This weekend my World of Warcraft game experience was much affected by changes in hardware. On the positive side going from a 19" CRT to a 22" wide format flatscreen was like taking the horse blinds off, my viewing angle of the game improved significantly. On the negative side I spilled soda on my G15 keyboard, and it isn't running any more, and I'm playing on some dinky keyboard that came with the computer. My Razer Diamondback mouse remained unchanged, but I was wondering how much effect hardware has on your "performance" in World of Warcraft. And is that "fair" in a PvP context?
Now games are my main hobby, and I have a comfortable level of disposable income, so I tend to have pretty high-end hardware. But I'm spending that money to improve my comfort, not my achievements in any game, especially not in MMORPGs, which I don't consider to be competitions in the first place. And I'm not doing much PvP anyway. But I'm well aware that there are lots of people that take WoW a lot more competitive than me, either by trying to get further in PvE, or by crushing the opposition in PvP. And to crush the opposition you better have a fast, lag-free computer, high bandwith, a good mouse and keyboard, and having a wider viewing angle with a widescreen is certainly helping not to be blindsided.
So is the PC really a viable tool for "E-Sports", or should competitive games rather be played on standardized consoles? I'm sure better hardware only affects performance by a couple of percents, but you try to get into a F1 race with a car that is better by a couple of percents than the competition. At the top it is the small things that count.
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