nickb64

Yeah, I have a number of friends who play games quite a bit. Most of them aren't as hardcore into games as I am, and pretty much seem to stick to a few specific games/genres each. Basically everyone on my Steam list is a person I've known for a while through school or various activities like Boy Scouts. One of my closest friends pretty much only plays TF2 and BF3. A few of my friends are pretty much only playing DayZ right now.

The thing is I pretty much only have any contact with people at school, through the internet (via Steam, Facebook, etc), or the people who live in my house (my mom and sister). Other than my TF2 playing friend I've not seen most of the people I'd call my friends in person in at least 2 years unless they went to school with me and were in my classes. I can't drive yet (have to get the car fixed so I can take the driving test to get my license) and most of my friends from high school live at least 15-30 miles away, and public transit is shit around here for the most part. I pretty much only see people at school or at events related to Boy Scouts, which I don't go to often as of late because of school and other family commitments. The only friends of mine who pay anywhere near as much attention to the games industry as me are pretty far since they've gone to college farther from home than I did. One's at UC Davis and the other at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. That's roughly 4 and 7 hours away, respectively.

For the most part, myself and most of my friends are kind of socially awkward nerds. Also, most of us have known each other since kindergarten (we're all starting our second year of college, so quite a while) except my hardcore TF2 friend, who I've known since I joined my Boy Scout troop in the 5th or 6th grade.

@banishedsoul1 said:

Many times, when i see people say "pc gaming is expensive" I often see people try to show them a cheap custom rig. However i have seen many of these so called "gaming pcs" Be either very weak and low quality or some times not even usable.

They do things such as leaving out windows use ultra low end psu,cases,motherboards ect...

I also kinda find the Idea funny of comparing an OEM to a custom machine. Part of the cost of a console or a oem pc is the price it takes to put it together...

I have used some cheap parts in my pcs over the years. I got two dead PSU and one dead mother board. If your going to be using a powerful machine you should always make sure you don't cut corners!

Yes you don't need a uber pc to game on the pc. Some people make it out to be that a 350$ pc can max out everything at 1600p with x24AA and be good for years. Exaggerations can be kinda dangerous if the person you are trying to help does not know what they are doing.

You don't have to spend bank on a PSU to get a decent one. A decent 500W Corsair PSU is like $50. OEM Windows is $100. A fairly cheap AMD X4 CPU or Intel i3 is more than enough for most games. RAM is really cheap, a decently cheap GPU like a 6770 or 7770 can run many games at good settings at 1080p. A decent case can be had for $50 or less.

Part of the point comparing a custom PC to an OEM machine is that you can either save money or get better parts for the same price. I don't think I've ever seen anyone make the exaggerated claims you mention about a $350 machine. For $500-600 you can get a pretty damn good desktop that will run most games out there at good settings that look a lot better than consoles.

The other thing is that most people would already spend at least $300 on a computer on top of a console, so the price disparity is smaller than it looks, and things like Steam sales are pretty compelling pricing wise for games as long as you don't care too much about playing immediately on release day.

@Cloudenvy said:

Total War is the best game ever created, you guys.

They're quite good.

Empire is probably my favorite, because of the scope of the world, but the additions of Napoleon would be welcome, especially the replenishment mechanic. A longer timeline (say, to ~1840/50 or even to 1900 for an extended campaign) and full world map would improve it even more.

I don't, mainly because I'm not 21 (US). The opportunity also hasn't really presented itself, since I don't go to parties or anything really.

Computers/hardware (I like PC gaming, the two often go hand in hand), reading (less than when I was in middle school), camping/hiking/other outdoor stuff (I was in scouts for ~10 years as a youth, and am an Eagle Scout as of about a year ago).

I definitely agree with the commwmt that you're not born racist. I grew up around predominantly white people, though I wouldn't call myself racist, I probably picked up more prejudices than I'd like.

Over the past ccouple years, I like to think that I've grown and gottwn past those. I changed schools from a private school, and the people at my new school were generally kinder than tthe people I had grown up with. That really genuinely surprised me, as I'd had it drilled into my head that thesr people were basically bad people.

I realized just how many racist, elitist assholes I'd grown up with. Most of those people have turned out to be young rich assholes leeching their parents money to buy expensive shit and sit around going to the desert and drink and smoke pot. Only a handful of people still talk to me, and tbh I'm glad. The ones who were my close friends turned out to be mostly normal and not complete dicks.

Glad I got in on the Tested Blockhead shirt when I did. Just got it the other day in the mail, and happen to be wearing it today.