Do I need a PC?

So, I keep running into this wall of: “this is only available on PC.”

This is especially with games, I suppose. Like Guild Wars 2, then Torchlight 2 (which should someday be on my Mac…), Final Fantasy XIV, Neverwinter…

The other day, my laptop tried to tell me that my video card was no longer supported for Diablo 3.

Now, I have an old PC (from 2006). I worked on trying to upgrade some of it, and I fried my graphics card trying to do so. So I stopped messing with that, and, seeing how well my wife’s stuff worked, started buying Macs. Now I have a MacBook Pro, an iPad, and an iPhone. They work great together, and my life has started working well in terms of starting my ideas on my iPhone as I go, and then expanding on them and organizing on my iPad, and then finally doing my composition on my laptop. Oh, and an Apple TV for connecting with these devices for watching YouTube and Hulu and such from the TV.

So I suppose, a couple of things to consider.

If I got a desktop PC, what operating system do I go with?

I was checking out the Chrome books and machines when they were first coming out, but that’s certainly not the way to go. I am not looking for a different way to work with my cloud files – I already have that with iCloud between my Mac devices. While a Chrome book would be cheap, it would not be good for gaming. And without a device running any of the Android stuff, it might not be a good idea for me.

Okay, so a PC. I’ve heard good things about Windows 7. I have not heard good things about Windows 8. For one thing, it would end up with the same problem for me – I don’t have a Windows tablet or phone to link together with it. Though I do have an XBox that would link up for… whatever that’s worth.

I was looking for reviews of Windows 8, and found one by a usability expert: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/usability-expert-finds-windows-8-pc-confusing-954680 Definitely does not sell me on it in the slightest. I don’t need a big tablet, I need something for some gaming, and blogging, really.

So I suppose this leaves a Windows 7 machine as the option? And it will stand alone amidst my other tech.

Do I really need to play these games?

For one thing, many games wind their way to the Mac eventually, after the PC. For instance, sounds like the Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition just made its way to the Mac, even though it had been on the PC and then the iPad for a while now. However, is this as likely with some of the MMOs I listed as coming out lately as PC only?

And do I need to play these MMOs?

While I can wait for Torchlight 2, and have no real investment in Guild Wars 2… I have a lot of investment in the Forgotten Realms, and Neverwinter could be fun. And I have played just about every game with Final Fantasy in the name… So missing XIV completely would be a little sad. With them working on rebooting it, in particular, it has a chance to be decent.

However, there’s a lot of other things to be doing. I have a blog to write. Books to read, movies to see, work, an internship to do… I probably don’t need the time investment these games would require. And if I invested in a PC just for them, I would want to invest the time to make my money investment worth it.

I think writing it out helps me to an answer, and maybe helps you out, too, if you’re asking yourself some of the same.