PC Master Race is Everything Wrong with Games

This is not hyperbole.

The entire concept of the “PC Master Race” joke is something that already comes from a place of relatively uncomfortable humor, but it's morphed into something much, much more. It's bad for the industry, it's bad for the perception of it, and it embodies all the negative aspects of this business.

Exclusion

If you asked me when the biggest attitude problem in the industry was, I'd answer with “exclusion”. Gamers trying to exclude people from an already pretty high-entry hobby are seriously the worst sometimes. Gaming can already cost hundreds of dollars, and then people will say stuff like “You play mobile games, you're not a REAL gamer”, and other crap like that. It's why gaming doesn't have a good reputation by most people who don't play them.

You can already see how the “PC master race” thing is exclusionary, I hope. It excludes people who prefer to play games on consoles (See “console peasants”). It excludes those with lower end PC's and those who play mobile games. And it excludes those who don't play games in the first place.

I do not care that it is a joke. It's an extremely poor one, and one that does nothing good for the medium. It makes people look like elitist jerks, and is one of the most cited reasons behind why people I know don't game on PC. They think the community is elitist because of stuff like this. Ditto for people who don't even play games.

Conflict

Beyond even the exclusion, it creates conflict in the industry, and not the good kind. The good kind of conflict has people with opposing opinions talking, comparing, and ultimately coming to understand both sides better.

The bad side is one we see more often, unfortunately. The typical “You suck”, “F*** you, you suck” back and forth does nothing of worth, and just leads to a whole lot of anger.

Yeah, PC master race encourages this, too. The stance it takes is as follows: “PC's are the best, and anyone who says otherwise is inferior.” How in any way does this facilitate discussion? It does the exact opposite. Insulting one group and holding another up is a bad way to go about things. It's what prevents people from rationally discussing stuff like Playstation Vs. Xbox, and contributes to all sorts of insults on forums. You ever wonder why people get so mad over games? Conflict encouragement is why.

Context

Finally, I want to cover one last thing about this topic. The wider context PC master race fits into shows off just how the industry is going to be perceived if we don't change something.

PC master race, in a modern context, brings up memories of Hitler, and his concept of an Aryan “master race”. It's not exactly a nice memory, and it's one that this “joke” handles awfully.

It's going to be taken badly. Either gamers don't give a shit about the awfulness of WWII and just wanna go make jokes about it, or they don't realize and are ignorant of the culture that isn't gaming. Either way, it makes gamers look insensitive.

And I get it, it is a joke. But it represents so much bad stuff in this industry, it's not even funny. I've listed 3, but there is so much more. “It's just a joke” only goes so far before the joke becomes more than just a meaningless bit of fun, before it starts to represent something. It's only so far before it morphs into something meaningful, and at that point it's irresponsible to pretend otherwise.

This idea is a great checklist for the cultural shift this industry needs, and what it needs to shift away from. We should take advantage of that.