I love video games in all forms. I love console games. I love arcade games. I love pinball machines. I love board games. I love handheld games. And I am somehow nervous about PC gaming.
I can’t tell you how many PC games I’ve put on my “list to watch” each year. I have a Steam library of over a dozen games. And yet I feel intimidated to take the flying leap into them.
Perhaps it is any number of things. The various gaming PCs out there have insanely varied specs. I have a decent, but economy, laptop. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what graphics card I have (if I have one at all) if my life depended on it (which hopefully never happens). I know I can connect a controller to my laptop, yet I’ve also never done that, as I’m nervous that the various drivers I may need will somehow make my computer all wonky.
This is a bit ironic as the first games I played were all on computer. I recall playing my first games on cassette via home computer and they blew my mind. I played Boulder Dash on a friend’s computer (oh the green screen!) and could barely peel myself away when I had to go home. I (like many others) played the original Oregon Trail in the computer lab at my grade school way back in the ’80s and I remember all of us giggling at terms like “yoke of oxen,” only to realize moments later that we lost them to dysentery or some other awful occurrence.
Games can be like that sometimes.
So with my gaming blossoming from the PC environment, how did I veer so far away?
I could sit here for a good long stretch and list all the PC games I’ve been aching to play, (e.g. Amnesia, Antichamber, Gone Home, Papers Please, System Shock 2) and yet I still have not done so. I’m fortunate in some cases when a game comes not only to PC but to consoles as well (I’m looking at you next year, Vanishing of Ethan Carter), as it gives me yet another reason to postpone installing that controller driver.
I would love to get back into PC gaming, but I suppose I just don’t know how. I feel all kinds of nervous about it.
I also felt this way about playing games on my iPad, however I dipped my toes a few times on that front. This year alone I experienced Monument Valley, Year Walk, The Room, and Tengami. I love that those experiences are available on that platform, and I’m glad I got over my weirdness enough to play them.
Sometimes when a new and huge game releases (e.g. Skyrim) I am simultaneously excited to play it, as well as almost paralyzingly daunted. I know it will be a time sink and I want to make sure I’m ready. So I put it off, and put it off, and put it off, only to realize a year later (I’m looking at you, Fallout 3) that I still haven’t started it.
That’s how I feel about PC gaming. It’s going to be a huge and wonderful experience, but I’m stuck in a loop of not starting in on it.
Am I the only one who has these issues? Has anyone else out there had them? If so, how did you move forward? Do you have any tips or advice?
Because I’m super interested in playing so many of the PC games coming out, and I’d like to find a way to do it that doesn’t give me a gaming panic attack.
Help a fellow game lover out, friends. My ears are open.
Categories: games
Rebekah Lang 
Maybe take short steps like starting with a simple computer game that doesn’t have many requirements to run and build you’re self up from their.
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that’s an excellent idea. and i really need to install that controller driver. that would make a huge difference. i’ve read i can just use a 360 controller. and i have two. :)
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An Xbox 360 Wired controller will just plug and play, the wireless controller is not as easy to setup.
I wonder if your controller is wired or wireless?
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the two 360 controllers i have are wireless, however i have found the wired ones on amazon. is it really just plug and play? if so, i’m in!
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Hopefully that’s helpful.
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I started really pc gaming about 3 years ago. I had played pc games all my life on systems in the past, but they were usually Dell’s or HOs that I bought for school or something.Not a gaming pc. I went to school for Computer Information Systems and when I graduated I bought all the parts and put them together to make the Frankenstein monster of a gaming pc that I had always dreamed of.It could run anything on max settings for awhile but as time went on I had to upgrade the graphics card again.Then I had to put a solid state drive in it. The thing has ate up a lot of money ( over $1000)but I have had a lot of fun playing games on it.Its a neat feeling knowing that you are playing on a machine that has better graphics than any of the consoles, any of them. Now the Oculus is out and my machine can run it as well.PC gaming puts a dent in your pocket book! That is if you wanna experience all that it has to offer.
When I first tried to start pc gaming I just ran out and bought the biggest graphics card I could and tried to stick it in my old desktop and hope for the best. Wrong answer. You need yo carefully plan out your whole setup. You need to save. You need to shop for parts and prices.
I have seen some really good sites that do custom pcs. Digital storm. IBUYPOWER. Origin PC.
If you really wanna pc gaming, you gotta think about spending at least $1000.
Some of the games you listed, like papers please, and even amnesia is not very costly on graphics, so maybe your laptop is good enough for some low graphics games.But if you wanna play the best of the best graphics wise, you gotta break the bank!
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Sorry, I posted from my phone, so there’s some typos.One in particular I wanted to clear up….
*Dells and HPs
is what I meant to say at the first
Not HOs :)
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HA! i had wondered if it was a company i hadn’t heard of, but now it’s even funnier!
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one: i super appreciate this message.
two: that is a considerable investment.
three: this is the practical information i need. now i have a direction to pursue! thank you!
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Hey rebekah! If you ever really consider building or purchasing a gaming PC, I’d be more than happy to help you. Next time we chat on PS4 just remind me. I helped a few of my local buddies get their first gaming rigs. :)
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something that in depth won’t be for a while, but thank you! you will be my first stop if i do. :)
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A simple solution is to buy some older PC games that will run on your current laptop. Just go to gog.com and get the Kings Quest series or Balder’s Gate. Cheap Classic PC games that will run on almost anything.
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that’s a good idea. i actually have over a dozen games on steam, some being point and click.
and i read that the steam sale is active now. ughhh. so many games. :)
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