The Next Generation of Gamers

It all started 4 years ago when I built PCs for my 2 sons so that they could play Minecraft. Thanks to their avid viewing of YouTubers like PaulSoaresJr, they wanted to start installing mods. I was uncomfortable installing mods that came from questionable websites on our home PCs, so I figured that dedicated machines which could be easily reset was the clean way to go. They split their time playing shooter games like Halo on Xbox 360 with me, and Minecraft on PC. Soon they were playing online matches on Minecraft on servers. Next, they started to schedule online Minecraft playdates with friends, using a speakerphone or Facetime to voice chat with their friends. That led me to get them headsets and Skype accounts so that they wouldn't be yelling into a phone or tablet. For a while, there was clear dichotomy where the Xbox was the platform where I played shooters with them, and the PC a Minecraft machine to play with their friends. But that all changed when I got them Steam accounts.

I thought it would be fun to play games that I enjoyed like Team Fortress 2 and Left for Dead, and we did indeed have some good times with those. Then in the summer of 2015 when my older son was consistently able to hold his own in Halo (i.e. able to get a higher K/D than me), I decided to give him a shot at playing Counter Strike: Global Offense (aka "CS:GO"). CS:GO is probably the most popular competitive first person shooter PC game in the world, with numerous professional e-sports tournaments held around the world. My son was almost 13, and spent the summer immersing himself in the game by watching YouTube videos on strategy, game mechanics, map control, etc, and of course playing and practicing. After he started to play the competitive mode, I was surprised to see the rate at which he advanced in ranking, and was soon playing tough games where he was clearly the youngest player. He hit the rank of Legendary Eagle with less than 200 hours of time played, and was regularly accused of playing on a "smurf" account by opponents who couldn't believe that a person who achieve this rank in such a short amount of time. After having a talk with him about gaming not being a likely career choice (and making him watch the sad documentary "Free to Play"), I offered to help him build his own PC so that he could have a no-compromise gaming experience, and hopefully stoke an interest in PCs in the process.

Today, both my sons spend the vast majority of their time playing on PC, and they are successfully converting their friends to join them in the PC Master Race. In fall 2015, we helped one of their friends build a gaming PC, following by another in spring 2016. Last month, 2 more of my son's friends asked him to help spec out parts to build their own gaming PCs.

I didn't see this one coming. I was sure that this generation of kids would be playing primarily on consoles, which have the obvious benefits of being much easier to use and much lower in cost. How the heck did this happen?  Here are my theories on the contributing factors based off of my observations:

1. It starts with Minecraft as the gateway drug. They may start on a tablet, but kids know that PC is where the real fun is with all the mods, servers, and other features that they see their favorite YouTubers playing. Minecraft can also play just fine on low end laptops, so the barrier to entry is fairly small. Finally, Minecraft is non-violent and positioned as a digital Lego-type creative game, so parents are less fearful letting their kids play it. Brilliant acquisition, Microsoft!
2. Consoles divide, but PCs unify: my sons' friends all have different types of consoles (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Nintendo), and there is no way we'll be able to convince them all to buy an Xbox One. But all of them have a Windows PC that their parents were willing to let them play on.
3. Games are cheap(er): Console games are usually $60, and while the same games start off at $60 on PC, they usually come down to $40-$50 soon after launch. But compare that to Minecraft ($26.95), CS:GO $15, and Gary's Mod ($10). PCs invented the free-to-play model, so games like League of Legends, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, World of Tanks, and Warframe are all free. And don't forget the numerous free browser games like agar.io and slither.io.
4. Network effect: The games my kids play the most with their friends include CS:GO, Overwatch, Minecraft, and Gary's Mod. All of these are highly interactive team based games where coordinated teams will play much better, and I often hear lots of gleeful screaming and laughing when they are playing with friends. You can bet that these guys are talking about that epic game they played at school the next day, and word gets around about how much fun it is.
5. Parents see PCs as productivity tools: Parents who have a negative view about video games are not going to get a gaming console for their child. But PCs have an image of being an educational tool that their kids can learn to code or watch Khan Academy, so they may feel comfortable getting their child a PC is an "investment" in their education.
6. Kids don't fear complexity: I had wrongly assumed that this generation of kids would have no tolerance for learning how to update drivers, configure their audio devices, or tweak a game's graphics quality settings. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they are not deterred by this, and they are pretty good about helping each other out and sharing their individual learnings (e.g. my son will regularly get a text message from a friend asking for PC tweaking advice). Ironically, it's my middle-aged friends who have the low tolerance for complexity, and are thus unwilling to consider gaming on a PC.
7. Kids recognize and value performance: Consoles sacrifice a lot of visual quality to hit 1080p resolution, and it's a noticeable difference when they play a game on console vs. a mid-end desktop PC. These kids understand frame rates, screen tearing, and drool over the latest NVIDIA GPUs. Things like voice chat using Skype is much more reliable, higher quality, and adjustable (i.e. balancing the game vs. voice audio) compared to the voice chat services on consoles. Kids complain about consoles requiring over a minute to boot up and the laggy response of the UI, compared to 10-15 sec boot for a PC with snappy responsiveness.  In short, they have no interest in going to a console after gaming on a PC.

So what does this mean? First, it validates what the reports say: the PC is the largest gaming platform in the world with a massive $32B in annual business that is continues to grow. Compare that to console gaming bringing in around $25B, or the stunning monetization of the top PC games compared to console. Secondly, games are becoming a social platform for kids to play and interact together. Besides the convenience of playing online, we sometime host or have our kids go to LAN parties to play Minecraft or other games, and it's always on PCs, never consoles. They always leave these parties having a great time, and looking forward to doing it again.

I've come to embrace the fact that my kids are PC gamers, while I play mainly on Xbox One because that's where my own friends are (there is a group of dads with whom I play every Monday and Thursday night, and we call ourselves the "Halo Dads" because we started doing this little league with Halo 3).  As a result, I play less with my kids, and I generally have to convince them to fire up the Xbox for us to play together. Basically, these distinct gaming platforms have created a barrier that makes us choose who we play with. Going forward, my plan is to upgrade my desktop PC with a modern graphics card and start playing the same games my kids enjoy, because playing together with them is a special shared experience that is incredibly important to me. Ultimately, I hope that Microsoft is successful unifying the Xbox and Windows PC platforms with Play Anywhere so that I can simplify my gaming setup with a single machine, a unified game library, and the freedom to play with both my own family and the Halo Dads.