This article doesn't really demonstrate how the PC building community is in any way unique or particularly bad when compared to the general gaming community. All the harassment and vitriol Etienne...
This article doesn't really demonstrate how the PC building community is in any way unique or particularly bad when compared to the general gaming community. All the harassment and vitriol Etienne received seems to me to be similar to the harassment GamerGate's targets received. It is pretty widely known that the Gaming™ community is a haven for all types of bigots and far-right extremists. I wish that Vice here had written about how this is just a small part of the wider toxicity withing the gaming community overall.
Having recently restarted playing games in public lobbies with voice chat, I've been reminded how toxic people are in video games. My first assumption is that these people are toxic in most of...
Having recently restarted playing games in public lobbies with voice chat, I've been reminded how toxic people are in video games. My first assumption is that these people are toxic in most of their interactions with others and video games provide a way to do things with others without their vetting you first. There are enough new people that you can be extremely socially incapable and destructive without retribution. That's probably obvious to most people that play competitive games, but I've mostly sheltered myself from that until now.
This is a large part of it. I think it's one part "it used to be a boy's club", one part "online anonymity" and one part "win at all costs" that, when mixed together, make for a toxic soup. PvE...
This is a large part of it. I think it's one part "it used to be a boy's club", one part "online anonymity" and one part "win at all costs" that, when mixed together, make for a toxic soup. PvE games tend to be less toxic than PvP games, for example.
Any hobby is going to have its jerks, and gaming is no different. They just tend to be more balkanized. (Examples: PC vs Console, Playstation vs XBox, PvE vs PvP, hardcore vs casual, the list goes...
Any hobby is going to have its jerks, and gaming is no different. They just tend to be more balkanized. (Examples: PC vs Console, Playstation vs XBox, PvE vs PvP, hardcore vs casual, the list goes on and on.)
This isn't just a few jerks though. Because games have historically been marketed towards men and boys, many Gamers still think it's their territory. After GamerGate it was clear that there is...
This isn't just a few jerks though. Because games have historically been marketed towards men and boys, many Gamers still think it's their territory. After GamerGate it was clear that there is something particularly bad about the gaming community that leads Gamers to harass, dox, and threaten women, people of color, and anyone who doesn't fit their ideal of a "straight white male Gamer." To say that this is just some jerks arguing about which console is the best downplays the harassment minorities get every day for "daring" to play, enjoy, and talk about games.
The jerks are the loudest, but as a gamer, I can say that it isn't part of something I've ever experienced firsthand, nor have friends of mine (despite said friends covering a wide spectrum.)...
The jerks are the loudest, but as a gamer, I can say that it isn't part of something I've ever experienced firsthand, nor have friends of mine (despite said friends covering a wide spectrum.) That's not to say it doesn't happen, I just don't think it's the majority of gamers... but rather, a significant minority.
I don't want to discount your personal experience, but every woman or POC who has ever played or talked about games has a story like this. If you go under any twitter announcement by a games...
I don't want to discount your personal experience, but every woman or POC who has ever played or talked about games has a story like this. If you go under any twitter announcement by a games company, you will find racism and sexism. Gamers think that video games belong to straight white men, and it's very clear to me at least that most games are a boy's club of white guys.
Again, the crew of friends I have gathered over the years does include women. I once again say they are a significant minority, but I don't think that the toxic crowd is the majority of gamers. At...
Again, the crew of friends I have gathered over the years does include women. I once again say they are a significant minority, but I don't think that the toxic crowd is the majority of gamers. At least a third of the population of the planet are gamers (numbers are expected to top 3 billion gamers by 2023). If we extrapolate numbers, that's at least 100 million Americans (and the percentage of Americans who are gamers is likely higher than most parts of the world.) I have my doubts that 50 million gamers in the US alone are openly toxic and bigoted. Millions, yes. Ten million, I could see a case made for.
But then, I'm an optimist, and tend to believe the silent are the best of us, and not just stewing in hate juice.
EDIT to add: I'm not saying it doesn't happen, nor that it doesn't happen frequently. And I feel for every person it happens to and wish garbage human beings would stop being garbage and realize that all human beings have the right to dignity and respect. I'm saying that there's a disproportionate percentage of gamers who are more vocal, and those tend to not be the ones saying "Good game, you guys rock!"
My point isn't so much that the majority of gamers are doing this, but that the amount of gamers doing harassment to women and POC is disproportionate compared to other hobbies/fandoms.
My point isn't so much that the majority of gamers are doing this, but that the amount of gamers doing harassment to women and POC is disproportionate compared to other hobbies/fandoms.
I'd say a big portion of it is simply the nature of online gaming in that it connects you with random people around the world. Even if only 1% of gamers are horribly toxic, it wouldn't take long...
I'd say a big portion of it is simply the nature of online gaming in that it connects you with random people around the world. Even if only 1% of gamers are horribly toxic, it wouldn't take long to stumble across one since you get exposed to so many different people.
Regarding social media communications, those have always seemed to attract the most garbage people regardless of whether it's gaming or not. See: any thread on twitter discussing US politics
Even if it's only as high as 15%, which I think would be a pretty reasonable ballpark estimate, it's coinflip odds to get a toxic teammate in any given moba or 5 person raid group.
Even if it's only as high as 15%, which I think would be a pretty reasonable ballpark estimate, it's coinflip odds to get a toxic teammate in any given moba or 5 person raid group.
I think it's more that the gamers are disproportionately "louder", but whatever the cause, we can agree that the effect is bad for the hobby and those trying to get into the hobby. However it...
I think it's more that the gamers are disproportionately "louder", but whatever the cause, we can agree that the effect is bad for the hobby and those trying to get into the hobby. However it breaks down, it needs to stop.
If we want to make this about building PCs rather than the general awfulness of the gaming community (with its hilarious, playful reference of nazi ideology), I'm gonna say something that I don't...
If we want to make this about building PCs rather than the general awfulness of the gaming community (with its hilarious, playful reference of nazi ideology), I'm gonna say something that I don't think gets said enough in PC circles: Building PCs sucks.
I say this as someone who built his own PCs since I was 14. I stopped counting how many I built since, certainly more than 5. I do it because it's the only way to get the parts you actually need for a reasonable price but never ever have I felt like romanticizing the process as some kind of nerdy/manly ritual. PC setups are designed by tech people with little respect for human nature. They hate dealing with me and I hate dealing with them. And I kinda also blame anyone who continues to defend or mystify the process to create some awful "culture" around it.
These tiny clips, screws in awkward places, switches that are needed for the whole thing to run but are hidden in some millimeter-sized corner box, kafkaesque incompatibility issues that you're just kinda supposed to know, bizarre naming conventions (GPU numbers, anyone?) and a general culture of seeing having learned all this as a badge of honor and an invitation to make fun of people who haven't (as opposed to try and make it easier for coming generations) is an absolutely miserable experience. There is no reason not to make 99% of the process a screw- and cable-less, plug-and-play experience with with human-finger-sized proportions and reasonably sized labels in human-readable language.
There is absolutely no reason that a PC interior looks like this. As for constructive counter-examples, unfortunately, there are none I can think of. Razer once tried an modular PC concept but I don't think it ever took off and it would probably be an overpriced, proprietary system which doesn't really solve the problem. It's just trivially obvious that what we currently have can't be the best solution to the problem.
You might be interested in the Framework laptop. USB-C-based expansion cards, and if you have to crack open the internals it's all nicely labeled with QR codes on every surface to learn what that...
You might be interested in the Framework laptop. USB-C-based expansion cards, and if you have to crack open the internals it's all nicely labeled with QR codes on every surface to learn what that thing you're looking at is.
One of my favorite machines, the System76 Thelio, is certainly a step in this direction! Installing and removing the case does require screws, but they're handscrews, and after they're out the...
One of my favorite machines, the System76 Thelio, is certainly a step in this direction! Installing and removing the case does require screws, but they're handscrews, and after they're out the housing slides off on its entirety. Installing SATA drives involves only sliding them into pre-connected slots, a sort of hybrid between normal SATA drive bays and toolless server-front drive sleds.
I looked it up, really elegant! I guess it's mostly just a case of throwing money at a problem to avoid it, though. My ideal solution (which will never happen) would be more systemic: Re-invent...
I looked it up, really elegant! I guess it's mostly just a case of throwing money at a problem to avoid it, though.
My ideal solution (which will never happen) would be more systemic: Re-invent the general layout of a motherboard, its slots, cooling paths, cable management, etc. and come up with a system where you can just slide in a graphics card and it clicks into place and works. The result could work with cheaply produced plastic components, it's just that they're guaranteed to fit. The reason I believe this could work in theory is because we already have standards. They're just not very good. With computers essentially becoming obsolete every 5-8 years, why not make a cut and say, "the next generation of motherboards will no longer require you to break your fingernails".
Yeah, unfortunately I don't think that's really feasible. I don't agree with this, really. The standards bodies accomplished what they set out to do: a set of engineering specifications that would...
Yeah, unfortunately I don't think that's really feasible.
The reason I believe this could work in theory is because we already have standards. They're just not very good.
I don't agree with this, really. The standards bodies accomplished what they set out to do: a set of engineering specifications that would make it easy for system integrators to mix and match parts from OEMs. They were never designed to be consumer-friendly, which is why they're not. Having standards designed for OEMs and their biggest customers is a good thing; it means they will actually use them!
The engineering effort required to build connectors that work in a consumer market is huge. At a minimum, they need to:
be mechanically robust during insertion and removal (IDE failed at this)
be robust against dust and conductive flaking (USB 2.0-on-motherboard failed at this)
be electrically robust against static discharge (this is more expensive than you think!)
be "foolproof" (can't be plugged in offset or inverted, or don't fail if they are)
be cheap to manufacture (USB-C failed at this, which has dramatically slowed its adoption)
leave room for future improvement
(often) be backwards-compatible (responsible for the worst parts of SATA III and USB 3)
Adding too many more requirements will eventually lead to over-constraint; new connectors will be essentially impossible to design.
If the OEMs and SIs have to pick between preventing broken fingernails and paying $15 more for a motherboard, they'll pick broken fingernails every time. If the standards bodies don't cater to that, the OEMs and SIs simply won't use the standards. They're not regulators, and they don't actually have the power to force, say, PSU makers to move away from ATX12VO, which they've just spent five years tooling up for.
With computers essentially becoming obsolete every 5-8 years
I don't agree with this either. I have a computer from 2014 which I've been slowly upgrading over time; it still has the same i5-4690K I built it with, and it's more than fine for modern stuff. It's cooled with an all-in-one liquid cooler I replaced a few years ago, has a GTX 1080, and I use it for VR and plenty of modern AA games. I don't expect to upgrade it for another few years, at which point I'll put some chunkier SSDs in (in RAID) and max out the memory and keep it around for another half a decade.
Old computers are only obsolete if you insist on using corporate operating systems, which are complicit in the enforcement of planned obsolescence.
I definitely agree that we can improve the experience of working on computer for consumers, and that we should. But there's a reason the best examples of this kind of design, System76 and Framework, make expensive machines. Yes, they're boutique system integrators, but also, that mechanical engineering is not cheap! It takes enough time and money to design a machine that works, let alone a machine that's a joy to work with. If we want our hardware to be beautiful and kind inside as well as out, we need to be willing to pay a bit more and keep things for a bit longer.
That's already on the horizon. The upcoming PCIe 5.0 slots can theoretically deliver 600W of power to graphics cards through the new 12VHPWR power connector. The past decade has seen many...
That's already on the horizon. The upcoming PCIe 5.0 slots can theoretically deliver 600W of power to graphics cards through the new 12VHPWR power connector.
The past decade has seen many advancements in simplifying the act of building a PC and lessening cable clutter.
This article doesn't really demonstrate how the PC building community is in any way unique or particularly bad when compared to the general gaming community. All the harassment and vitriol Etienne received seems to me to be similar to the harassment GamerGate's targets received. It is pretty widely known that the Gaming™ community is a haven for all types of bigots and far-right extremists. I wish that Vice here had written about how this is just a small part of the wider toxicity withing the gaming community overall.
Having recently restarted playing games in public lobbies with voice chat, I've been reminded how toxic people are in video games. My first assumption is that these people are toxic in most of their interactions with others and video games provide a way to do things with others without their vetting you first. There are enough new people that you can be extremely socially incapable and destructive without retribution. That's probably obvious to most people that play competitive games, but I've mostly sheltered myself from that until now.
This is a large part of it. I think it's one part "it used to be a boy's club", one part "online anonymity" and one part "win at all costs" that, when mixed together, make for a toxic soup. PvE games tend to be less toxic than PvP games, for example.
Any hobby is going to have its jerks, and gaming is no different. They just tend to be more balkanized. (Examples: PC vs Console, Playstation vs XBox, PvE vs PvP, hardcore vs casual, the list goes on and on.)
This isn't just a few jerks though. Because games have historically been marketed towards men and boys, many Gamers still think it's their territory. After GamerGate it was clear that there is something particularly bad about the gaming community that leads Gamers to harass, dox, and threaten women, people of color, and anyone who doesn't fit their ideal of a "straight white male Gamer." To say that this is just some jerks arguing about which console is the best downplays the harassment minorities get every day for "daring" to play, enjoy, and talk about games.
The jerks are the loudest, but as a gamer, I can say that it isn't part of something I've ever experienced firsthand, nor have friends of mine (despite said friends covering a wide spectrum.) That's not to say it doesn't happen, I just don't think it's the majority of gamers... but rather, a significant minority.
I don't want to discount your personal experience, but every woman or POC who has ever played or talked about games has a story like this. If you go under any twitter announcement by a games company, you will find racism and sexism. Gamers think that video games belong to straight white men, and it's very clear to me at least that most games are a boy's club of white guys.
Again, the crew of friends I have gathered over the years does include women. I once again say they are a significant minority, but I don't think that the toxic crowd is the majority of gamers. At least a third of the population of the planet are gamers (numbers are expected to top 3 billion gamers by 2023). If we extrapolate numbers, that's at least 100 million Americans (and the percentage of Americans who are gamers is likely higher than most parts of the world.) I have my doubts that 50 million gamers in the US alone are openly toxic and bigoted. Millions, yes. Ten million, I could see a case made for.
But then, I'm an optimist, and tend to believe the silent are the best of us, and not just stewing in hate juice.
EDIT to add: I'm not saying it doesn't happen, nor that it doesn't happen frequently. And I feel for every person it happens to and wish garbage human beings would stop being garbage and realize that all human beings have the right to dignity and respect. I'm saying that there's a disproportionate percentage of gamers who are more vocal, and those tend to not be the ones saying "Good game, you guys rock!"
My point isn't so much that the majority of gamers are doing this, but that the amount of gamers doing harassment to women and POC is disproportionate compared to other hobbies/fandoms.
I'd say a big portion of it is simply the nature of online gaming in that it connects you with random people around the world. Even if only 1% of gamers are horribly toxic, it wouldn't take long to stumble across one since you get exposed to so many different people.
Regarding social media communications, those have always seemed to attract the most garbage people regardless of whether it's gaming or not. See: any thread on twitter discussing US politics
Even if it's only as high as 15%, which I think would be a pretty reasonable ballpark estimate, it's coinflip odds to get a toxic teammate in any given moba or 5 person raid group.
I think it's more that the gamers are disproportionately "louder", but whatever the cause, we can agree that the effect is bad for the hobby and those trying to get into the hobby. However it breaks down, it needs to stop.
If we want to make this about building PCs rather than the general awfulness of the gaming community (with its hilarious, playful reference of nazi ideology), I'm gonna say something that I don't think gets said enough in PC circles: Building PCs sucks.
I say this as someone who built his own PCs since I was 14. I stopped counting how many I built since, certainly more than 5. I do it because it's the only way to get the parts you actually need for a reasonable price but never ever have I felt like romanticizing the process as some kind of nerdy/manly ritual. PC setups are designed by tech people with little respect for human nature. They hate dealing with me and I hate dealing with them. And I kinda also blame anyone who continues to defend or mystify the process to create some awful "culture" around it.
These tiny clips, screws in awkward places, switches that are needed for the whole thing to run but are hidden in some millimeter-sized corner box, kafkaesque incompatibility issues that you're just kinda supposed to know, bizarre naming conventions (GPU numbers, anyone?) and a general culture of seeing having learned all this as a badge of honor and an invitation to make fun of people who haven't (as opposed to try and make it easier for coming generations) is an absolutely miserable experience. There is no reason not to make 99% of the process a screw- and cable-less, plug-and-play experience with with human-finger-sized proportions and reasonably sized labels in human-readable language.
There is absolutely no reason that a PC interior looks like this. As for constructive counter-examples, unfortunately, there are none I can think of. Razer once tried an modular PC concept but I don't think it ever took off and it would probably be an overpriced, proprietary system which doesn't really solve the problem. It's just trivially obvious that what we currently have can't be the best solution to the problem.
You might be interested in the Framework laptop. USB-C-based expansion cards, and if you have to crack open the internals it's all nicely labeled with QR codes on every surface to learn what that thing you're looking at is.
I had my eyes on this thing, it looks pretty neat!
One of my favorite machines, the System76 Thelio, is certainly a step in this direction! Installing and removing the case does require screws, but they're handscrews, and after they're out the housing slides off on its entirety. Installing SATA drives involves only sliding them into pre-connected slots, a sort of hybrid between normal SATA drive bays and toolless server-front drive sleds.
I looked it up, really elegant! I guess it's mostly just a case of throwing money at a problem to avoid it, though.
My ideal solution (which will never happen) would be more systemic: Re-invent the general layout of a motherboard, its slots, cooling paths, cable management, etc. and come up with a system where you can just slide in a graphics card and it clicks into place and works. The result could work with cheaply produced plastic components, it's just that they're guaranteed to fit. The reason I believe this could work in theory is because we already have standards. They're just not very good. With computers essentially becoming obsolete every 5-8 years, why not make a cut and say, "the next generation of motherboards will no longer require you to break your fingernails".
Yeah, unfortunately I don't think that's really feasible.
I don't agree with this, really. The standards bodies accomplished what they set out to do: a set of engineering specifications that would make it easy for system integrators to mix and match parts from OEMs. They were never designed to be consumer-friendly, which is why they're not. Having standards designed for OEMs and their biggest customers is a good thing; it means they will actually use them!
The engineering effort required to build connectors that work in a consumer market is huge. At a minimum, they need to:
Adding too many more requirements will eventually lead to over-constraint; new connectors will be essentially impossible to design.
If the OEMs and SIs have to pick between preventing broken fingernails and paying $15 more for a motherboard, they'll pick broken fingernails every time. If the standards bodies don't cater to that, the OEMs and SIs simply won't use the standards. They're not regulators, and they don't actually have the power to force, say, PSU makers to move away from ATX12VO, which they've just spent five years tooling up for.
I don't agree with this either. I have a computer from 2014 which I've been slowly upgrading over time; it still has the same i5-4690K I built it with, and it's more than fine for modern stuff. It's cooled with an all-in-one liquid cooler I replaced a few years ago, has a GTX 1080, and I use it for VR and plenty of modern AA games. I don't expect to upgrade it for another few years, at which point I'll put some chunkier SSDs in (in RAID) and max out the memory and keep it around for another half a decade.
Old computers are only obsolete if you insist on using corporate operating systems, which are complicit in the enforcement of planned obsolescence.
I definitely agree that we can improve the experience of working on computer for consumers, and that we should. But there's a reason the best examples of this kind of design, System76 and Framework, make expensive machines. Yes, they're boutique system integrators, but also, that mechanical engineering is not cheap! It takes enough time and money to design a machine that works, let alone a machine that's a joy to work with. If we want our hardware to be beautiful and kind inside as well as out, we need to be willing to pay a bit more and keep things for a bit longer.
That's already on the horizon. The upcoming PCIe 5.0 slots can theoretically deliver 600W of power to graphics cards through the new 12VHPWR power connector.
The past decade has seen many advancements in simplifying the act of building a PC and lessening cable clutter.