"Sorry if this aspect has been covered before."

Trust me it hasn't, and if it has it's just as wrong now as it was then. 

In competitive gaming, a really good computer just allows you to reach your full potential.  If you don't have it in you to be a champion you never will be though.

I like having a nice computer because it allows me to crank up the eye candy while maintaining performance.  It's not necessary, but I'm an artist and I enjoy seeing virtual worlds how they were meant to be seen.

The only real pay to win that I am aware of is buying hacks, but that is cheating. 

Originally posted by Jakard

No. 

Because I'm a believer that you can get a computer that costs 500-800 dollars and have largely the same effect. I recently traded my Sager laptop for a desktop and I get 60 FPS on both WoW and SW:TOR and if you were to build this computer yourself, it would definitely be south of $1000. So no, buying a $3000 computer would not be "paying to win".

When did we start throwing around crap terms like this? I don't care how good your computer is or what you can buy in a cash shop or on Ebay... if you suck... you still lose. Period.

Sorry but getting 60fps on WOW and SWTOR isn't exactly hard.

What about an 80 dollar mouse with 12 buttons, does that count as pay to win? 

What about spending money on vitamins and extra healthy food so I never get sick, therefore beating the players who do get sick over the course of years?

What about spending money on a really nice calcuator mod that allows me to calculate the best DPS rotation instantly, while you have to go through it with trial and error, is that pay to win?

What about having so much money I can afford multiple computers and multiple accounts and run myself through instances and bosses?  Isn't that pay to win?

What about having SO much money, I pay my friends to play the game for me on my multiple accounts, so that my character never seems to sleep, and then I sell the gold they make online, netting me profit.  Is that pay to win or a chinese sweat shop?

EDIT: what about my parents being really rich, they send me to the best school ever.  This makes my critical thinking and problem solving abilities far more advanced then yours will ever be, is that pay to win?

EDIT EDIT:  What about I'm so rich, I don't need to get a job, therefore I can play videogames all day and all night, and defeat all the bosses 10x sooner then you ever will, therefore allowing me to get all the loot faster!  Is that pay to win?

I've had all sorts of PC configurations over the years and found that as long as I can keep the view distance at max and not have the FPS drop below 30, it doesn't matter much. Maybe if you're really good and doing PvP against some really good people, it'll make a difference, but for the majority of people it won't. Most MMOs are pretty easy on the system requirements and are built around latencies much higher than what would be considered acceptable in an FPS. A $3K system would be a complete waste where MMO gaming is concerned unless you plan to do something extreme like multiboxing several clients on the same PC.

There is something in terms of hardware that I feel makes a difference to me though. My Razer Naga mouse and my Z-board Fang keypad. Those two combined allow me to set things up so that I never have to click a hotbar regardless of how many abilities I have while sparing my fingers from doing crazy gymnastics across the keyboard. Heck, not having to constantly click hotbars has made me able to play for longer without getting shoulder and wrist pains from constantly aiming at and clicking hotbar abilities like a maniac. It makes such a difference in my comfort level while playing MMOs that if my Naga mouse died at the same time as my graphics card and my budget would not allow for a new graphics card and mouse, I'd get a new Naga mouse and rip out the GTX260 card from my old system and live with that. That old card will still run MMOs nicely, but I'd feel crippled without all the buttons on my mouse.

Anything that gives you an advantage, either perceived or real, in any game is pay to win.  So yes, a gaming rig of any sort is pay to win.  I'm just going by the logic used in most pay to win threads.  You should therefore be ashamed of using your lofty advantage against others who are not as privileged.

I do shell out an extra $5 per month on a gamer IP address with my internet service provider

this way it ensures my pings are at below 90ms than the average 300 ms I used to get

how about coffee.  That helps me focus.  Is it pay 2 win?

Originally posted by just1opinion

 

Anything that gives you an advantage, either perceived or real, in any game is pay to win.  So yes, a gaming rig of any sort is pay to win.  I'm just going by the logic used in most pay to win threads.  You should therefore be ashamed of using your lofty advantage against others who are not as privileged.

No, anything you pay to the people who make the game that gives you an advantage is pay2win. If its outside the scope of the players' expectation that the developers provide a level playing field then its just called, life.

Not pay to win it is pay for an advantage.  I don't know of any pay to win.  I think there is only pay for an advantage.

The biggest advantage is obviously loading times.  I know in SWG we used to wait for people to load into a planet and then kill them before they knew what was going on.  I was never much for it,  but friends used to love it so I tagged along.  I saw it a lot in WoW coming out of instances.

I am sure there are many different ways it helps, but that is the first one that comes to my mind.

Originally posted by Paradigm68

Originally posted by just1opinion

 

Anything that gives you an advantage, either perceived or real, in any game is pay to win.  So yes, a gaming rig of any sort is pay to win.  I'm just going by the logic used in most pay to win threads.  You should therefore be ashamed of using your lofty advantage against others who are not as privileged.

No, anything you pay to the people who make the game that gives you an advantage is pay2win. If its outside the scope of the players' expectation that the developers provide a level playing field then its just called, life.

I guess sarcasm doesn't translate via text very well.....

Originally posted by laokoko

how about coffee.  That helps me focus.  Is it pay 2 win?

Which I guess would make beer pay 2 lose.

No, there's a very low limit on how much the power of a PC will help you. If you are using a 10+ year old computer and get 5 fps on the game, then yes you won't be able to play effectively. But there's no difference between 60 fps and 200 fps, thus there's no advantage gained between a decent computer and a monster gaming machine. 

If you see the top WoW raiding guilds they play with all settings on low so there is no lag. This shows you that eye candy is not necessary to play at the top level. It's like saying, if I buy a pretty shirt to play Tennis, does looking good give me an advantage on the game? Nope.

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by Paradigm68

Originally posted by just1opinion

 

Anything that gives you an advantage, either perceived or real, in any game is pay to win.  So yes, a gaming rig of any sort is pay to win.  I'm just going by the logic used in most pay to win threads.  You should therefore be ashamed of using your lofty advantage against others who are not as privileged.

No, anything you pay to the people who make the game that gives you an advantage is pay2win. If its outside the scope of the players' expectation that the developers provide a level playing field then its just called, life.

 I guess sarcasm doesn't translate via text very well.....

Dang it! Sorry.

Originally posted by Paradigm68

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by Paradigm68

Originally posted by just1opinion

 

Anything that gives you an advantage, either perceived or real, in any game is pay to win.  So yes, a gaming rig of any sort is pay to win.  I'm just going by the logic used in most pay to win threads.  You should therefore be ashamed of using your lofty advantage against others who are not as privileged.

No, anything you pay to the people who make the game that gives you an advantage is pay2win. If its outside the scope of the players' expectation that the developers provide a level playing field then its just called, life.

 I guess sarcasm doesn't translate via text very well.....

Dang it! Sorry.

LOL it's cool!  It really IS hard to read sarcasm in text.  :)

Originally posted by Quizzical

No, because higher graphical settings don't give you a real gameplay advantage, with only the exception of a higher monitor resolution in a relative handful of games.

More bandwidth might reduce the time it takes to download the game, but that's all it will do for you.  Online games don't take much bandwidth while you're playing them.

Besides, beyond about $1500 spent wisely and excluding peripherals, spending more doesn't really get you much.

+1

Agreed.

Whole topic is dumb.