PC Gaming/Steam not big in youth gaming?

[aplayer]

I am in High School and I hardly find anyone that is a PC gamer and/or has a steam account who knows very well about Valve Games. It seems to me, that people in my generation just like to play console games. When I was in middle school, people would always ask the Xbox or PS3 question. My answer is PC. Sometimes I feel left out, but I know for a fact that PC is the best platform. I just wanted to know if anyone else on steam had this similar experience. When I encounter things like this in real life, PC gaming feels dead, but I know online, there's so many people that play on steam. Thank god for High school, actually the first time where I didn't feel like a lonely PC nerd.

I also hate the lack of knowledge in many gamers that they don't know two ♥♥♥♥s about Valve games. "Counter strike? Half Life?" WTF is that. OMG how can you not know those games. I've noticed the console community was really familiar with Valve games since probably Left 4 Dead. Yeah, little kids want to play gory games, its not just some violent zombie game, its a Valve game. pisses me off sometimes.

[Imran166]

Yeah it's a bit of a rarity. I've met a few people my age who are Steam gamers.

Once you get older, you'll probably find more Steam gamers.

[Omfg12333]

It's just that many teenagers just can't play most PC games because they don't have a good enough PC and have no means of getting a better one.

I'm very lucky to have a good enough PC to play most games as well as many friends who also are avid PC gamers. I also have many friends who don't play PC games because they are content with playing on their console(s) or can't start playing most PC games.

[aplayer]

It's just that many teenagers just can't play most PC games because they don't have a good enough PC and have no means of getting a better one.

I'm very lucky to have a good enough PC to play most games as well as many friends who also are avid PC gamers. I also have many friends who don't play PC games because they are content with playing on their console(s) or can't start playing most PC games.

Yeah, I can see the expensive computers many teens can't afford but I didn't really spend much on my computer. PC gaming is really easy to get into now at days, if you don't want to have everything up to date, almost new standard PC's or laptops are able to play some new titles.

[TZK203]

Really? My high school is chuck-full of them. It's pathetic.

[0'M4ll3y]

I am in High School and I hardly find anyone that is a PC gamer and/or has a steam account who knows very well about Valve Games. It seems to me, that people in my generation just like to play console games. When I was in middle school, people would always ask the Xbox or PS3 question. My answer is PC. Sometimes I feel left out, but I know for a fact that PC is the best platform. I just wanted to know if anyone else on steam had this similar experience. When I encounter things like this in real life, PC gaming feels dead, but I know online, there's so many people that play on steam. Thank god for High school, actually the first time where I didn't feel like a lonely PC nerd.

I also hate the lack of knowledge in many gamers that they don't know two ♥♥♥♥s about Valve games. "Counter strike? Half Life?" WTF is that. OMG how can you not know those games. I've noticed the console community was really familiar with Valve games since probably Left 4 Dead. Yeah, little kids want to play gory games, its not just some violent zombie game, its a Valve game. jaratees me off sometimes.

How big is your highschool? Mine was only 250 students, and I had a similiar problem. I had one friend to LAN with my age, then a guy the year above, and then my brother and sister when they were home. Ah, Friday night LANs. Pizza in the park then TFC, CS and Ricochet. Good times, good times.

And now-a-days, whilst I'm still in this little town, I still have to deal with the high school kids occassionally. Anything before CoD:MW 1 doesn't exist to them. :(

My only advice is to try and get a friend hooked on a PC game, TF2 is a good one now that it's free, requires steam, and is fairly newbie friendly (compared to CS). I don't know what your social life is like, but having just four friends you can LAN with makes PC gaming feel very much alive.

[Zodiark1593]

Laptops make excellent LAN machines as nearly any one of them built within the last few years can/should run TF2.

[freeloader105]

Just find the computer geeks in your school and you will have your PC gamer crowd. Another idea: play some FPS and maybe look for players with low-ping. They could be going to your school!

[ernest.]

I'm 22, all my friends are around my age, and they still don't have gaming PCs. They just love their consoles.

[habeebit]

thats strange....go into any game of cs:s and you will find 10 of them yelling on the mic per server.

[Chapa9dj]

My experience is much more worse.
I live in a town where there's barely any real gamer. I only have 2 friends in my town who use Steam and that's because i recommended it to them and bought them some games.
None of my other friends play games, or only they play games like PES or FIFA, which sucks.

When i tell some of my friends i own an account which contains 750 games, they go nuts and ask me Where do i get all that money to spend or why do i buy so many games.

[Zyinxz]

I still know a few today who uses Steam or generally speaking plays PC games, but not as much as before.

Most young ones don't have a nice PC where they can play PC games. I first started playing counter strike 1.6 at the age of 10 or 11 where I would go to the local internet cafe packed with other gamers who are much older.

That's when I first fell in love with PC Gaming. Before playing CS1.6, I did however play Habbo Hotel & Coke Music a few years back before playing CS1.6, but I don't really think it's considered PC Gaming when realistically speaking you're just chatting it up.

The reason why I fell in love with PC Gaming was the atmosphere in that internet cafe. You have a bunch of people playing competitively, you have people raging when things don't go their way, you also have your typical adult watching pr0n beside you. I don't even think it was just that, since the internet cafe was located in a shopping centre, there were a lot of people and different stores, food markets and to top it all off, there used to be a bunch of events every Saturday.

Every Saturday, you would always recognize 5 - 15 people in that shopping centre, or to make things specific, in that internet cafe, normally 10. Every week, when they held events there would always be a bunch of people and it'll always be packed. The atmosphere in that shopping centre would just make you feel like you're at home when you're in there every week.

Sadly, this doesn't happen any more and the young children of today won't be able to experience what I experienced as a kid. I loved it very much and cherish it oh so much. It's hard to explain it through words, you would have to be there in order to feel the atmosphere you're in. I fell in love with PC gaming because of that internet cafe when it was once opened, never will I be able to experience that again because that shopping centre is practically dead.

This link below is one of their recent big events, the left side corner at 4:32 where the red sign is, that's where the internet cafe used to be. I wish their were more older videos dating back to 2000 - 2004 because that was the golden era where it was really really packed because there were a lot of chanting when events were held.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOW9hO3oh0

[aplayer]

How big is your highschool? Mine was only 250 students, and I had a similiar problem. I had one friend to LAN with my age, then a guy the year above, and then my brother and sister when they were home. Ah, Friday night LANs. Pizza in the park then TFC, CS and Ricochet. Good times, good times.

And now-a-days, whilst I'm still in this little town, I still have to deal with the high school kids occassionally. Anything before CoD:MW 1 doesn't exist to them. :(

My only advice is to try and get a friend hooked on a PC game, TF2 is a good one now that it's free, requires steam, and is fairly newbie friendly (compared to CS). I don't know what your social life is like, but having just four friends you can LAN with makes PC gaming feel very much alive.
Around 1000, so its quite a big school to me. And I have met people with steam, some active, some not. I usually get my own freinds on steam and we do play TF2. (Great game for starters now at days). But if I was in school probably in the late 90's I would meet more fellow PC gamers.

[Levi]

I am in High School and I hardly find anyone that is a PC gamer and/or has a steam account who knows very well about Valve Games.


Not a lot of kids have credit cards or gaming computers.


I also hate the lack of knowledge in many gamers that they don't know two ♥♥♥♥s about Valve games. "Counter strike? Half Life?" WTF is that. OMG how can you not know those games. I've noticed the console community was really familiar with Valve games since probably Left 4 Dead. Yeah, little kids want to play gory games, its not just some violent zombie game, its a Valve game. jaratees me off sometimes.

Most of Valves games are old or dress-up simulators. You can't really expect someone to play older games when they are in high school.

[2560x1600@120hz]

Consoles have a tendency to appeal to the youth crowds more than the older demographics. Not too many youth are tech savvy enough, let alone wealthy enough to invest hundreds, even thousands into gaming rigs.

[bluz74]

Good! Less kids spamming hat trades and mic spamming, "Pownd you noob!"