Why you're supposed to like PC gaming isn't why I like it.

[fastbilly1]

I love pc gaming for a couple reasons.

First off I can typically customize the game to my liking. Be that graphical settings or controls: if I want to, I can play Unreal Tournament with a DDR pad and a Wiimote (which is hard to do). Sometimes this backfires, but usually it is something that is patched - in Alice Madness Returns on Steam you cannot use the umbrella no matter what it is hotkeyed to IN GAME. You have to modify the INI file to remap it. The same is true with Bioshock 2.

Secondly I PC gaming is super diverse. I have literally thousands of PC games from all sorts of developers in my collection. Some are on hand written CD-Rs from guys selling their games at conventions, some are from other countries with a floppy or CD with the english translation patch attached, but most are factory pressed. These games run the gamut from Roguelikes to Submarine Simulators and everything inbetween. Steam has only made this hyper obvious by putting random titles on sale - Ship Simulator Extreme comes to mind. The only type of gaming that is more diverse is boardgaming, but thats another topic.

Thirdly the games are rarely not playable. I bought my copy of Prince of Persia in 1988 on 5.25 discs (well actually my cousin bought it and it didnt run on his mac so he sold it to us). In the mid 90s I transferred it to 3.5. That copy is still in one of my boxes of games. That game is still playable in Dosbox right now - and its still just as hard now as it was back then. Now that said, it is alot more work, but to me that is still fun. The day I got Treasure Mountain to work on one of my laptops I was giddy (its a stupid game but I think its fun).

Fourth, Mods. Mods range from game balance, to fixing bugs, to adding elements not originally in the game. Mods can break a game, but a well made mod adds alot to it. Take Morrowind for example. The modding community bumped the textures, made the world load all at once, added in dragons and epic beasts (super sharks), and retweaked the entire combat system. They made Morrowind into something completely different that I had to replay. Or look at Deus Ex, where they added coop and rebalanced the game to reflect it.

Fifth and final, PC games are typically cheaper then console games. There are exceptions, with special editions and what not.

I would add that LAN parties are always fun, but that gets into piracy and what not. Im far from perfect, but I own UT2k4 on GoG for a reason.

[Ack]

You got Treasure Mountain to work? And I think that LAN parties are a major plus for the PC, allowing for great personal customization while letting everyone sit in the same room AND letting us use our computers. There is no downside beyond having to haul in your rig.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

There's one thing in particular I love about PC gaming over consoles:

Interface.

The ability to use basically any and every USB peripheral on the planet is great. The mouse and keyboard is great for shooters and games that require many keys. I can play beat-em-ups and racers with my Saturn and 360 pad, and flight games with a nice joystick. There's no proprietary memory cards or anything like that either.

Graphics and the huge indie scene are just icing on the cake.

Speaking of graphics, "current gen" consoles are looking pretty terrible by PC standards at this point. A side effect of stretching this gen further than it really should have been. This hardware is 6-7 years old now, and it shows.

[Xeogred]

Indeed, it's mindblowing to compare most of the newest games out there to the PC ports if we're talking graphics. I won't complain about console graphics either, but the PC's are definitely ahead at this point.

That said I completely agree with you guys all the way though, I don't think I favor PC gaming or console gaming over the other thesedays, but yeah my interest in PC gaming has never been about the graphics. Rather just the interfaces and customization/modding, etc.

That said, I'll admit it's very fun and interesting to hit up PS2-era games that were on the PC, and play them in higher resolutions with better framerates usually.