To a large extent, the core personality of PC gaming is being niche.
What does that even mean?
What is a personality for PC gaming?
I have never ever felt I was in a niche hobby or that PC gaming was even perceived as such and I have been playing for a long time.
I grew up in the nineties and PC gaming certainly felt like a niche hobby then, at least where I grew up. “Normal” kids were doing sports, maybe some families had a Playstation, Dreamcast or Nintendo console in the living room. But there weren’t many others who played PC games and us who did were the nerds who got more or less bullied.
Not really. I’d say it’s gotten more mainstream in the last decade but most people will still look at you funny if you tell them you game most nights instead of veg out in front of the tv. Doubly so if it’s a “nerdy game” like rpgs.
I’d say the explosion of gaming in general through the 00s helped make PC gaming more mainstream. Consoles with online gaming helped blur the lines between platforms.
Then there was also World of Warcraft. It may have only reached ~10 million people then, but it seemed to reach well beyond those who were part of the traditional PC gaming culture.
Huh, my friends played a ton of PC games. Pretty much anyone into gaming had played Age of Empires, and most had at least heard of the other great RTS games (Command and Conquer, Warcraft 2, etc). Even games like Diablo II were quite popular. And then there was RuneScape that everyone played on the school/library computers, plus the abundance of flash games.
Consoles were also quite popular, and there was a lot fewer cross platform games. Pretty much everyone had a computer in the 90s and early 00s for homework and whatnot. PC was the common denominator, so it’s more likely that two people would have played the same game on PC than console.
The only thing niche about PC gaming was dedicated GPUs, since those were an added cost, and parents would prefer the console to the GPU (and consoles were multiplayer).
Maybe for total revenue (including game sales), but a lot of people had access to PCs. They were still fairly niche in the early 90s, but by the early 00s, online games like RuneScape and flash games were ubiquitous, and tons of kids would play at school labs and the local library.
What does that even mean?
What is a personality for PC gaming? I have never ever felt I was in a niche hobby or that PC gaming was even perceived as such and I have been playing for a long time.
This article is just bad I’m sorry.
I grew up in the nineties and PC gaming certainly felt like a niche hobby then, at least where I grew up. “Normal” kids were doing sports, maybe some families had a Playstation, Dreamcast or Nintendo console in the living room. But there weren’t many others who played PC games and us who did were the nerds who got more or less bullied.
Okay but it’s been pretty mainstream for like the last 15 years at least, if not 20.
Not really. I’d say it’s gotten more mainstream in the last decade but most people will still look at you funny if you tell them you game most nights instead of veg out in front of the tv. Doubly so if it’s a “nerdy game” like rpgs.
We’re talking about PC gaming specifically, not gaming in general.
Yes. So am i.
Vegging out playing PC games on your TV is a niche of a niche. I’m already a member though.
I’d say the explosion of gaming in general through the 00s helped make PC gaming more mainstream. Consoles with online gaming helped blur the lines between platforms.
Then there was also World of Warcraft. It may have only reached ~10 million people then, but it seemed to reach well beyond those who were part of the traditional PC gaming culture.
Huh, my friends played a ton of PC games. Pretty much anyone into gaming had played Age of Empires, and most had at least heard of the other great RTS games (Command and Conquer, Warcraft 2, etc). Even games like Diablo II were quite popular. And then there was RuneScape that everyone played on the school/library computers, plus the abundance of flash games.
Consoles were also quite popular, and there was a lot fewer cross platform games. Pretty much everyone had a computer in the 90s and early 00s for homework and whatnot. PC was the common denominator, so it’s more likely that two people would have played the same game on PC than console.
The only thing niche about PC gaming was dedicated GPUs, since those were an added cost, and parents would prefer the console to the GPU (and consoles were multiplayer).
Consoles dwarfed PC gaming back then, so your experience is pretty atypical.
Maybe for total revenue (including game sales), but a lot of people had access to PCs. They were still fairly niche in the early 90s, but by the early 00s, online games like RuneScape and flash games were ubiquitous, and tons of kids would play at school labs and the local library.