Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/31/guide-for-buying-a-cheap-game.html
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hey now…no disparaging Razer! I love their products, especially because they make hardware that works for both Win and Mac computers. Plus they are super durable.
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They left out: look for an IPS screen. This is almost as important as GPU. A TN screen is washed out, dim, not fun to look at.
I look forward to the day we can get “gamer notebooks” at netbook prices. Cheap plastic laptops like the HP Stream can already play games from 10 years ago pretty well – that’s PS3 type things like Burnout and Star Wars Battlefront II.
If only the pretty thin laptops could do a better job with 3D games.
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My last trip to the Philippines I shot my first 4k (a ton of it). It was only when I went to edit it did it did I discover my old MBP could not handle it. So now I am looking for something portable that can handle 4k and work for gaming as a nice extra (I haven’t had a gaming machine in a few years, I’m behind on all the games now). Considering the Dell XP2 15 or the Gigabit Aero 15x.
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I really wonder just why “gamer” hardware tends to look so utterly awful. I know there are gamers who are not 16 year old boys with awful taste, but you would never know it from how the products look.
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I like them too! But… that logo.
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Most gamers are teenage boys who think it’s cool. It’s just that simple.
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hey now. My wife and I are in our 40’s.
then again we game on Macs.
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Right, but you aren’t the intended market. Most capital-G “The Gamers” Gamers are kids, so most game-ready laptops look like spaceships or dragon poo.
I wonder what things would look like if there were only small-g gamers. More toasty MacBook imitations with a veneer of gamer signifiers, but not too many…
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Doesnt make sense. You are only a teenage boy for a handful of years, They cannot all stop gaming the instant they grow up. Most people who play games are going to be adults. Financially, the vast majority of people buying expensive gaming laptops are not going to be teenagers. So why is the “gamer aesthetic” so aggressively ugly?
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They don’t stop gaming the instant they grow up, but they do stop buying the ugly laptops. The adults buy ones more subtle: the higher-specced Dell Inspirons, Razer Blades, that sort of thing. I saw a razer blade in a local cafe a while back – one of the new ones – with the logo covered by one of the Apple stickers that comes with a mac. I’m sure it’s a great salesforce machine!
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I am stilling going back and forth on building a gaming PC to replace my iMac for gaming or to purchase one of those fancy slim line pre mades.
Hades Canyon Intel Nuc Enthusiast looks just the ticket. It’s not as powerful as the Zotac I reviewed a while back but it’s better-designed and somewhat smaller. I’m waiting on a review unit.
(BUT: there is a giant skull on it.)
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To hell with powered by intel, our computers are powered by pirates! (or death metal music, not sure which)
Break out the stickers and cover that skull with a kitten or unicorn or something, problem mostly solved.
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You’ve got that core, insular group of vocal gamers with disposable income who have always screamed for more windows, more lights. It’s easier for gaming companies to market exclusively to them then “risk” reaching out to anyone else. It’s the same reason a certain comic book publisher keeps doubling down on the grim dark and rehashing crossovers from the 80’s and 90’s.
It’s not just that the spike and lights crowd will pay a little extra for a PC that looks a certain way. Plenty of people (including me) would do that to get some decent design. It’s that they’ll continually spend money to add more of that aesthetic to the PC they already spent more for.
Trying to keep up on hardware lately I’ve discovered some weird. “Color matching” is now a thing you buy your mobo and gpu based on the color of the pcb, matched. Buy all components down to fans and cables based on that, And your RGB lights get set to something complimentary. Apparently rigid, custom wrapped colored or RGB power supply cables are I thing. I’ve seen people talking about replacing brand new, top of the line GPUs with different brand new top of the line GPUs because the color works better. These guys don’t just spend 5 grand on a particular computer. They spend the next few years continually accessorising that computer. Constantly purchasing new colored pieces of plastic and additional RGB things to Bolt to it.
The average gamer has been in their mid 30’s since (I think) the late 90’s. I don’t know if the incredible influence of 13 year olds with mom’s credit card can explain this one.
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IOW, a small loud group of annoying people are able to poison the whole market for everyone else. Sounds all too familiar.
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The average gamer, in the broad sense you mean, is a 32 year old man with a Playstation. (Women almost overtook men, but then 2014 happened) I mean it in the restricted sense of people who identify as “gamers” and buy “gamer” computer hardware.
It’s explains the ugly laptops, is all!
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I think adult capacity for inflicting ugly on the cosmos is being understated somewhat here.
In my experience, it’s more significant than many might think.
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I would buy such a device, were I to have access to money to do so.
Then I would make it resemble a VF-1S Super Valkyrie because it would be awesomesorcery.
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Most of the people I know who are into that are men their 20s or 30s with tech or IT jobs that are really dedicated to the idea of cargo shorts as year round formal wear.
I think the aesthetic is very much based on what a 14 year old in 1998 thought was bad ass. But it’s become self sustaining.
