Gaming console or PC?
During the covid-19 pandemic my kids wanted to upgrade their Xbox One S to get the latest Xbox Series X. Don’t get me wrong the Xbox is a great console and consoles are great for smaller kids (my kids were ranging from 7 to 11 at the time). Consoles power up quickly, have a nice user-friendly interface and don’t need much maintenance. They auto update the OS. But they had an Xbox One S. What difference will an Xbox Series X make? I pour over the marketing blurb. New processor, faster, more powerful, supports true 4K with 120 FPS, better sound reproduction etc. Sounds great but what will the kids learn? It’s just another games console. It’s designed for gaming and does a great job of that.
My kids are big fans of watching gamers on YouTube. It’s clear that most of them don’t use a gaming console. They use a gaming PC. A good gaming PC can be way more powerful than a gaming console. YouTubers customise the machine choosing the motherboard and processor architecture, the RAM, the hard disk, the graphics card, the chassis (available in ‘fan cooled' or silent 'liquid cooled' options), the monitor and the other hardware like the headphones, speakers, microphones, the keyboard and mouse. A keyboard and mouse are essential for a computer but isn’t a keyboard just a keyboard and a mouse just a mouse. The short answer to a gamer is no! A keyboard can have clicky mechanical keys or silent soft touch membranes. Keys can be low or high profile, they can be programmed with backlight colours and special keys can be assigned special functions. Similarly, the mouse doesn’t just have two buttons, it has five or six ergonomically positioned for optimal high-speed action. They’re programmable and the mouse has fancy lighting options. There are so many options out there! A little segue here - I worked on the design of a gaming keyboard in 1998. It was cool. There was nothing on the market like it. It sold approximately ten thousand units which was a big flop as the company needed to sell over one hundred thousand units to make any profits!
So, PCs are great for gaming. Better than consoles. But a PC comes with a lot of baggage. They are more expensive. You have all that extra hardware to consider, and that’s not cheap. And you must make sure the OS is kept up to date (with security patches and feature updates) and ensure you have good anti-virus software. It’s a lot more hassle. If I got a gaming PC for my kids wouldn’t that make me much busier? Who’s going to fix it if there’s an OS issue, an application install issue, a virus?
I considered everything and I made a decision. I decided to buy a gaming PC for my kids! Why? I wanted my kids to learn more about computers. I wanted them to own it. I wanted them to learn to fix issues when they occurred. And I wanted them to use the PC and learn about all the things you can do with a PC that you might not be able to do with a games console.
A few years have passed now, and I can safely say that purchasing a PC over a new gaming console was a great decision. My kids are now aged 15, 13 and 10. They are competent PC users. When issues occur, they research the problem. They google it. They watch YouTube videos. They try things out and eventually they solve the problem. All problems are solvable, and when we solve them, this makes us feel good. It helps our confidence. They’ve also learned how to edit video content, create and manage YouTube channels, build websites and much more. The PC has been great for gaming, but I think it's also been an education and an investment in my kid's future.
The Xbox still gets a lot of use in our house. It’s not the latest model but it’s dating well. They are very proud of their gaming PC. They learned lots over the last few years and I’m sure they’ll learn lots more in the future. And the great thing is, they are having fun while doing so. If you’re old enough and you can afford it, do your research and get a gaming PC. You won’t be disappointed!