This is an opinionated story about my conversion to PC gaming; my rise from a peasant to master race.
The recent GTA V discussion gave me the idea for this topic.
Disclaimer: This piece of text is in no way intended to be objective! Please take it with a grain of salt
From the dawn of my gaming age, consoles have been my faithful friends; Atari 2600, NES, SNES, N64, PSX, PS2 and PS3. Countless hours were spent with those machines. I regret nothing. The fun of sitting in the living room with friends, and just play! Maybe it’s nostalgia kicking in at this point, but one thing is sure, these are good memories.The recent GTA V discussion gave me the idea for this topic.
Disclaimer: This piece of text is in no way intended to be objective! Please take it with a grain of salt
However, in parallel, there was a world I was barely aware of… A world where the limitations would be set by your budget, not the machine itself… A world where sharewares and freewares would freely thrive… A world where everything is accessible, a few clicks away…
The conversion is not an easy one however; to leave the user-friendly world of consoles and join the not-so-user-friendly world of computers does require a bit of effort and dedication. Consoles hold your hand while computers kick you in the nuts. But when you can glimpse at what awaits you, it makes it infinitely easier and even pleasant.
My first experience of PC gaming happened at a very young age, too young to even understand what I was doing. The only thing I remember is that I used to start-up ‘’Grand Prix’’ from a MS-Dos OS. The game was fun for sure, but I couldn’t understand much of it, and even less of the computer itself. I didn’t think much about computers, and only used them as glorified MP3 players through my teen age. Then, at some point, I needed to make the change…
For me, the console-PC conversion was somewhat short and brutal, but oh rewarding. That’s actually a PS3 game that made me discover PC gaming; Dust 514, a First-Person shooter set in the universe of EVE Online. That’s what ticked me ; ‘’in the universe of EVE Online’’. How so? What does that mean exactly? What is EVE Online? The answers to those questions were to be found in the PC gaming world. After a quick research, I was hooked… I kept reading and reading on work time; forums, wiki, blogs… I NEEDED to play this game. I bought a cheap computer only to try out that game. From peasant to master race, I rose. I strongly recommend you take that quest too; your gaming life is not complete if you do not, at the very least, know a little about the pioneer that is CCP’s EVE Online. Now, I could go in lengthy details about the game, but I’ll give only these keywords and let your curiosity do the rest: MMORPG, Sandbox, Sci-Fi Sim, Real-Time XP earning, Persistent universe, Player-driven economy, Player-driven storyline, Emergent gameplay, Single shard universe and most importantly Griefing/Scamming allowed and non-consensual PVP. Yes, EVE Online is ALL of this. Also, just google: ''biggest online battle ever'' and the Battles of HED-GP and Asakai of EVE Online will come out...
I played EVE for a year or so and then had to stop because 1) financial reasons (it’s a subscription game) 2) I was really bad at it (the game is EXTREMELY challenging). Therefore, I was now on the quest for a new PC game that would hook me up. The choice was large.
Browsing CNET, I saw it and was curious; ‘’A free flight simulator, seems nice’’ I said to myself. Within a few minutes of fiddling, I was in the skies of YS flight. Off course I was not struck with the graphical component of YS, but in my learning of the game, I saw the network capabilities and wanted to learn more about it; ‘’If there’s multi-player, there must be servers and a community somewhere’’. That’s how I found about YSFHQ, the server list and mods. My first server connection was on CP’s and my username always been Mobiyus. It is with YS flight that I learned basic folder architecture, mod installation and port forwarding, amongst a lot of other small things. It is during my time in YS Flight that I discovered a whole world of apps, softwares and games just waiting to be used. PC Gaming is truly complete universes opening to you.
Even though I don’t regret my times with consoles, I just wish I knew about all this sooner. Today, my days of hard-core console gamer are a long way behind, and I look forward to my days of hard-core PC gamer, the incredible advances computers makes nearly every month. I look forward to the wealth of softwares in the making, just for us, the users. And above all... I praise our lord Gaben!
What about you guys? Share your relation with PC gaming and gaming in general!
), and Half-Life the first time around(yes children it was that special, no, not as special as doom). So here I am, back in school, learning to program, noodling with ever improving open-source design software, and totally burnt out on story driven shooters and following little yellow question marks. To that end, I'm currently playing this (and enjoying civilian flight more than blowing things up, I must be getting old), and Kerbal Space Program, which tickles all my gamendorphin receptors except the giant robot one(it is moddable tho...).
Thank you for your replies guys, I enjoy the read and keep it going 
