Consoles VS PC - Social Features

[Awakening]

I was browsing r/pcmasterrace when I came across a comment.

 

 

Unfortunately, I'm still a console peasant and haven't had the opportunity to join you guys yet. One of the things I really enjoy about my Xbox is that it's insanely easy to join friends in what they're playing and that I can easily invite them to a party and all of us can talk together. It's extremely easy to socialize with other players on Xbox and continue on with those players in the future. I figured maybe Steam was a kind of alternative to this having not ever really looked into it much, but is it not and is there no equivalent to Xbox Live or Playstation Network where you can add friends, send messages to people, and even talk to people outside or inside of a game without using something like Skype?

 

I really don't enjoy playing alone too often and it would be sad to find out that this is a fact of life when going to PC gaming.

[Guest]

Yes you can voice chat using Steam outside of game and send people message. You can't send message if they are not friend with you. People prefer Skype, TeamSpeak or Discord for better quality and some extra feature. You can invite many people to the same voice chat in Steam. And there is an option to join a game or join a match with your friend too. 

[Guest]

I love PC gaming but I have no friends who do so right n0ow for Christmas I am getting xbox one s to play with them.

[dizmo]

Xbox is by far easier, which is one of the reasons I like it. Just turn it on, hit a few buttons and go.

Graphically it's not as pretty as a PC, but I've always been more about game play than graphics anyway.

I have more friends that play Xbox, so that's what I game on.

 

That said if you have friends that play PC games it's not too hard to get them all together. Hell for a while we just used cell phones to talk while we gamed.

[Awakening]

4 minutes ago, Abyss Gaming said:

I love PC gaming but I have no friends who do so right n0ow for Christmas I am getting xbox one s to play with them.

 

):

6 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Yes you can voice chat using Steam outside of game and send people message. You can't send message if they are not friend with you. People prefer Skype, TeamSpeak or Discord for better quality and some extra feature. You can invite many people to the same voice chat in Steam. And there is an option to join a game or join a match with your friend too. 

 

 

Do you have any experience with consoles and if so how do you think it compares? How do you usually deal with people you want to play with again when you find them in a game?

[ARikozuM]

4 minutes ago, Awakening said:

):

Do you have any experience with consoles and if so how do you think it compares? How do you usually deal with people you want to play with again when you find them in a game?

What games do you play or like to play?

[Awakening]

4 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

What games do you play or like to play?

I'd play Battlefield 1 if I could, but ever since I started playing World of Tanks that's pretty much been all I've played. I used to play GTA V, but we stopped getting updates and it's grown a bit stale. I still play it sometimes.

 

If you're unfamiliar with World of Tanks though, I'll just keep it short by saying it's an MMO with a stupidly long grind to complete and that progress does not transfer to PC (which kind of aggravates me). It's unlikely I'd actually play that on PC and I'd keep my Xbox for it.

[ARikozuM]

Just now, Awakening said:

I'd play Battlefield 1 if I could, but ever since I started playing World of Tanks that's pretty much been all I've played. I used to play GTA V, but we stopped getting updates and it's grown a bit stale. I still play it sometimes.

I haven't played WoT in a long time, but if you head over to "Looking for Group" you can make a thread for any game. I don't play many shooters but I'm down for some games whenever I'm available.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Awakening said:

):

Do you have any experience with consoles and if so how do you think it compares? How do you usually deal with people you want to play with again when you find them in a game?

I used PS3 before. Tbh I did not chat much since I don't have a keyboard on it lol... but it was really nice. I did not do harcore gaming then just some casual offline games w/o a headset

[AshleyAshes]

There's some serious social shortcomings on PC gaming for sure, particularly of the 'Pile your friends on the couch and have fun' way.  I say this as someone who's main couch gaming machine is a Windows 10/Kodi/Steam BPM powered home theater PC with four Xbox 360 controllers.  Any of the games with split screen support are ports of console oriented games and even then there's little short comings.  On console you can log one player in per controller and they can even add to their own achievements and such sometimes.  Know who the four players in Sonic All Stars Transformed, Castle Crashers, Towerfall, or Screencheats and many others on Steam are? Ashes, Ashes(1), Ashes (2), and Ashes(3).  If it's your Steam account, you are all four players and you can't rename the others.  A little thing I know but it bugs me.

 

For FPS games you have a REAL shortage of split screen options though Screencheats is a great choice for 'Goldeneye Style Shooting Fun'.  Local multiplayer FPS games for the most part means everyone bringing a complete PC and breaking out an extra network switch.

 

By -default- PC game developers are mostly assuming that you will be sitting alone in a room and that mentality makes PC games less ideal for being a social experience with friends all in one room.

[kirashi]

25 minutes ago, Awakening said:

I was browsing r/pcmasterrace when I came across a comment.

 

Unfortunately, I'm still a console peasant and haven't had the opportunity to join you guys yet. One of the things I really enjoy about my Xbox is that it's insanely easy to join friends in what they're playing and that I can easily invite them to a party and all of us can talk together. It's extremely easy to socialize with other players on Xbox and continue on with those players in the future. I figured maybe Steam was a kind of alternative to this having not ever really looked into it much, but is it not and is there no equivalent to Xbox Live or Playstation Network where you can add friends, send messages to people, and even talk to people outside or inside of a game without using something like Skype?

 

I really don't enjoy playing alone too often and it would be sad to find out that this is a fact of life when going to PC gaming.

An interesting topic - I too have always seen better Social Integration on consoles (at least on Xbox Live) for playing games with friends.

Despite owning an Xbox 360 (for the good old Halo2/3 days) and now a PS4 (for the exclusive games), I find that neither platform satisfies me like the PC does. This isn't because they don't offer good social features - it's because developers and manufacturers haven't found a way to properly unify the multiplayer experience across multiple platforms.

 

Sure, for competitive gaming, I certainly understand the differences between someone playing CoD on a PC vs. someone playing on a console. I also understand that updates can be pushed out a lot easier on PC where as they take a long time to be QA tested on console. Those issues aside, most people are after what @dizmo described - sitting down to "just game" with our friends, without worrying about what platform they're on. That's the whole point of playing multiplayer games, right?

To play with friends and have a good time. If there are any barriers preventing everyone from joining in, then it completely defeats the purpose of using the platform for multiplayer. (I'm looking at PC here too, not just console exclusive online features.)

 

This is why I miss couch based multiplayer - or even console linking over a local network. What happened to the good old days of having 8 people get together with 2-4 consoles to play a bunch of custom Forge maps in Halo? Game developers have taketh away in favor of forcing everyone online only, all on individual single screens, same as PC gamers have been used to for years.

 

There's no social feature on a console that I cannot attain on my PC with the ease of Discord Chat and Facebook these days. Because of this, I no longer see the difference between owning a console vs. owning a PC, other than game exclusivity.

[TheRandomness]

26 minutes ago, Awakening said:

I'm still a console peasant

Don't go with that mentality. 'PC master race' and 'console peasants' are both really stupid concepts, and it's completely fine to play on a console. They do have their advantages, but I'd only play on one for the exclusives (if there's one that interests me).

[Thaldor]

31 minutes ago, Awakening said:

If you're unfamiliar with World of Tanks though, I'll just keep it short by saying it's an MMO with a stupidly long grind to complete and that progress does not transfer to PC (which kind of aggravates me). It's unlikely I'd actually play that on PC and I'd keep my Xbox for it.

PC and Xbox WoTs are two almost completely different games. While Wargaming has really beefed the graphics on WoT Xbox, the PC still has better controls and much smoother gameplay. Acctually every WoT in different platforms (PS4, Xbox 360 and One, mobile and PC) is a different game from one another with different development target. While PC is kinda towards balance and tournament playing, Xbox One and PS4 versions are graphic developent branch, xbox 360 is now kind of legacy graphics dev branch and mobile is all about ease of use. Also on PC you get to enjoy the amount of mods (I recommend using QuickyBabys mod pack, one of the earliest always to update, quite vanilla, but has still a ton of features still missing from vanilla game, like XVM (unoffical stat tracker and UI extension) and battle assistant (more immersive aiming system for artillery).

 

On the social side of the PC WoT. Well, even while there is voice chat, no one uses it and it is for platoons only, which is good because; Point 2. You get to enjoy the great company of eastern european kids and idiots who usually play just a bit better than bots and use more time on chat than in game (if you're from the Europe) (And not generalizing to every player, but there's just a huge amount of those chatters and tomatoes that are from eastern europe). When you get to the point of getting to the clans, around every single bigger clan has at least ventrilo server for voice chat.

[Awakening]

17 minutes ago, Thaldor said:

PC and Xbox WoTs are two almost completely different games. While Wargaming has really beefed the graphics on WoT Xbox, the PC still has better controls and much smoother gameplay. Acctually every WoT in different platforms (PS4, Xbox 360 and One, mobile and PC) is a different game from one another with different development target. While PC is kinda towards balance and tournament playing, Xbox One and PS4 versions are graphic developent branch, xbox 360 is now kind of legacy graphics dev branch and mobile is all about ease of use. Also on PC you get to enjoy the amount of mods (I recommend using QuickyBabys mod pack, one of the earliest always to update, quite vanilla, but has still a ton of features still missing from vanilla game, like XVM (unoffical stat tracker and UI extension) and battle assistant (more immersive aiming system for artillery).

 

On the social side of the PC WoT. Well, even while there is voice chat, no one uses it and it is for platoons only, which is good because; Point 2. You get to enjoy the great company of eastern european kids and idiots who usually play just a bit better than bots and use more time on chat than in game (if you're from the Europe) (And not generalizing to every player, but there's just a huge amount of those chatters and tomatoes that are from eastern europe). When you get to the point of getting to the clans, around every single bigger clan has at least ventrilo server for voice chat.

 

 

 

10

 

Yeah, I'm well acquainted with all of that. I average about ~3600 WN8 recent on Xbox 360 WoT and I'd absolutely love to hone those skills in even more with a mouse and keyboard, but it just completely sucks because Wargaming doesn't care about all of the premium tanks I've purchased and I'd have to buy them all over again. I find the game pretty unplayable without a tier eight premium tank for making fast silver and with all the money I've already put into the game I'm just completely not willing to put that much into again for all the same stuff.

 

And yeah, it's rare I don't mute someone in game chat. I just really enjoy joining my friends in a party and being able to chat with them there. I don't enjoy playing WoT alone nearly as much as I do when I have friends to help me through my potato team with someone having my back and to strategize with. The last thing you want to do is rely on a random teammate to help you out, but I help them out myself whenever possible.

 

 

A fresh start would be great. My potato days really keep me down.

[SLAYR]

1 hour ago, Awakening said:

I figured maybe Steam was a kind of alternative to this having not ever really looked into it much, but is it not and is there no equivalent to Xbox Live or Playstation Network where you can add friends, send messages to people, and even talk to people outside or inside of a game without using something like Skype?

Steam has all of those features, as well as battle.net, and origin IIRC. 

 

 

[Dash Lambda]

People have already said that Steam has all those social features (arguably a more extensive and robust system than Xbox Live or PSN and it's free), but I have something else to point out: Community servers.

A lot of multiplayer games on PC let people host their own servers, which can develop their own little communities. Even if none of your friends are on or something like that, you can go to a server where you know there'll be fun people or even people you've played with before and whatnot, as opposed to some random assemblage of people concocted by matchmaking.

 

Just a thought.

[Ithanul]

PC and console each have their own form of social online gaming.

 

I noticed with consoles is the relative ease to start up a game online, or as you stated, the fact most people have a console to game on compare to medium decent gaming PC.  Heck, you consider the base price of a console compare to a gaming PC, I don't blame people.  Seriously, I had people look at me dump founded when I told them how much I have drop in my PCs, and I hardly game on mine (tend to fold, boinc, or use them for other usages).

 

Lucky though, Steam has built up a gaming community on the PC as well, but the consoles tend to host a larger player base in comparison to the PC version of a game.  Exceptions being genres like MOBAs and MMORPGs.

 

Myself, I actually game way more on my consoles for the few rare times I game compare to my PC.  I just like to sit on a couch with a bag of chips, put the game disc in, and just play without worrying with settings.

[Mooshi]

The secret is not to try too hard. When you actually take "PC Master Race" seriously and legitimately insult a console gamer not for japes, you're a twat.

 

All the uber baller hardware doesn't mean much when I'm going to be face first into my 3DS playing Sun lol

[matrix07012]

PC. Just Steam alone offers more for free than Xbox live and PS Network.+Discord, TS3, custom servers, MMOs, LAN parties etc.

PC also has more coop, split-screen and party games.

 

6 hours ago, Mooshi said:

The secret is not to try too hard. When you actually take "PC Master Race" seriously and legitimately insult a console gamer not for japes, you're a twat.

 

All the uber baller hardware doesn't mean much when I'm going to be face first into my 3DS playing Sun lol

Thank you!

Some people don't get that "PC Master race" is just satire and the subreddit is just like this forum, just a bunch of PC enthusiasts.

[Guest]

Console peasants are only people who claim that consoles are superior than PC, without any real evidence to back it up. Just having one doesnt make you a peasant.

 

[matrix07012]

9 hours ago, Ithanul said:

Lucky though, Steam has built up a gaming community on the PC as well, but the consoles tend to host a larger player base in comparison to the PC version of a game.  Exceptions being genres like MOBAs and MMORPGs.

Yeah, a lot of good games on PC die out much quicker than on consoles (Titanfall), but on PC, there is always a community that will keep playing them, even if the servers get shutdown. BF2, BF2142 and SW:BF II are still played by hundreds of people. BF:BC2 or BF3 are basically dead on consoles even though the servers are still up, but on PC, they are still played by thousands of people (official EA server aren't running, but the server list still is).

Or games that never had multiplayer are still being played by thousands of people, because the fans made a multiplayer mod (GTA:SA).

[Awakening]

23 minutes ago, matrix07012 said:

Yeah, a lot of good games on PC die out much quicker than on consoles (Titanfall), but on PC, there is always a community that will keep playing them, even if the servers get shutdown. BF2, BF2142 and SW:BF II are still played by hundreds of people. BF:BC2 or BF3 are basically dead on consoles even though the servers are still up, but on PC, they are still played by thousands of people (official EA server aren't running, but the server list still is).

Or games that never had multiplayer are still being played by thousands of people, because the fans made a multiplayer mod (GTA:SA).

 

 

Ah, SA:MP. The memories. I used to play on the Pilot's Life server around four years ago and then a couple months ago i went to check the servers and they were still going strong. That whole custom server thing just doesn't happen on consoles.

 

2 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Consoles do not have more social features than PC.

You only think that way because that's where your friends happen to be.

 

If all your friends only play MOBA's or CSGO, then the consoles are useless. In fact its actually easier on PC with so many options to communicate. You also have the option to chat via typing for people who can't speak or don't have a mic. Better than being subjected to all those 10 year olds cussing all the time.

 

Communication on PC extends beyond gaming. You can do live video conferencing, collaborative work, streaming on your choice of platform, and don't forget good old email. I'm not some PCMR preacher, but its easy to forget that computers don't just run games. They run the backend for literally ALL of today's communications, and is the platform on which the modern world around you was designed.

 

 

Yes, but "hey, do you have Discord? No? What about Skype? Email? No? Steam? Go download Discord?" It's not about the options, it's about the sheer ease of use of social features on consoles. Of course PC has more options, but that's mostly the downfall of it. Everybody is using something different.

[matrix07012]

25 minutes ago, Awakening said:

Yes, but "hey, do you have Discord? No? What about Skype? Email? No? Steam? Go download Discord?" It's not about the options, it's about the sheer ease of use of social features on consoles. Of course PC has more options, but that's mostly the downfall of it. Everybody is using something different.

I would argue that functionality and scalability is more important than ease of use, but I can call my friend on Steam right now and Discord works within your browser.

[BuckGup]

15 hours ago, dizmo said:

Xbox is by far easier, which is one of the reasons I like it. Just turn it on, hit a few buttons and go.

Graphically it's not as pretty as a PC, but I've always been more about game play than graphics anyway.

I have more friends that play Xbox, so that's what I game on.

 

That said if you have friends that play PC games it's not too hard to get them all together. Hell for a while we just used cell phones to talk while we gamed.

Invalid. I hit one button my PC is on then I go to Library and select the game I want in steam

[AshleyAshes]

That moment when you realize you're the only one in the thread who's actually played PC games on the couch, with friends, all on the same machine, where as everyone else's idea of 'Social Experiences While PC Gaming' still involves them sitting alone in a room with a computer...