Which gaming account should I get/setup for my teen daughter?
Here's the background...
So, I tend not to play video games at all any more (not for at least 15 or 20 years). My teen daughter wants to get a Playstation gaming console...but it seems less about playing and more about socializing with her friends. Her friends - while i promised my partner not to call them 'idiots' - are not really the best decision-makers and they're quite affluent (and we definitely are not affluent), so their poor choices usually never impact them. (I think it is less about being teens, and more about them being rich, entitled poor decision makers, because my daughter and a few other poorer friends are actually good kids who know that we can not get all the things.) Here's an example: all of my daughter's rich friends will ask their parents to buy them widget X, and so of course my daughter wants one so she can connect with these rich teens. For these rich kids, after they inevitably abandon widget X, there is no issue; they merely drop them off in one of the rooms in their mini-mansions. But for me, i can not always afford to buy widget X and then have my daughter abandon stuff in our little, meager but love-filled house. (Please if possible let's avoid the topic of how I'm raising my daughter, because all of the parents of us poorer kids in town have the exact same issues with our kids.) Now, we come to the part about my daughter wanting a playstation...I don't mind saving up for a PlayStation - especially if she'll use it...However, since she really only wants it to socialize with her rich friends via a couple of games, i was thinking on getting a PC/gaming rig (not as expensive as PS or some sort of AlienWare) instead of the dedicated gaming console, but still plenty usable for some games...So that, after some time if she abandons it (because for example her friends have migrated to other avenues of socializing), i can always re-purpose the machine. In my mind it seems a more worthwhile investment. (I'm a software guy mostly, but over the decades, almost every machine i have/own has been franken-built by me...so i know just enough hardware.) Now, if I go the route of a PC/gaming rig, can i just sign her up for online gaming accounts like PlayStation Network, and that will suffice for her to use her PC but still connect, say via PSNetwork, with her friends playing PS games?? (To help, i should clarify the games these teens play are fortnight, minecraft, and grand theft auto...I think GTA does not support in game chat/comms with friends, though i could be wrong.)
So, is it possible for me to sign up my daughter on an online gaming account - like PS Network - that would allow her to communicate with hr friends? And, if so, which gaming network should I set up an account, PS Network, Steam, etc.??? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!!
I guess I understand your thought about having a sound investment and I won't presume to opine about your parenting, but I am wary of the plan to reclaim this interface from her before it even sounds like she's had a chance to reckon with your concerns. Have you asked her whether she would be alright with a PC which can play most of the same games instead of the PS it sounds like she's asked for? If you've got to cut her a deal then them's the breaks, but probably communication is the best policy, especially if you're trying to enable her to have positive social interactions.
Good point! When i broached the topic of possibly getting/using a gaming PC, she didn't understand its potential at first. I think she's ok with it as long as it can both play games AND allow for communications with her friends. But she's still on the fence. Discussions continue! :-) Thanks!
Generally no, Playstation games cannot crossplay with a PC. There's a few exceptions, and "Minecraft Bedrock edition" is one of them (not "Minecraft Java edition"). The majority of titles though she would not be able to connect with her friends.
I'm a huge PC gamer so I'm biased towards that option, but I don't think it would fill the niche you're hoping it would.
Unfortunately, with the new generation of consoles on the horizon, the new shiny thing may be even closer than you thought. It does mean you'll probably be able to find a PS4 cheaper (especially once covid starts to die down), but maybe your daughter's friends will want to move onto the new shiny once the PS5 releases.
It's something I think you'll have to talk to her about.
Thanks! And, yeah i was afraid of this. I appreciate your feedback!
The "which network" question is something you should ask your daughter about. The answer is "whichever one she has the most friends on." I've noticed that groups of friends will standardize on one platform over time. i.e., all of my friends have a PlayStation 4, so we generally use the PlayStation Network. Find out what your daughter's friends use and get that.
I'd also suggest a console rather than a gaming PC simply because of cost and ease of use. You don't really have to maintain a console or worry about upgrading components.
+1 to the console recommendation. I played an Xbox 360 for around 10 years, maybe a little more. I really only played a handful of games because they were so expensive. I remember begging my parents to get me the game all my friends were playing and it took me a while to realize I didn't like the game that much and didn't ask for another. I made other online friends playing games that I never played much with my irl friends.
Perhaps a used PS4 would be a better investment? It can also be other things in the future, like a media streamer or DVD/CD player (they still take disks, right?), and they're cheaper than a PC.
Thanks for this feedback; and i like the idea of a used PS4!
This is a really good point; thanks!
Crossplay is not decided on a platform basis, but on a game basis. Some games have crossplay, but those are very much in the minority. The few I know of in my head:
The problem here is that when the friends of your daughter move on to the shiny game, it might not support crossplay, which would leave us at square one. When it comes to communications, this also depends on the game. As far as I know, playstation itself does not support a framework to communicate outside the game (if it even has ingame voice chat, like CoD or Fortnite I think). I don't know how the friend group communicates while gaming, the currently popular thing is Discord, if it's that then you're in luck because the kids wouldn't have to rely on ingame chat, and it's free and runs on phones. This means that even if the friends move on to a new game without crossplay your daughter wouldn't be left out of the convo (even though she'd still be kind of left out because she can't play the new shiny game and will be the "boring" one of the group that wants to play the old game).
I'm rambling but the gist is: It depends on the game, and you're shit outta luck if you buy her a PC and the game changes to something without crossplay.
Thanks, yeah, I'm learning that now bit by bit.
And, yes, you've captured the problem succinctly! Now that you mentioned discord, I have heard that many gamers (and even non-gamers) use that platform, so i'll take a look at it. If it fits the need, maybe i "try" and nudge my daughter and her friends towards using it.
Yep, today at least, I'm leaning towards dedicated console (and not PC)...but will look at discord. Thanks!
Discord would be a great fit for a group of friends. It has a bunch of problems but I think it's perfect for a group of teenagers. It's not secure though, all plain-text, etc.
I haven't gone deep into discord yet, but appreciate this intel; thanks!
Security and privacy, the usual suspects. Otherwise it's fine.
I'm pretty sure discord uses tls so you automatically get e2ee client to discord. The messages are stored unencrypted, although I don't think you should expect them to be; many discord features wouldn't even work if all user messages were encrypted to them.
A few quick points:
but you cannot use it to play games from a PCYeah waiting on the PS5 seems like the best move since her friends will almost surely migrate to it themselves over the next year or two. It’ll be a much better long term value (though a higher up front cost.)
Yeah, i think you might be right. :-)
This isn't completely correct. If you have PlayStation Now you can play any of the games offered on that service on PC see here
I've tried it out myself and it seems to work pretty well. A $60 a year fee that gives me access to hundreds of games pays for itself pretty quickly in my opinion.
I thought PS Now was only for PS2 and PS3 games, thanks for the correction.
Oh, $60 per year, i didn't know that...seems like this is their bid to fend off Stream...And that price point seems pretty good. Thanks for this!
While i haven't done enough research yet, i did not know about this...that's interesting. Thanks!
The PS5 and Xbox Series X will be considerably faster than any new PC that costs double the money when they come out. The math is really simple. An 8-core CPU, a powerful next-gen GPU, 12GB to 16GB RAM, a PCIe NVMe hard drive (won't be as fast as the PS5), motherboard, power supply, case, etc. quickly adds up waaaayyy beyond what you'd pay for a PS5 at launch. An equivalent PC would cost at least 3x to 4x as much. To put it another way, I've been a PC gamer for 20 years, have never considered buying a console, and I will be getting either an Xbox or a PS5 this generation (not sure which yet).
I think you sort of got it right (unwittingly) with the idea of status. If you daughter wanted to play PC exclusive games with her PC gamer friends, then it'd be a nobrainer to get a PC. Since she wants to get a PlayStation, the PS5 seems ideal. PS4 is iffy because it's getting pretty old now and is about to be replaced.
You're technically correct, but I think it's an unfair comparison.
For OP's consideration:
Yes if you wanted to try and build an equivalent PC, it would be more expensive. The advantage that the PC has is that you don't need to do that. You can buy components that allow you to play only what you want to play. And if you find a new game later you can upgrade in stages. A console is locked into it's specs until the next generation. Which for console developers is an advantage because they know exactly how to time their games for the best experience.
Overall though, I think PC offers more advantages for a teen. They can do so much more than play games with a PC. This also comes with dangers, but that's part of parenting.
Your points about buying components was somewhat my thinking as well...But, the biggest annoynace...er, um, constraint is the communications/socializing that my daughter wishes to do...not sure if that necessarily discounts the PC route vs dedicated console route...but this helps, thanks!!
It's not uncommon for consoles to outperform PCs in cost during the early days. Console makers negotiate part contracts with manufacturers, and often buy up a significant portion of supply. They're also willing to use the console as a loss leader to later recoup it on games and building a userbase.
In a year or two it'll swing the other way, and building PCs will be cheaper again.
I disagree, at least for the PS4 and Xbox One generation. They shipped with mechanical hard drives at a time when SSDs were common in the PC space. The PS5's SSD, on the other hand, will significantly outperform most PC storage configurations at launch because of its custom storage controller. Not every PCIe 4 NVMe drive will work in the PS5 as they might not be fast enough. I suppose you could argue that the 8-core Jaguar CPU was ahead of its time in terms of core count, but it was clocked super low and had poor IPC compared to contemporary Intel parts. The PS5, on the other hand, will ship with a much more competitive Zen APU. The RDNA2 launch is something that doesn't have a strong historical parallel in consoles. The PS5 APU has astronomically high GPU clock speeds and impressive CU count. The Xbox went for even more CUs, still with impressive clocks. The PS4 GPU was roughly equivalent to a Radeon HD 7850, but the 7900 series (and 6900 series) weren't cost prohibitive at the time and were stronger, not to mention Nvidia's options at the time.
Console hardware margins are razor thin, absolutely. I'm hoping that's the case for PC builders, as I'll always have a soft spot for PCs. PCs are really not great value as of today, even with the new competition from AMD in the CPU space.
For the last decade, really, Nvidia has been steadily raising prices with no real competition in the graphics card space. Now that AMD's RDNA2 is looking extremely promising I'm hoping that prices will come back down to earth. Intel's DG project is something to keep an eye on as well.
Good comment. I don't think we really disagreed. I tempered my comment with "It's not uncommon", so I'm accepting that there's exceptions. The Xbox One/PS4 used nearly off-the-shelf components, and it was an (admittedly) lackluster generation.
When typing my comment I actually had the PS3 in mind. Crazy expensive, but not unreasonable when you consider it was an early bluray player with a weirdo CPU. For a while there PS3s were serious contributors to Folding@Home-style projects.
Wow, that is saying something! Thanks for your feedback; much appreciated!
Good points, thanks!