People often find it odd when I say I don’t play PC games, but it seems rather complicated (and also expensive) to me.
I mean, I enjoyed it back when I had friends with PS, but I never had to set up anything myself. Searching around it seems rather… overwhelming, and I don’t know if it’s actually the case.
- PC seems most versatile, and with the prices, I considered piracy, but I would need a separate computer for security. Hell, I wouldn’t even trust the device firmware on it afterwards.
- So I considered maybe paying the amounts, but I went to check some games and lo and behold, kernel-level anti-cheat. Great, so pirated games might even have less malware in the end.
- Since I’d need a separate device anyway, how about getting a PlayStation. With a disc drive, I want to be able to go future proof and fully offline. Well, about that… apparently it needs to verify the disc drive online. For what? It’s a BluRay drive, either it works or it doesn’t. And then I heard another shitty thing, “most games are released almost unplayable and need updates right away”. So they just release Alpha quality software on the most permanent medium???
So that just sounds like shitty experience no matter what. How is it actually? I’d expect consoles to be least buggy and fully future proof.
The only thing I ever had was a $4 NES bootleg console from AliExpress, Contra was glitched out and Battletank unplayable because they forgot the select button, but ok, $4.
Ehh… I’ve yet to get a virus from pirating games. Only virus I’ve ever gotten was on my childhood PC when my uncle was watching some sketchy adult content. I was just playing neopets at the time, so I doubt it was me
Kernel level anticheat is mostly in MMORPGs, which is my preferred genre, though there are some games without it. Notably Final Fantasy XIV, and Guild Wars 2 have no anticheat in the client at all. It also depends on the anticheat how much I’m willing to put up with it. XIGNCode is a hard no from me, but nprotect, and easyanticheat are both whatever IMO. Pick your threat model though.
The most complicated game is Wurm Online, and that’s because there’s something going on with my desktop where it just. Crashes. Constantly. I can usually get it to stay on indefinitely after 8 restarts, but it’s annoying.
Consoles are only future proof if you consider that eventually games will stop being released for them, and parts will stop being made. Sure you’ll be able to play the games you already own on them forever, but… Also your PC will be able to run any game on them forever, at least until the hardware degrades, but that also goes for consoles.
If you want to go fully no DRM, GOG is your best bet for most games. Itch.io is also there, but it’s mostly indie games, which isn’t everyone’s scene.
Overall I don’t think of it as complicated, but I’ve been PC gaming consistently for… 25 ish years? I’m largely used to it.