Gamer in Asia: Asia loves PCs, but I don’t

Throughout Asia the PC is king. PCs are cheaper, multi-functional, and easily upgradeable. Even now games consoles are solely for entertainment purposes and though the prices have come down over the years, they remain an expensive luxury.

In places like China, they remain a luxury far too expensive for the average person. As a result of this, most Asian gamers, excluding the Japanese of course, are much more comfortable with “PC-style” games. RTS, MOBAs, MMORPGs, Crossfire and Counterstrike are way more popular here, and games that take the western world by storm often have little impact in Asia. It never ceases to amaze me how most of my Chinese friends have no idea who Lara Croft is. It’s horrifying.

Logically I know the PC is the way forward. I see how PCs are better value for money, more powerful, and more convenient. With a PC I can use a controller, or a mouse, and keyboard. In a few years I can stick a new graphics card into my tired machine and breathe life into it. I believe this so strongly that last year I dropped a hefty sum of money on my very first gaming PC. Yet in spite of this supercomputer sitting just a foot away from me I almost always find myself playing a game on my consoles.

(See: Gamer in Asia: why I hate MOBAS)

So why do I, and others like me, remain loyal to our consoles? Why do we cling to a technology that is so obviously limited by its very nature? It is for these reasons.

It’s my natural environment

Most Asian gamers have grown up with a PC. The mouse and keyboard have been inalienably fused with the very concept of gaming, and though these gamers may dabble in other mediums, the PC is always home.

I know this feeling of home; for me, it’s with a controller. I sometimes think I was born with a Dualshock clasped in my pudgy little fingers, because that’s how natural a controller feels to me. Every time I speak to my mum about gaming, she jokingly asks about the health of my thumbs. She once proudly told my PE teacher that though I may be bad at football, hockey, and any other sport they could throw at me, I had the strongest thumbs known to man.

A pretty piece of engineering, but not exactly built for MMOs.

For me, sitting at a PC to game is alien. I do it, because I love gaming in any form, but I always choose a controller over a keyboard if there is an option. For me PCs will always be connected with work, with studying; with spreadsheets and Microsoft Word. Nothing is ever going to change that.