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[Nyoro SF]

Technical details of games can create issues for playability, so it's important to understand them if you're a person who has seriously invested into gaming ecosystems.

Screen tearing, framerate, fuzzy details, loading times (boy do I hate those) all of these can affect enjoyability of a game due to their ability to impede playability of the game. Resolution is a bit iffy but sometimes it can impede playability too.

Not caring about it is your choice, no one will force you to understand or play the best version of a game. But I don't like being condemned for researching the technical details of a game and being called a fanboy as such for confirming that X version of the game has better framerate than Y version, for instance.

 

[fijim]

I agree with the sentiments from the OP. Sometimes you just want to focus on playing games and not worry about FPS and various graphics settings. I think focusing on settings is a pitfall that is easy to fall into on PC. Of course you want the game to run and look as best as it can when you play it, so this leads to adjusting settings and checking the performance. This is normal, but it can become an obsession, where you are trying custom ini's, and focusing on just adjusting settings and checking FPS.

I think at a certain point if you spend so much effort tweaking the best graphics/performance ratio, you end up unable to enjoy the game. The entire play-through you will be constantly watching for frame drops, then going back and adjusting settings to correct it. If a frame drop in an area pisses you off and makes you want to stop playing and fix it, then you may have a problem (except for extreme drops that make it unplayable).

Now some people are primarily hardware enthusiast, and really only play games to show off their overclocked system. That is fine, games are a great way to show off powerful hardware. If they just want to play games for the eye candy and tweaks, go for it. But if you want to really enjoy the game, find playable settings and just enjoy the game. Don't stress over every frame drop or screen tear unless it gets so bad you can't play the game.

 

[Xenon]

I agree with the sentiments from the OP. Sometimes you just want to focus on playing games and not worry about FPS and various graphics settings. I think focusing on settings is a pitfall that is easy to fall into on PC. Of course you want the game to run and look as best as it can when you play it, so this leads to adjusting settings and checking the performance. This is normal, but it can become an obsession, where you are trying custom ini's, and focusing on just adjusting settings and checking FPS.

I think at a certain point if you spend so much effort tweaking the best graphics/performance ratio, you end up unable to enjoy the game. The entire play-through you will be constantly watching for frame drops, then going back and adjusting settings to correct it. If a frame drop in an area pisses you off and makes you want to stop playing and fix it, then you may have a problem (except for extreme drops that make it unplayable).

Now some people are primarily hardware enthusiast, and really only play games to show off their overclocked system. That is fine, games are a great way to show off powerful hardware. If they just want to play games for the eye candy and tweaks, go for it. But if you want to really enjoy the game, find playable settings and just enjoy the game. Don't stress over every frame drop or screen tear unless it gets so bad you can't play the game.

^ This is why I quit PC gaming. Best gaming decision I ever made. I don't miss it at all.

 

[JackAubrey]

^ This is why I quit PC gaming. Best gaming decision I ever made. I don't miss it at all.

You want real obsessing then Microsoft Flight Simulator is the place to go. Never has there been a game with so many sliders that aren't entirely clear what they do. Then a whole level of stuff you can change in the .cfg file.

The tweaking. Oh god the tweaking. I swear half the flight sim community (which is huge still) seems to be tweaking the damn thing more than completing flights.

I've been playing Flight Sim since v2 was released on the Atari ST, but recently I uninstalled both FSX (latest MS version) and Prepar3D (Lockheed Martin's Pro offshoot) from my PC as I was fiddling with it more than playing.

I have a decent(ish) PC but I'm more inclined to playing on consoles these days just to avoid my own stupid tweaking obsession. And while some tech things do bother me - tearing, stuttering - as long as technical issues don't impeded a game then I'm happy. So things like 900p vs 1080p don't bother me at all if it takes a clickbait article to tell me which it is.

 

[RVinP]

^ This is why I quit PC gaming. Best gaming decision I ever made. I don't miss it at all.

Sometimes when games does not meet certain criteria (like The Evil Within killing a portion of a 16:9 display area), warranting certain technical requirements does make it a deal breaker.

On the consoles most of the games settings are fixed, on the PC one can try to fix up their game if tweaks/tools/mods are available to meet their satisfaction and they don't need obsessive commitment.

 

[scytherage]

Like what someone else posted, I actually quit PC gaming over this too. At some point your rig is never good enough, and having to spend every 3-6 months can get irritating. I left PC gaming because on console nobody really counts framerates (at least back then) or counts pixels on your screen (again, back in the old Dreamcast days).

Fast forward to today and unfortunately this whole pixel counting / frame counting trend is here too. Honestly as long as it plays smooth and responsive, I don't really care about the actual framerate. I can see 60 frames and I can see what 1080p looks like, but that all fades away when I'm completely immersed in a game.

I guess it's different for some people and some really prefer it all cranked up, but I'm not one of those people. All that matters to me is what games are available.

 

[Hubble]

Anyone just get to the point where they just throw their hands up in the air and just not care? Anyone wish they were just ignorant to the finer technical details of games? FPS, frame timing, AA methods, resolution, motion blur, particle effects, ambient occlusion, parallax mapping, whatever.

At some point do you just say to yourself I just want to play a game and enjoy myself? Kick back, relax and take in sub 1080p, sub 60fps in all its glory. I used to really really care about this stuff but the older I get I just don't have the energy anymore. Yes, I like a good image. Yes, I like a polished product. Yes, I like 1080p but I also sometimes just want to turn my brain off and just accept games for what they are and just PLAY. Who's with me?

I used to care. I then played Destiny beta on my Xbox One to a high end 55 inch plasma then on my PS4 and with barely a noticeable difference, I stopped caring and realized both hardware are from the same generation and other features I enjoy ALOT more.

 

[Seanspeed]

Like what someone else posted, I actually quit PC gaming over this too. At some point your rig is never good enough, and having to spend every 3-6 months can get irritating.

What on earth were you buying every 3-6 months? :/

 

[Cave Johnson]

What on earth were you buying every 3-6 months? :/

Faulty cables.

 

[donutzsick]

I never cared. I also have a decent PC and can play anything maxed out but I still play mostly visual novels and free stuff like hearthstone and league on it. I like titanfall too but i don't play it as much. As long as a game isn't broken like skyrim ps3 I never cared and never will. Fun is fun. I have too many games to play to spend any time getting upset over a resolution drop or a different max framerate. Personally, any time I can spend on digital foundry I'd rather spend playing something

 

[rjc571]

What on earth were you buying every 3-6 months? :/

He listened to All About the Pentiums by Weird Al and thought that the lyrics were meant to be taken seriously.

"You say you've had your desktop for over a week? Throw that junk away man, it's an antique!"
"Your laptop is a month old? Well that's great! ...If you can use a nice heavy paperweight."

 

[Felix Lighter]

What on earth were you buying every 3-6 months? :/

The Dreamcast days would have still been early on during the consumer adoption of dedicated 3D graphics cards.