What things has PC gaming taught you?

Man of Honour
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I was reading some article the other day about the youth of today being unprepared move into tech roles and my mind wandered to thinking about how I learned about tech/computing. And I started to think about all the stuff I've learned directly or indirectly from PC gaming. It's actually quite a bit:

  • The main reason for using a PC when I was a kid was for playing games, but this naturally led to me learning how to use the PC in general
  • Getting games to run was often quite tricky - bare-booting, messing about in config.sys/autoexec.bat etc to free up sufficient memory to play with both sound and a mouse driver, etc. This taught me a lot about some key principles of configuration, memory usage etc
  • The reason I started dabbling with computer hardware was upgrading to play games. More RAM, 3dfx card etc. I then progressed to building my own PCs, installing the OS etc etc
  • Gaming also drove my interest in the internet, going to a net cafe to download a game patch, visit a few gaming sites etc. This would have happened without gaming but it also taught me a fair bit about networking, optimising latency etc
  • Through online gaming I've learned some of the basics of languages like German and Swedish due to speaking with and playing in teams with people from those nations. It also led to me visiting Sweden for the first time to participate in a LAN tournament
 
Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2008
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752
Interesting.

I realise how much money I have spent on PC gear all these years.
General use of the PC and building them
I read a lot of information and I'm a lot more knowledgeable because of it
I think I'm more patience and relaxed person because on my experience playing PC and fault finding within a PC
 

SPG

SPG

Soldato
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Never put on your CV I play world of warcraft have have 8 max level characters, well you can but you wont get the job.

Simon Grey you made a lot of people laugh back in the day :) My boss at the time was in stiches.
 
Soldato
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Been playing PC games for 25+ years now so....

- Never pre-order.....EVER....its a digital product it doesnt go out of stock.
- Dont purchase on release day either, wait for the sale. Its games not food, theres no use by date so just wait.
- Never buy loot boxes / skins / emotes. Pointless digital garbage that mean nothing and have no actual value and no you dont look cool in the latest £20 paint job...even if you think you do.
- Social Media is cancer, not just PC games...just in general.
- Single player games are just better because unless you are Ubisoft they are mostly not riddled with the microtransaction virus
- Dont believe the hype its just common sense.
- Mouse and Keyboard is 1000% better than a controller...this is not for debate.
- Consoles suck...this is not for debate :D
 
Associate
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PC gaming, specifically my first PC on which I played the original Half Life is what got me using PCs in the first place and got me used to PCs in general. Never really used one before that. I'd had consoles, a Spectrum and Amiga years before.

Then someone showed me MAME running on their pc and that started a major obsession with retro gaming. At the time MAME required command line usage so I had to figure that out, along with Internet downloading.

My PC (from TIME - remember them?) also had plenty of issues, so figuring a lot of those out taught me quite a bit too - fresh install of OS, Drivers etc..
 
Soldato
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ST4
That wooden doors are impervious to any, and all, types of heavy weaponry and that if I want to stop somebody from chasing me I should just place a small rock in their path.
 
Soldato
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Bristol
- how not to be a ***** online!

My first foray online was with UT99 ~2000-01. I like to think I played online during the golden years where it was mostly likeminded people playing against one another and communities really mattered. I think it's rubbed off on me that even Tim this day I like to try and befriend people online rather than grief them


Nowadays I just get told that everyone has fornicated with my mother, I need to get cancer and die or just the classic timeless racism.

it's not what it used to be so I turn off coms 99.9%
 
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Behind You
Moderation and prioritise
There are no such thing as vets in gaming just good newbies :)

- how not to be a ***** online!

My first foray online was with UT99 ~2000-01. I like to think I played online during the golden years where it was mostly likeminded people playing against one another and communities really mattered. I think it's rubbed off on me that even Tim this day I like to try and befriend people online rather than grief them

Nowadays I just get told that everyone has fornicated with my mother, I need to get cancer and die or just the classic timeless racism.

it's not what it used to be so I turn off coms 99.9%

I remember making the jump from U1 to UT99 and just thinking "its too cartoony, this'll never work", bloody hell how wrong could I have been (and I wasn't half bad either!) The sad thing is nothing has come close to it! :) Was heart broken when they put the recent UT on hold (but I get it, money is money)

Good times.. get your CW in then go play some UO etc. We were simply spoilt back then. Trouble is it sets your bar too high when looking for something new. I'm looking for something now actually

As for the smack talk.. that is a bit of a buzz kill as I would gather most of us are probably old enough to have had dealings with cancer either ourselves or through people we know. The mother bit is a bit cringe as mine is in a home and wears pads.. I would had rolled with it, turned around and just said "bon apetite I'm sure she'll have more fun than you" lol
 
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Man of Honour
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One of the things I've learnt through years of PC gaming especially games like Eve Online is understanding the why of the data being presented to you - breaking down what you are actually looking at and what is important about it - though I'm still not as good at it as I'd like - I understand a lot of it in concept but actually putting it all together on the spot especially in the heat of the action is another matter.

Through online gaming I've learned some of the basics of languages like German and Swedish due to speaking with and playing in teams with people from those nations. It also led to me visiting Sweden for the first time to participate in a LAN tournament

Not really any culture or language sides to it but I did get to do some trips abroad for LANs.
 
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