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Beautiful execution and a well-done site. Nice visual choices and a good responsive layout. Great example of waiting until a product has some polish before a Sh

Beautiful execution and a well-done site. Nice visual choices and a good responsive layout. Great example of waiting until a product has some polish before a Show HN. Yesterday, Forbes did an article[1] about how console gamers are moving towards PC. I think you could really knock it out of the park if you capitalized on that trend and added a portion of your site for folks looking to migrate. Something that shows how specs from different sets of cheaper hardware could mimic and beat the console they may be trying to migrate from. Perhaps something with a bit more of an educational front to it. You could even go as far as video demonstrations showing how the performance of a $400.00 PC from your service could rival or beat a console. There's a big trend/meme on the Internet right now regarding the "PC Master Race"[2] that I think you could explore for some inspiration, if you haven't. The trend started a few years ago[3] but has started to pick up more and more. You may even find some great success with a section specifically for building customized, beautiful "Steam Boxes"[4] that are starting to appear more and more in living rooms in place of consoles. [1] - http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2014/07/14/the-console-war-is-over-the-pc-already-won/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2014/07/14/the-c... [2] - http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/ http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/ [3] - http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-glorious-pc-gaming-master-race http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-glorious-pc-gaming-master-... [4] - http://gizmodo.com/13-steam-boxes-ranked-1496078448 http://gizmodo.com/13-steam-boxes-ranked-1496078448

sosborn 12y ago
> PC Master Race Please don't perpetuate this inane meme. It is needlessly inflammatory and would probably alienate a healthy portion of your target market.
- jpgvm 12y ago
  Perpetuating the meme is perhaps unwise (and alienating as you pointed out). That aside it is worth pointing out the advantages of a proper computer over cut down entertainment devices. Especially in a format that lets you customize and meet a certain price point. Shame it's not easy to have comparative benchmarks against console hardware at this time, despite the newest generation being effectively x86 hardware we have no means of comparison due to the platforms being too locked down.
  - sosborn 12y ago
    >That aside it is worth pointing out the advantages of a proper computer over cut down entertainment devices. Sure, but calling console players 'plebes' probably isn't the best way to do it.
    - jpgvm 12y ago
      Agree, hence why I said drop the meme but keep the finer points. :)
- danwiding 12y ago
  Isn't it better to have passionate users who love using your service along with haters that love to hate you as opposed to having a market that just kinda likes you. That said you can tone down the nazi-ism while having dog whistle trigerring http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics with something like PC Master Build or PC Uber Class (I'm not in marketing but there's something that works in there).
  - chc 12y ago
    I don't think I would characterize the reaction "Those PC gamers are really off-putting and I do not wish to associate with them" as "I just love to hate PC gamers."
    - danwiding 12y ago
      As counterpoint a lot of the comments in this very discussion are on the distaste or appreciation of the concept of PC master race. Clearly it is a subject that gets people talking.
- jiggy2011 12y ago
  In video gaming discussion inflammatory = good
- jsmthrowaway 12y ago
  You say that, but you forget what the target market for gaming rigs actually is. I game pretty extensively as a hobby but I also hold a serious 9-5. While I don't call people homophobic slurs and scream "oh my god no scoped" and all that, I can appreciate and keep up with the typical gaming attitudes in the market these days. To be honest, I look at gaming as a different persona and snap in and out of him at will; a few close folks in that circle of mine know what I actually do, but to them I'm just another "lol rekt" dude. Just like you'd expect some things out of a typical HN user, I expect some things out of a typical gamer. I also balance that with calling out the less-desirable portions of that culture, like homophobia, racism, and sexual harassment, when I can. The master race thing is a tongue-in-cheek exercise which really, as a couple other folks have pointed out, has a more subtle message. If you allow yourself to be alienated by things that other folks find humorous -- and it's totally within your right to not find it humorous, by the way, I'm not saying that -- you're just going to have a bad time, that's all. Gaming and the culture around it is not something to be taken seriously. Even e-sports have an element of insanity. To be entirely honest, I look at master race and calling console users "plebes" as the gaming generation getting older and discovering there's another one right behind them, and that one likes Call of Duty on Xbox and Minecraft. Really, though, you'd be hard pressed to find someone on either side who takes that sort of thing seriously. At the end of the day, we're all gamers doing what we enjoy.
niwri 12y ago
This "PC Master Race" mentality has left a sour taste in my mouth. It is a joke to a few but it is starting to become serious (weather they refer to it as PC Master Race or not). Most arguments are made by technically unqualified enthusiasts on subjects like architecture, performance, and cost effectiveness. I suppose the reason I'm bitter is because I'm constantly being told (online and lots of PC enthusiast friends) that my choice of gaming hardware (a console) is vastly inferior to a PC. Choosing a gaming platform is not a 100% performance to cost optimization problem.
- chc 12y ago
  Well, it really is technically inferior to a gaming PC. And I say this as somebody who owns several consoles and does not own a gaming PC. In making that choice, I had to accept that I would get less power than a PC user, at least for most of the console's lifespan. I use a console because that's what I'm comfortable with and it lets me play with my friends, not because I want to be at the cutting edge of gaming technology.
  - jfb 12y ago
    There are more axes to gaming quality than simply polygon performance. You have to be specific about what is superior.
    - chc 12y ago
      I really can't name any technological aspect in which consoles are more powerful than a PC. That's kind of the point I was driving at.
      - gknoy 12y ago
        The secret power of consoles is that the hardware doesn't change over the course of the console's life in a significant way. If I buy an XBox 360 on ebay, I know that ANY xbox-360 game will run on it. In contrast, PC gaming is a mess of compatibility questions. If I want to play the new Wolfenstein, or Watch Dogs, or any "new" game, chances are my 2 year old PC will not be able to run it well (unless I spent $$$$ on it, rather than $$). If I want to play a new game with all the dials turned up to 9 (or 11), I basically expect to spend $1200-$1500 on a new PC every two to four years. If I look at OLDER games, it's even worse: Will this game even install? I have a giant library of games which I would love to play, but I can't figure out how to get them to run on a current version of Windows. (Sea Dogs, Starfleet Command 3, etc.) These games are ten years old, and I can't even get the installers to run correctly -- or if I do, the game crashes for other "win 8 >> Win XP" reasons. I would pay money _again_ to be able to play some of these games in a reliable way (and have re-bought things for Steam), but most of the time they're not supported anymore. My Wii will still play Windwaker (11 years old), and I can buy an XBox and any copy of Halo and be pretty confident that it'll run, even if ten years old (assuming the hardware hasn't failed).
hoggle 12y ago
It seems as if the console makers have delivered developer friendly platforms this time but with that forgot to / decided not to pack in that extra punch they used to. I'm talking about things like those sprite optimized graphics controllers when 2D still was king and the tightly integrated 3D chips later on (when consumer PCs were doing 3D exclusively with the CPU) - and let's not forget all those esoteric but very powerful CPU architectures (e.g. Cell processor).
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
> $400.00 PC from your service could rival or beat a console. I recently got the itch to buy the Xbox One. I had the 360 before it with the Kinect and it was a passable party game machine, but I usually game on an old-ish desktop that maybe I've invested $600 in over the past four years. i5, 7000 series AMD card, 8gb ram, etc. Seems to handle any modern game I can throw at it. With a copy of Watchdogs that Xbox turned out to be almost $700. Um, sure Watchdogs was fun, but having both just feels extraneous at this point and if I wasn't beyond my return date I'd just get rid of it. Just the price of games alone is rough. With Steam I can usually find a deal, but for console games I'm expected to usually pay full price, usually with the understanding that I'm also subsidizing my console's low price. How is $700 with one game low? You can almost make two mid-range gaming PCs with that if you're frugal enough. That said, I'm sure it'll be great for multiplayer and kinect games, but with powerful PC hardware being so cheap, it does feel like a rip-off as console prices haven't really fallen in line with PC prices. On the plus side, it has impressive fit and polish, the media tv stuff is nice, xbox live is well done, and even though the kinect is optional now I really hope they continue to develop games for it, preferable another Star Wars game on the new hardware. I'm hoping I get 5 years out of this system to depreciate the big one-time cost. I'm just surprised there isn't a competitive $199 console out there. Even if it was semi-disposable (say every 24 months a new model with faster innards) it would still be worth it. I can get a Nexus 7 for that much. Its incredible I can't get a dedicated gaming machine (sans display, sans batter, etc) for around that much. Consoles are starting to feel like those old Texas Instruments calculators that cost the same amount and have the same exact features as the ones sold 20+ years ago.
- adricnet 12y ago
  > I'm just surprised there isn't a competitive $199 console out there. Well, there's the Ouya, which is a nice little platform. You can get one an second controller and most of the games available for that price point :) Specs and SDKs at https://www.ouya.tv/develop/ https://www.ouya.tv/develop/ hth, adric
  - jsmthrowaway 12y ago
    He said "competitive." The Ouya is dead.
personZ 12y ago
Yesterday, Forbes did an article[1] about how console gamers are moving towards PC. A contributor, essentially using Forbes as a blog platform, claimed that. The article is a baseless fluff piece pandering to an audience. I really believe that the whole contributor model has seriously undermined Forbes' already strained credibility: Endlessly people attribute these often specious claims to the magazine itself.

sosborn 12y ago

> PC Master Race Please don't perpetuate this inane meme. It is needlessly inflammatory and would probably alienate a healthy portion of your target market.

jpgvm 12y ago
Perpetuating the meme is perhaps unwise (and alienating as you pointed out). That aside it is worth pointing out the advantages of a proper computer over cut down entertainment devices. Especially in a format that lets you customize and meet a certain price point. Shame it's not easy to have comparative benchmarks against console hardware at this time, despite the newest generation being effectively x86 hardware we have no means of comparison due to the platforms being too locked down.
- sosborn 12y ago
  >That aside it is worth pointing out the advantages of a proper computer over cut down entertainment devices. Sure, but calling console players 'plebes' probably isn't the best way to do it.
  - jpgvm 12y ago
    Agree, hence why I said drop the meme but keep the finer points. :)
danwiding 12y ago
Isn't it better to have passionate users who love using your service along with haters that love to hate you as opposed to having a market that just kinda likes you. That said you can tone down the nazi-ism while having dog whistle trigerring http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics with something like PC Master Build or PC Uber Class (I'm not in marketing but there's something that works in there).
- chc 12y ago
  I don't think I would characterize the reaction "Those PC gamers are really off-putting and I do not wish to associate with them" as "I just love to hate PC gamers."
  - danwiding 12y ago
    As counterpoint a lot of the comments in this very discussion are on the distaste or appreciation of the concept of PC master race. Clearly it is a subject that gets people talking.
jiggy2011 12y ago
In video gaming discussion inflammatory = good
jsmthrowaway 12y ago
You say that, but you forget what the target market for gaming rigs actually is. I game pretty extensively as a hobby but I also hold a serious 9-5. While I don't call people homophobic slurs and scream "oh my god no scoped" and all that, I can appreciate and keep up with the typical gaming attitudes in the market these days. To be honest, I look at gaming as a different persona and snap in and out of him at will; a few close folks in that circle of mine know what I actually do, but to them I'm just another "lol rekt" dude. Just like you'd expect some things out of a typical HN user, I expect some things out of a typical gamer. I also balance that with calling out the less-desirable portions of that culture, like homophobia, racism, and sexual harassment, when I can. The master race thing is a tongue-in-cheek exercise which really, as a couple other folks have pointed out, has a more subtle message. If you allow yourself to be alienated by things that other folks find humorous -- and it's totally within your right to not find it humorous, by the way, I'm not saying that -- you're just going to have a bad time, that's all. Gaming and the culture around it is not something to be taken seriously. Even e-sports have an element of insanity. To be entirely honest, I look at master race and calling console users "plebes" as the gaming generation getting older and discovering there's another one right behind them, and that one likes Call of Duty on Xbox and Minecraft. Really, though, you'd be hard pressed to find someone on either side who takes that sort of thing seriously. At the end of the day, we're all gamers doing what we enjoy.

niwri 12y ago

This "PC Master Race" mentality has left a sour taste in my mouth. It is a joke to a few but it is starting to become serious (weather they refer to it as PC Master Race or not). Most arguments are made by technically unqualified enthusiasts on subjects like architecture, performance, and cost effectiveness. I suppose the reason I'm bitter is because I'm constantly being told (online and lots of PC enthusiast friends) that my choice of gaming hardware (a console) is vastly inferior to a PC. Choosing a gaming platform is not a 100% performance to cost optimization problem.

chc 12y ago
Well, it really is technically inferior to a gaming PC. And I say this as somebody who owns several consoles and does not own a gaming PC. In making that choice, I had to accept that I would get less power than a PC user, at least for most of the console's lifespan. I use a console because that's what I'm comfortable with and it lets me play with my friends, not because I want to be at the cutting edge of gaming technology.
- jfb 12y ago
  There are more axes to gaming quality than simply polygon performance. You have to be specific about what is superior.
  - chc 12y ago
    I really can't name any technological aspect in which consoles are more powerful than a PC. That's kind of the point I was driving at.
    - gknoy 12y ago
      The secret power of consoles is that the hardware doesn't change over the course of the console's life in a significant way. If I buy an XBox 360 on ebay, I know that ANY xbox-360 game will run on it. In contrast, PC gaming is a mess of compatibility questions. If I want to play the new Wolfenstein, or Watch Dogs, or any "new" game, chances are my 2 year old PC will not be able to run it well (unless I spent $$$$ on it, rather than $$). If I want to play a new game with all the dials turned up to 9 (or 11), I basically expect to spend $1200-$1500 on a new PC every two to four years. If I look at OLDER games, it's even worse: Will this game even install? I have a giant library of games which I would love to play, but I can't figure out how to get them to run on a current version of Windows. (Sea Dogs, Starfleet Command 3, etc.) These games are ten years old, and I can't even get the installers to run correctly -- or if I do, the game crashes for other "win 8 >> Win XP" reasons. I would pay money _again_ to be able to play some of these games in a reliable way (and have re-bought things for Steam), but most of the time they're not supported anymore. My Wii will still play Windwaker (11 years old), and I can buy an XBox and any copy of Halo and be pretty confident that it'll run, even if ten years old (assuming the hardware hasn't failed).

hoggle 12y ago

It seems as if the console makers have delivered developer friendly platforms this time but with that forgot to / decided not to pack in that extra punch they used to. I'm talking about things like those sprite optimized graphics controllers when 2D still was king and the tightly integrated 3D chips later on (when consumer PCs were doing 3D exclusively with the CPU) - and let's not forget all those esoteric but very powerful CPU architectures (e.g. Cell processor).

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

> $400.00 PC from your service could rival or beat a console. I recently got the itch to buy the Xbox One. I had the 360 before it with the Kinect and it was a passable party game machine, but I usually game on an old-ish desktop that maybe I've invested $600 in over the past four years. i5, 7000 series AMD card, 8gb ram, etc. Seems to handle any modern game I can throw at it. With a copy of Watchdogs that Xbox turned out to be almost $700. Um, sure Watchdogs was fun, but having both just feels extraneous at this point and if I wasn't beyond my return date I'd just get rid of it. Just the price of games alone is rough. With Steam I can usually find a deal, but for console games I'm expected to usually pay full price, usually with the understanding that I'm also subsidizing my console's low price. How is $700 with one game low? You can almost make two mid-range gaming PCs with that if you're frugal enough. That said, I'm sure it'll be great for multiplayer and kinect games, but with powerful PC hardware being so cheap, it does feel like a rip-off as console prices haven't really fallen in line with PC prices. On the plus side, it has impressive fit and polish, the media tv stuff is nice, xbox live is well done, and even though the kinect is optional now I really hope they continue to develop games for it, preferable another Star Wars game on the new hardware. I'm hoping I get 5 years out of this system to depreciate the big one-time cost. I'm just surprised there isn't a competitive $199 console out there. Even if it was semi-disposable (say every 24 months a new model with faster innards) it would still be worth it. I can get a Nexus 7 for that much. Its incredible I can't get a dedicated gaming machine (sans display, sans batter, etc) for around that much. Consoles are starting to feel like those old Texas Instruments calculators that cost the same amount and have the same exact features as the ones sold 20+ years ago.

adricnet 12y ago
> I'm just surprised there isn't a competitive $199 console out there. Well, there's the Ouya, which is a nice little platform. You can get one an second controller and most of the games available for that price point :) Specs and SDKs at https://www.ouya.tv/develop/ https://www.ouya.tv/develop/ hth, adric
- jsmthrowaway 12y ago
  He said "competitive." The Ouya is dead.

personZ 12y ago

Yesterday, Forbes did an article[1] about how console gamers are moving towards PC. A contributor, essentially using Forbes as a blog platform, claimed that. The article is a baseless fluff piece pandering to an audience. I really believe that the whole contributor model has seriously undermined Forbes' already strained credibility: Endlessly people attribute these often specious claims to the magazine itself.