SnapSlav
NMA's local DotA fanatic
@Walpknut, Because it IS more convenient. Convenience sells, and that's why people buy consoles or Macs instead of PCs, because it takes more to setup a proper (e.g. not shit, future-proofed) PC.
@AskWazzup, Since about the 90s, the perk of owning consoles has always been that they're far superior to arcades (the dynamic was the complete opposite well into the 80s) and yet cheaper and quicker to setup than a desktop system.
@TheWesDude, NEEDING to obtain a piece of free software is by definition an inconvenience. Just because DOSbox is free doesn't mean it's convenient. When Windows 10 comes with automatic, built-in DOS emulators, THEN it's convenient.
To be specific, the main draw of consoles was NEVER their nifty perks. The fact that they're trying to catch up with the ever-increasingly social multimedia markets isn't why people want or own consoles. The fact that motion controls are "cool" is not why people want or own consoles. People want or own consoles because, while not as powerful or as customizable or many other things as a good PC, they're cheaper and easier to setup. That IS convenience, by definition. For $400, you will get a shit PC, and it won't last you 3 years before you'll need to fork over another couple hundred to try to keep it going while technology is progressing forward. A $400 PC will become obsolete almost immediately because of new software and better, cheaper hardware that the system does not possess. You can ALWAYS upgrade you PC, and that's its major draw. But that's NOT to be confused with convenience. My efforts to obtain the best, most future-proofed components for my new PC have set me back $1000 already, and I'm only halfway there. It will be a GREAT system, and my PS4 will ABSOLUTELY NOT be capable of comparing to it in any way whatsoever. But that does NOT make the PC convenient. Superior, yes. But it will have taken a great deal of effort and resources on my part (INconvenience, by definition) to have it at my disposal.
Consoles are convenient, that's why people want them or own them. Period. Console DEVELOPERS have lately been operating on the mistaken notion that new and superfluous technologies are why people want them, but just because Nintendo has gambled on Wii controls and Sony has gambled on vision controls and Microsoft has gambled on....... uh, whatever, doesn't mean these are the major selling points of consoles. If anything, the developers are simply growing more distant from what it is ABOUT their products that make them appealing in the first place. That's NOT enough (not yet, anyway) to warrant never ever purchasing a console anytime soon. Though if the trend continues for another decades, that might certainly be the case. But, right now, consoles are still great pseudo-PCs that cost a fraction of the price to acquire and an indistinguishable fraction of the effort to setup, and to those who aren't performance hounds they perform comparably as well as their PC counterparts. Those who actually hunt for the best might see their shortcomings, but that's NOT the same thing as inconvenience.
@AskWazzup, Since about the 90s, the perk of owning consoles has always been that they're far superior to arcades (the dynamic was the complete opposite well into the 80s) and yet cheaper and quicker to setup than a desktop system.
@TheWesDude, NEEDING to obtain a piece of free software is by definition an inconvenience. Just because DOSbox is free doesn't mean it's convenient. When Windows 10 comes with automatic, built-in DOS emulators, THEN it's convenient.
To be specific, the main draw of consoles was NEVER their nifty perks. The fact that they're trying to catch up with the ever-increasingly social multimedia markets isn't why people want or own consoles. The fact that motion controls are "cool" is not why people want or own consoles. People want or own consoles because, while not as powerful or as customizable or many other things as a good PC, they're cheaper and easier to setup. That IS convenience, by definition. For $400, you will get a shit PC, and it won't last you 3 years before you'll need to fork over another couple hundred to try to keep it going while technology is progressing forward. A $400 PC will become obsolete almost immediately because of new software and better, cheaper hardware that the system does not possess. You can ALWAYS upgrade you PC, and that's its major draw. But that's NOT to be confused with convenience. My efforts to obtain the best, most future-proofed components for my new PC have set me back $1000 already, and I'm only halfway there. It will be a GREAT system, and my PS4 will ABSOLUTELY NOT be capable of comparing to it in any way whatsoever. But that does NOT make the PC convenient. Superior, yes. But it will have taken a great deal of effort and resources on my part (INconvenience, by definition) to have it at my disposal.
Consoles are convenient, that's why people want them or own them. Period. Console DEVELOPERS have lately been operating on the mistaken notion that new and superfluous technologies are why people want them, but just because Nintendo has gambled on Wii controls and Sony has gambled on vision controls and Microsoft has gambled on....... uh, whatever, doesn't mean these are the major selling points of consoles. If anything, the developers are simply growing more distant from what it is ABOUT their products that make them appealing in the first place. That's NOT enough (not yet, anyway) to warrant never ever purchasing a console anytime soon. Though if the trend continues for another decades, that might certainly be the case. But, right now, consoles are still great pseudo-PCs that cost a fraction of the price to acquire and an indistinguishable fraction of the effort to setup, and to those who aren't performance hounds they perform comparably as well as their PC counterparts. Those who actually hunt for the best might see their shortcomings, but that's NOT the same thing as inconvenience.
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