Why The PC Master Race Can Be The Worst Sometimes Why a 60 FPS framerate isn't that important

Last week, YouTuber TotalBiscuit established what he lovingly titled “The Framerate Police,” a Steam Curator page that states:

We catalogue games that are locked at 30fps so you can see them at a glance and mention if it is possible to unlock the framerate by other means.”

That wouldn’t seem like such a big deal, since after all, TotalBiscuit is the self-proclaimed “#1 PC Gaming Critic,” so of course he would be vested (some might argue obsessed) with something like framerate.

He goes off the rails a bit in his SoundCloud editoral demanding that if you release a game on PC it must run at 60 fps at a minimum (or maybe even higher!)… the sly caveat being if you have the hardware to run it.

You Are Under Arrest

I empathize with this notion only somewhat. I get that if you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on a gaming rig, you should be able to showcase this mighty power. But where I fall off is this demanding that developers have to cater to the dozens of PC builds and configurations of a tiny fraction of PC gamers, or at the very least that 60 fps makes the game superior in some way as compared to 30 fps.

30fps in 2015 is unacceptable, and there is no good reason to do it at all,”

…crows the mighty TotalBiscuit. Well, except when it makes the game run as it was developed to. Unlocking the framerate on a lot of games makes them go apeshit and become largely unplayable. Is the “PC Master Race” so offended by a product that runs smoothly and properly that they’re willing to burn it to the ground in a vain attempt to make the game do something it’s not programmed to do in the first place?

He then turns his ire to console games and the ridiculous idea that they have the temerity to run at a mere 30 fps.

I keep buying console games and find that they run at 30fps and saying ‘I don’t want to play this, sorry I’m too used to 60…it’s ridiculous’ […]”

Somehow this should be a problem to all consumers, and it can only be remedied by the formation of something like “The Framerate Police.”

To me, this is like having a Bugatti Veyron Super Short sports car, going to the city council of your town, and demanding they build new roads for your car to drive on. You can’t be bothered to share the roads with these common car plebes! You have a fucking Bugatti Veyron Super Short, it can get up to almost 300 mph. Their common vehicles are mere go-karts compared to your master-crafted sports car experience. Also, those common roads are horrible and greatly diminish said sports car experience.

Or at the very least, all cars that aren’t Bugatti Veyron Super Shorts must be labeled as “Not Bugatti Veyron Super Short That Can Get Up to 300 MPH!”

More ridiculous is TotalBiscuit advocating that if the framerate is locked it should be put on the game’s box. Because gamers are widely known for that one specific thing keeping them from buying a game… right? Since framerate is not labeled properly, he feels that the “Framerate Police” is an apt arbiter for the time being.

Perhaps it’s the hot heat of the summer and the onset of the annual great game drought that makes these “consumer advocate” game pundits get a little wacky with their ideas. Between this hot garbage and Jim Sterling’s recent beef escalation with Randy Pitchford over Jim Sterling being a dumb dumb and being tricked by an Aliens: Colonial Marine vertical slice, I think the heat is getting to them a little bit.

Most of the consumers that TotalBiscuit supposedly advocates for are far more concerned that the game runs properly on their chosen gaming platform and delivers on the gameplay and narrative promised by the developer. I’m sure most of them would be hard pressed in distinguishing 30fps from 60 fps. That’s not to say there’s no difference, it’s that most people wouldn’t notice or care unless it has a negative impact on the experience.

Gamers are constantly being saddled with this notion of “entitlement” and regardless of noble intentions on TotalBiscuit’s behalf, I don’t think people outside of the “PC Master Race” are really that concerned with framerate these days, and this “Framerate Police” baloney only perpetuates this myth further.

I would be fine with an editorial from TotalBiscuit demanding that publishers not release games that are on fire to the PC and charge full price for them. The “PC Master Race” has taken some mighty blows to the ego this year, especially from the likes of WB Games alone, what with Mortal Kombat X and Arkham Knight being released on PC mostly unplayable and broken, Arkham Knight to the point of being yanked from Steam indefinitely.

There are real problems in the realm of PC gaming, so framerate should not even be a priority. It appears that PC gaming is being relegated to the back burner by developers and publishers these days. They seem content in just porting their console games to the PC, collecting as much money on a buste- ass game as possible in in the interim, and calling it a day. Things like “The Framerate Police” and TotalBiscuit demanding 60fps minimum aren’t going to engender any more of their “graciousness” in the future.

On top of that, it makes the “PC Master Race” look like a bunch of pissy babies with poopy diapers and it furthers the notion that gamers are too entitled for their own good. If the game plays at 60 fps and is stable… that’s great… everyone wins! But it’s not necessary to the enjoyment and fun of the game that is of much more paramount to gaming.

Read More: PCGamer.com Wants To Forbid Gamers From Saying “PC Master Race”