Downsampled Textures

Or are you the type who only concedes defeat when the game actually comes out, and screenshots at Max settings on the PC are compared with Xbone screenshots? We know how that one always ends.
??? What "learning", all cases sold these days don't even use screws anymore, so you don't even need to know how to use a screwdriver FFS, you just follow instructions, click the parts into the case like lego, and plug everything into the motherboard, takes less than an hour even if you've never done it before. You've never seen those "compare prices" sites that list all the online stores selling a part and their prices? Again wouldn't take more than an hour. See above. What issues? You install Windows onto it straight off the disc (or whatever OS you want).

Fenixp's thought process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vw2CrY9Igs

I have built my current PC about 2 years ago. I am a hardware technician amongst other things, so I'm quite good at doing that. Without following any guides, starting with a lot of closed boxes, getting the PC up and running including the OS took me about 2 hours.

Now, if you start with a clean slate and have never done this before, even with technical background, you have to up double that, at least. That's 4 hours spent Now, for the bargain hunting - before you even start watching prices, you have to pick components, and make sure everything you have chosen is compatible and will run well together. For me, about an hour of work, for an inexperienced user, at least 3 hours of reading reviews and researching everything - probably more. Unless you're an idiot and just buy whatever.

That's 7 hours of work, and that's considering everything goes well. But it usually doesn't - most of the time, when you finish assembling the machine, you can bet on -something- going wrong. You really can't dispute with me on this, in the last 6 months me and my colleague have put together about 50 or so computers each. 90% of the time everything was fine, but we got a faulty part here, made a subtle mistake there. Now for me, that's not really a problem, I can diagnoze and fix a common issue in 30 minutes tops.

Inexperienced user however, well, that can be up to hours of research and frustration. But for the sake of the argument, let's throw just an hour on top of those 7, which makes 8. 8 hours is a common work day in Czech Republic, just so you know. For me, about 80 bucks worth of money.

Yeah, so that's that, now you have your PC finished and running smoothly. Now, the PC specific issues ... What I meant by that is that because of sheer ammount of configurations PCs come in, especially custom built ones, very soon you are bound to hit a problem that you have to troubleshoot and solve, continuosly adding time wasted for people who are not interested in PCs. Of course, if during the running time of your PC something breaks, you either diagnoze what it was, remove it from your PC, and get a replacement, or you bring your PC to a certified service. Both options either cost you time or they cost your money.

Console costs you about 20 minutes tops. When something break, you send it to manufacturer to get a replacement. You will not get any game-specific issues. You won't have to worry about anything. Bear in mind that the 8 hours I have used in my example are for someone already proficient with at least some electronics and efficient searching. Someone who lacks either will take about double that ammount. Now I know that your life is very simple, but there are people on this planet who have other issues than getting their PC games to work and when they get to it, they just want to play them.

I'm not going to insult your thought process, but I will say that you're not quite able to see deeper issues. That's a problem for someone who favours complex games.

Nah, not interested. I will wait for the Enhanced Edition.

It's not that I wouldn't like to support the guys, but seeing how my laptop won't be able to handle the game anyway and me having already so many games left to play (including the first 2 Witcher games :D), I won't pre-order.
I'll probably buy the Enhanced Edition/GOTY/whatever =)

So your argument is that it's psychological? About convenience? That's a "reasoning" for why consoles sell, but it's not a justification. Because once someone discovers how easy it is to assemble a desktop (as you would know if you worked in that industry) then however daunting and scary it seemed at first fades into nothing. I remember in high-school when I first used a PC, it seems pretty bizarre, the concept of folders, right-click and copy/paste, start menu, etc, as I imagine it was for most people.

Yes. About convenience. But no, my argument is that people have other things to do with their time than figuring out how something they don't care about works. I sure as hell won't spend my time reading on how you should fix a broken limb when it happens to me, I'll go to hospital. I won't assemble my care from spare parts as it's cheper, I will buy a new one. Unless you have accumulated all the knowledge in the world, you are using convenience shortcuts every single day as well.

That is bad logic, it's not a "shortcut", you're being swindled into buying an inferior product, on inferior (closed) software, which sells overpriced games, just because at first glance a PC looks more complicated. It ain't "convenience" you're being ripped-off, you are paying three times or more the price for the hardware. Using a desktop computer and understanding computing is a very basic skill everyone should have, hell you're using a PC to post on this forum aren't you? So having a basic understanding of the underlying hardware that's running inside your case is a good idea too.

Seriously, are you lying around that working with computers for a living thing? No one who worked in that industry would say that seriously, not unless you work for Apple.

It isn't rocket-science either; you've got your power supply, cpu/fan, hard-drives, DVD/bluray drive, memory, and graphics card, you plug it all into your motherboard in the case, and bam you're good to go. In my opinion this kinda simple practical stuff should be taught in schools, the only reason it isn't is probably lobbying from the corporations who make their money by preying on the ignorance of people and sell over-priced pre-built boxes.

You're basic argument comes down to laziness and unwillingness to learn. People should acquire as much knowledge as they can.

Except that CD Projekt RED explicitly stated they will never use DRM for any of their games again. Not sure what is so hard to understand.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/08/witcher-2-publisher-we-will-never-use-any-drm-anymore/

Basically, what this means is that CD Projekt RED are liars.

Well, in the case of the xbox one, THEY aren't using DRM if they disable of all that "publisher option" stuff. MS would be.

Technicality to the rescue!

That's a bold accusation.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-11-staunchly-anti-drm-witcher-3-dev-cd-projekt-responds-to-xbox-one-policy-concerns

"We have no influence on the decisions of platform holders, neither Microsoft's or Sony's, but there is a platform where we can decide what we think works best for the gamers, and that's the PC. "

"What I can, however, guarantee here and now, is that if you want the 100 per cent DRM-free experience you will have it on the PC, the platform where we set the rules for our games. The Witcher 3 will be available 100 per cent DRM-free on our digital distribution platform GOG.com, and that's one thing I can confirm."

I'm not working for apple. I'm working with computers every single day and you're not quite as knowledgeable as you say when you can't do basic maths. I claim that for people who don't want to put time into it, console is a better choice. You know what's the other thing I can do? I can see an issue from an angle of another human being, which is a trait you seem to lack, so I'll give you actual example:

I have a very good friend, working as a doctor at nearby hospital. He has finished studying medicine when he was 23 years old, that's 3 years sooner than the age you're supposed to finish that. He also dabbles in computers quite a bit, he's perfectly capable of assembling one himself and of solving any issues that will ever arise with it. On these grounds, you can't accuse him of not being knowledgeable, nor of being idiot (hardly, he's by far one of the most intelligent person that I know of.) He also likes to play online coop with his friends, and got really irritated of having to spend up to an hour by solving connectivity issues with numerous games. He seems to be quite fed up with seeing something on his computer break and then having to spend all the time he has for playing games by troubleshooting those issues. He is getting a console, because he just wants to play what he gets. Obviously, money's not an issue, he is a doctor for crying out loud. Time is an issue. Now, do you want to honestly claim that if he builds a new computer now, he won't waste any thime whatsoever with it? Contrary to popular argument, when money is an issue, nobody is going to get an entertainment console.
Oh that's so cute, another person believing CDP: Red are anything else than a corporation who wants to make money.

Sounds like bullshit

OldFatGuy had his first computer built last year or so. Try looking up the thread. From beginning to end it took him a couple of months.
First built, had to go look at what he wanted, look for the components, find another computer to be able to view a few videos about how to built it, needed quite a few clarifications here and there, and a lot of questions about what he should do next.
I've been buiding PCs for about 20 years, and I still take a weekend off for any build I'm making for myself to be sure I'll set it up as I like it. If any of my friends ask me to help them build their own, I tell them we'll need about a day to set it up, and another day at some point in the next month to add anything they missed the first time.

So yes, building a computer is easy if you've done it before, but it's still time that you could spend doing other things. Seeing friends, playing games, watching a movie, reading a book. Go ask OldFatGuy if he'd build another computer or if he'd prefer to get one already build.

Also don't forget the "Why the fuck doesn't it work? Which component is fubar'd? Is it the mobo, the ram, the socket, or is the PSU too low for the rest? Is the PSU supplying proper voltage and wattage on all rails?" Extra points for "Will my GPU fit in this case? Does my V10 cooler leave enough space for the GPU? Will the memory coolers leave enough clearance for the cooler? Do I have enough front bays for my liquid cooling, my optical drive(s) and my hdd(s)? Do I get a sata ssd or a pci one?" and you do get a month's worth of researching to be able to get the computer you want.

It's more or less the same reason why we buy another copy from GOG. We can configure our games to work, we just don't want to spend the time to do that.