Great Things About Computers #3: Gaming

If you have a computer for any reason other than work and/or the Internet then the chances are that you are a gamer. There are other ways to play games – dedicated consoles are one such way – but the increased amount of memory available with a home computer means that more complex games are best when played on a PC.

PC gaming really comes into its own on “thinking” games, where a large amount of data needs to be stored and recalled at short notice. Sports management simulations are one example of this, as they contain information on players and need to take account of a vast number of potential eventualities. To simulate tactical decisions as made by a sports coach takes a lot of information.

Personal computers also tend to have more capability to reproduce high-quality graphics and sound. You may need to buy dedicated graphics and sound cards to get the maximum from your PC, but games are available for PCs which are still not manageable on consoles, even with the innovation of consoles with their own hard-drives and the increasing development of CD and DVD technology.

Most people with a PC will have used it for gaming at one time or another, even if it is just a bored office worker playing Solitaire while waiting for something else to do. PC gaming ranges from the inherently basic to the hugely complex, and many of the popular console games of today started out as PC games.