc's are quite easy to build once you get your head around item compatability.


but anyway if your mate is happy with consoles then let him be. There are advantages to consoles
 
Swap his 360 for a PC and plug in a wireless controller adapter, when he questions the new "Dashboard", tell him it has just been updated.

Really though, you have to want to game on PC, once people realise they have to put in effort, most will turn away.
 
RageQuit© said:
Show him bad drivers, microstutter, poor console ports, input delay, screen tearing, hyperthreading on or off?, tick flip queue size to 1 etc. etc.

Sure to get him on board ;)

Or just let him get on with whatever he's happy with currently. Who the hell cares. He's playing games isn't he?
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I've been PC gaming for two years and never had a bad driver. i've heard horror stories about the newer AMD cards, but thats about it.

microstutter is only a problem for multi - gpu PCs. i doubt the OPs friend is interested in those. I seem to remember that triple GPU PCs cure the microstutter problem

I've never had a problem with input delay on the PC. I genuinely cant see how the consoles would have better input delay than PCs but if you can show me some hard evidence for it then let me know.

I genuinely don't understand why you are talking about hyperthreading. as far as i know the only time you should turn off hyperthreading if you are trying to set an overclocking record

V-sync + triple buffering solves screen tearing for me. I dont know what the consoles do but if it isn't the same type of thing i would be very surprised since the rendering process is, in essence, the same between consoles and PC

I haven't even heard of tick flip queue size, so if he has to deal with this i will eat my own shoes (unless there are some games or some hardware configurations with specific problems where this is a fix)


literally the only 'problem' on your list is bad console ports. most of these bad ports still run better on the PC than the current consoles, especially if you put the settings down to the levels that consoles use. i'm sure there are a couple of genuinely terrible ones, but they will be far outweighed by decent PC exclusive games

here's a list of my own:
- Red ring of death
- yellow light of death
- Xbox live gold fee for multiplayer (and PS+ for the PS4)
- 3rd party peripheral support (try finding a good wheel for the xbox 360 that isnt a fanatec, or a kb/mouse that works properly for either console).
- mods
- game prices
etc.
 
I converted a few people to PC gaming today, couple of mates who hadn't seen my PC setup before came round today (oh by the way, with the new consoles only due for release later this year, now is the perfect time to start converting people! :p) I stood them infront of my 3 x 27" monitor setup and ran a few unigine benchmarks and jaws dropped. :D hehe
 
Not sure how you can convert someone. I mean you can show them what you've got and they either want it themselves, or they are quite content with they already have.

I've tried to do this 'conversion' the other way round a few times, but as I'm married with kids the living room has other uses over console's and for me to play on a console I'd need a 42" plasma and I can only afford one of those.

My suggestion would be to find a game they like. Something they really love on the Xbox and show them it on the PC. Skyrim would be a good example as there a loads of juicy mods to make it look awesome.
 
OP said:
xbone.
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I totally read that as 'X-Bone' haha

As for converting someone, don't waste the time, Just chuckle quietly whenever they make a comment about how said game has amazing graphics lol :p
 
Get them into a game that is better with keyboard/mouse: RTS, FPS, MMOs etc... or just show them how much better games look with a decent graphics card!

Long gone are the days of Red Alert on PS or FPS with a pad once I got into PC gaming.
 
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mrbios said:
by the way, with the new consoles only due for release later this year, now is the perfect time to start converting people! :p
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Only the perfect time if the objective is simply to get them playing PC games IMO; it may not be perfect for them as individuals in the sense that they may still get tempted by the new consoles and end up spending money on a gaming PC that ends up just being used for emails and social networking etc.
In other words I'd imagine that any people converted in the coming months are likely to have a relatively high regression rate, compared to people converted at a point when they can make an objective comparison between next gen consoles and PCs.

That said, if you don't convert them now and they buy a XB1/PS4, chances are they won't want to then splash out on a PC. So ideal situation as I see it would be for them to wait until for everything to come out and then try them out before buying PC/XB1/PS4.

As for the topic in general, I personally haven't really tried to convert anyone to PC gaming for many years, although I have 'debated' the issue with some friends much more recently (essentially people who find it weird that I would choose to do gaming on PC given that I also have a PS3, XB360 and Wii)
 
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I don't know why you'd bother, tbh.

The reason I got into PC gaming was because back then PC games were a completely different breed (and market) to console games. You couldn't play C&C, XCom, Settlers, etc, on any console at that time.

Today a lot of titles are multi-platform, but the PC still has some titles that simply don't appear on consoles. They are mostly MMOs these days, however.

And given how comfortable a controller is, I don't think there's much wrong with console gaming (even for FPS), so I wouldn't try to sway people away from PS4/X1 if that's what they want.

If graphics is your #1 priority, of course, then you have to have a PC. But those kind of 'gamers' are not true gamers at all ;)
 
Come November I know ill be spending allot of time on my XBone, I'll be BR100 on planetside before then with no sign of a metagame in sight. Yes i'll have BF4 to play on the PC but my friends (RL) will be on Xbox so i'll be playing with them.

Why not "convert" them?
1) I don't want to build and then fix their PCs
2) Some of them cant afford a good gaming PC but can afford a £430 Xbox (no you cant build a pc that will play games for the next 6-10 years for £400, I just spent £350 on a 770GTX and it will be legacy kit in 5 years)
3) living room over spare room

With consoles getting MMOs this time round (so they say) then the reasons for a PC unless your a Sim player or a RTS nut and shrinking.

I like having both but TBH a lot of PC gamers need to get over themselves.
 
Tell him he's not allowed a pc filthy unwashed console scum make numerous comments about how he appreciate just how much better a p&c is over a console and generally be coy about how good a game is on pc

After a while the jealousy and feeling of exclusion will drive him into pc gaming


As a side note snigger every time he mentions specs for the new consoles and every time he mentions a game price act shocked " HOW ******* MUCH "
 
I've just spent £800 on a i5-3570 system from here.
Runs my games lovely!

And yet i still prefer Skyrim on the Xbox.
It's the Big Screen/Sofa versus Monitor/Desk thing really.
The logistics of getting my pc on the big screen (just for gaming), then back to my monitor are just not worth the hassle.

If you are a bedroom gamer i imagine it is far less complicated.

Still some PC only stuff im looking forward to though, such as the upcoming Total War Rome game :)
 
Worth noting as well that the more console scum get converted to PC gaming the greater the dilution of the gene pool will be, lowering standards and letting the developers get away with serving up the same tripe as the peasants get.
 
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With there's a will, there's a way lol
 
House said:
With consoles getting MMOs this time round (so they say) then the reasons for a PC unless your a Sim player or a RTS nut and shrinking.
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If consoles are getting MMOs this time round, then they better allow for plugging in a full-size keyboard at least.

How else is a 50 year old bloke to pretend to be a nubile wood elf girl? :p
 
I think I'm going to opposite way when the next consoles drop. I've been playing consoles quite a bit recently and am enjoying myself quite a bit more. I'll keep my PC for sim racing and some PC exclusives but being able to sit back and play games on console is more fun for me. I don't like being leaned forward using kb&m and if I even tried using controller on PC I'd have no chance.
 
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