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PC Master Race

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PC Master Race, sometimes referred to as The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race, is a tongue-in-cheek term of superiority for PC gaming used among gamers, and used to compare PC gaming to console gaming. In current parlance, the term is used by gamers both to describe themselves as a group, as well as their belief in the superiority of the PC platform. Popular imagery and coverage related to the term describes console users as "dirty console peasants" and people who game on PC as the "Glorious PC Gaming Master Race".

Origin and usage

The master race concept is a Nazi ideology based around their perceived genetic superiority to all other races, which was eventually used to justify The Holocaust. The term "PC Master Race" was first used in 2008 by writer Ben Croshaw in the online gaming magazine The Escapist in which he video-reviewed the role-playing game The Witcher. Croshaw explained that his initial intent in referencing the master race ideology was to poke fun at an intolerant attitude among some PC gamers:

It was intended to be ironic, to illustrate what I perceived at the time to be an elitist attitude among a certain kind of PC gamer. People who invest in expensive gaming PCs and continually spend money to make sure the tech in their brightly-lit tower cases is up to date. Who actually prefer games that are temperamental to get running and that have complicated keyboard interfaces, just because it discourages new or 'casual' players who will in some way taint the entire community with their presence.

The term caught on quickly, but with a different meaning than originally implied by Ben Croshaw, now as an expression of pride to be called a PC gamer and being part of a group where users view their platform as superior to traditional video game consoles due to its ever-expandable and upgradable hardware.

While The Escapist continued to popularize its usage in later installments, writers in more mainstream computer-related and gaming-related publications tend to avoid using the term because of its negative associations. Tyler Wilde, executive editor of PC Gamer, says the term should be abandoned altogether. "It worked as a hyperbolic joke when it was first said as a hyperbolic joke, and I did think it was a little funny to embrace the criticism ironically—for a moment, when I see kids unironically boasting about their “master race” affiliation on forums, I cringe."

The growing adoption of the term led to websites with variations of 'Glorious PC Gaming Master Race' in their internet addresses, as well as promotion by Valve Software, which sells digitally-distributed game software and updates through their Steam platform. By several accounts, the term has become an internet meme.

The term is a launching point for debates about the relative popularity of gaming platforms. A report by Julian Arenzon in the New York Daily News suggested that digital distribution of games to personal computers is becoming more prevalent within the gaming community, and that there has been a trend away from physical game systems as well as physical disks to be read by optical disk drives. Reviewer Paul Tassi in Forbes suggested that in the platform battle, PCs had an edge because they were a "necessity" for everyday life while consoles were a "luxury" costing hundreds of dollars and only offering a few additional games or features over that of what a PC already has.

See also

References

  1. Hruska, Joel (June 17, 2014). "Watch Dogs restored to its E3 2012 graphics glory: The PC master race strikes again". ExtremeTech. Ziff Davis. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  2. ^ Maximum PC staff writers; Lilly, Paul (December 11, 2013). "Geek Holiday Gift Guide 2013". Maximum PC. Future US. Retrieved September 6, 2014. You know what you won't find in this guide? Console recommendations. Let the peasants debate over which is better, the Xbox One or PlayStation 4. We're part of the PC master race and we'll defend our platform of choice until the end of time.
  3. GamesRadar staff writers (July 10, 2014). "50 upcoming PC games for 2014 and beyond". GamesRadar. Future US. Retrieved September 6, 2014. The glorious PC marches on in 2014 ...
  4. Oshry, Dave (June 13, 2012). "Todd Howard wants console players to experience the glory of PC mods". VG247. Retrieved September 6, 2014. Bethesda's head of everything Elder Scrolls wishes that the dirty console peasants could experience the glory of the PC modding community.
  5. Mayoraz, Guillermo (February 24, 2014). "'The glorious PC master race' y el orgullo del PC Gamer". Techno Vortex (in Spanish). Retrieved September 6, 2014. The Escapist used the term 'Glorious PC master race' in referring to the complex structure of the game , naming its console gamers counterparts 'dirty console peasants' ... as a race of inferior players.
  6. Connors, Devin (January 28, 2014). "Join the Master Race – Our PC Building Guide". Inside Gaming Daily. Machinima. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  7. Diederichs, Wiehahn (December 12, 2013). "Xbox One versus PS4? The PC master race won long ago". Times Live. Times Media Group. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  8. Usher, William (January 6, 2014). "Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Skipping the Glorious PC Master Race". Cinema Blend. Retrieved September 6, 2014. While some members of the Glorious PC Master Race are rocking setups that can hit 2K resolutions at 60 smooth-as-a-baby's-bottom frames per second ...
  9. Williams, Mike (September 6, 2013). "Mods and The PC Gaming Master Race". USgamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved September 6, 2014. Brought up when discussing that 'Glorious PC Gaming Master Race' meme started by Zero Punctuation ...
  10. Plunkett, Luke (November 25, 2012). "The Rise of the Glorious Master Race of PC Gamers". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved September 6, 2014. Sometimes used as with pride, sometimes used with derision, the term 'master race' has become a common one to describe those PC gamers who love to Lord it over the plebs, revelling in their glowing hardware and hi-res textures.
  11. ^ Arenzon, Julian (July 18, 2013). "Steam Summer Sale 2013 one of the year's biggest events for PC gamers". New York Daily News. Retrieved September 6, 2014. Steam has become one of the driving forces behind the growth of digital distribution... jokingly and somewhat offensively called 'the glorious PC master race' ...
  12. ^ Tyler Wilde. Let’s stop calling ourselves the "PC Master Race", pcgamer.com, Jan 14, 2015.
  13. Croshaw, Ben (January 23, 2008). "The Witcher". The Escapist. Defy Media. Event occurs at 0:58. Retrieved September 6, 2014. ... Those dirty console playing peasants don't ruin it for the glorious PC gaming master race ...
  14. ^ Croshaw, Ben (May 28, 2013). "The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race". The Escapist. Defy Media. Event occurs at 0:58. Retrieved September 6, 2014. It was intended to be ironic, to illustrate what I perceived at the time to be an elitist attitude among a certain kind of PC gamer.
  15. Bogos, Steven (October 25, 2013). "Alienware Tempts Gamers to Master Race with $200 Console Trade-Ins". The Escapist. Defy Media. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  16. ^ Scibetta, Nick (17 July 2014). "GameCrate's Senior Editor Nick Scibetta Disapproves of the Label "PC Master Race"". Linus Tech Tips. Retrieved Sep 8, 2014. ... the "PC Master Race" thing is a meme ... really sick and tired of the "Glorious PC Gaming Master Race" garbage... single quick line in a single video could have exploded ... use of the phrase "Glorious PC Gaming Master Race" is ubiquitous...term "master race" offensive
  17. Tassi, Paul (April 26, 2014). "MOBAs Drive PC Gaming to Surpass Consoles Globally". Forbes. Retrieved September 6, 2014. There's an eternal war being waged between PC enthusiasts and console gamers as to which platform is better, and the so-called 'PC master race' might have just gotten a little bit more ammunition.
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