CCaantley
Involved In Discussions
It depends on what games they like and what their gaming goal is. If they want to be a YouTuber, PC is the only real way to go. Games like World of Warcraft are not available on consoles.
PC Era will End in 18 Months
- Thread starter Marc
- Start date
It depends on what games they like and what their gaming goal is. If they want to be a YouTuber, PC is the only real way to go. Games like World of Warcraft are not available on consoles.
Like I say - I really don't know what the state of gaming is today. I see people on Ars in discussions from time to time, but personally I'm not into gaming since I sold my Amiga stuff years ago. That said, I was never a serious gamer.
And while years ago I was somewhat into building/modifying PCs, it has been a long time since that interested me. And I never was into serious builds such as over clocking, liquid cooling and fancy cases. I will say some of it is impressive, but I don't have a desire for, or a use case for, building a such an impressive PC. I do understand building PC's as a hobby, but for me those days are long past.
And admittedly I'm mainly a Mac person. I have a couple of PCs, but have thrown out all but one and a Windows laptop I have for travel. It's pretty much stripped down for travel and a "throw away" that if lost or stolen (or confiscated at a border) isn't an issue - I don't keep anything of significance on it. All I have to remember is the URL and password to access my home Mac in screen sharing mode.
As to the original post, I believe the trend away from desktop boxes is continuing, at least anecdotally. A lot of older people I know don't have anything more than a tablet like an iPad. Most of what they use it for is email and stuff like that. I personally do have an old iPad but I rarely use it because I use my old 2013 iMac which is on my desk. And while in years past I upgraded about every 4 years, these days I just don't have a use case, or significant desire, to upgrade.
This is from 2018 but has some interesting thoughts: Is the PC Desktop Dead? 2018 Article
And while years ago I was somewhat into building/modifying PCs, it has been a long time since that interested me. And I never was into serious builds such as over clocking, liquid cooling and fancy cases. I will say some of it is impressive, but I don't have a desire for, or a use case for, building a such an impressive PC. I do understand building PC's as a hobby, but for me those days are long past.
And admittedly I'm mainly a Mac person. I have a couple of PCs, but have thrown out all but one and a Windows laptop I have for travel. It's pretty much stripped down for travel and a "throw away" that if lost or stolen (or confiscated at a border) isn't an issue - I don't keep anything of significance on it. All I have to remember is the URL and password to access my home Mac in screen sharing mode.
As to the original post, I believe the trend away from desktop boxes is continuing, at least anecdotally. A lot of older people I know don't have anything more than a tablet like an iPad. Most of what they use it for is email and stuff like that. I personally do have an old iPad but I rarely use it because I use my old 2013 iMac which is on my desk. And while in years past I upgraded about every 4 years, these days I just don't have a use case, or significant desire, to upgrade.
This is from 2018 but has some interesting thoughts: Is the PC Desktop Dead? 2018 Article
With cloud based gaming on the horizon, Google Stadia is announced to release later this year and Microsoft's is also soon, it's another reason for PC decline. People will be able to game on whatever device they choose while the majority of the computing power is done on servers elsewhere. I also think the next gen gaming consoles will be the last.
blackholequasar
The Cheerful Diabetic
I'm a pretty avid PC gamer. I just recently built a new gaming rig and I know that games like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo and Elderscrolls Online (to name a few) are big into PC gaming, even though some of them do have console versions available. With offers from Ryzen processors and over-the-top graphics cards these days, it's more affordable than it was back in the day. Also, streamers on Twitch and YouTubers primarily use PC - which people can build careers on (wish I was one of them!) which also lends to the continued purchasing of PCs and parts. So I don't know that PCs are going anywhere soon, but I can imagine that their usefulness in other aspects has dwindled. At work, we have PC towers but there is the slow conversion over to laptops for mobility.
hogheavenfarm
Admin
Serious gamers still need big (fast) iron, and fairly big laptops too. So do video production setups and graphic design. That said, I have dumped all my Windows machines as they were just to hard to work with keeping up with updates and all. I am running Ubuntu on all my machines now, and only wish I did this many years ago. I would still consider purchasing laptops for the portability, but desktops only reside in the office as the house server and security camera feeds.
What brand/model of security cameras do you have?
CCaantley
Involved In Discussions
They may have console versions, but they are usually harder to play with the limited buttons of a console controller.
hogheavenfarm
Admin
I am using a set of Foscam IP cameras, mainly because they will upload automatically to my wordpress site, set up just for the camera feeds, so free cloud storage in real time, just in case someone breaks in and thinks trashing the server will eliminate the movies. Plus I can watch the house from here at work, and get emails with pics when something moves.
