“I’m getting really good, huh?“ I could almost picture the cute grin of triumph as those words came over Xbox Live's gameroom voice chat. What made those words unique were that they were not said by your everyday console player. In fact, they were not said by your everyday gamer, either. Those words of triumph were spoken by none other than the famous Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, the Tiger Woods of professional gamers everywhere. What, you might ask, was Fatal1ty doing playing Halo2 on Xbox Live? He plays PC! Yup, that's right, as a 10-time world champion on 5 different games, Fatal1ty proved that even the most hardcore PC gamer can have a little fun, and let their competitiveness run wild, on the “C-Word” of gaming… Console, that is.

What makes the story above really unique is that a few months earlier, at a LAN event featuring the band Fear Factory, Fatal1ty told me with much zest that, "Any newb can use a controller." Now this was said in the presence of the world's top Halo player in Zyos, who has pretty much defined profitability in pro console gaming. As an avid Xbox player and personal friend of Fatal1ty, I could not believe my ears. We lived our lives very much the same way PC gamers did (i.e. hours practicing, tournaments, etc.), so how did using a controller make us “newbs”? Where did this perception come from? It wasn’t until a couple months later, after I spent some time with those in the PC community, that I began to realize a very important thing: a lot of PC gamers appeared to share Fatal1ty's belief! I would find many comments across the various gaming forums painting a negative picture of console gaming. It was then that I sat back and started to see the bigger picture of how "Consoles" were held in disrespect by hardcore gamers, and began my mission to help fellow PC gamers see the wonderful joys a console system can bring to the gaming community!

To examine this issue, we must first go back to our gaming roots… the “C-Word” again. Almost every avid gamer started down our pixel paths with the console. Although there was an earlier revolution introduced by arcades everywhere, for the most part we began our gaming journey right in the luxury of our own homes, with consoles. There is no doubt that the simplicity of early console games was designed for mass appeal and geared toward a variety of age groups. Perhaps that is why the console is sometimes termed “newbish” by veteran PC gamers. Since most played consoles when they were younger, when console systems were much more elementary in graphics & capabilities, this perception is easily understood. Sometime after the appeal of gobbling ghost on Pac-Man (Atari), finishing the quest to rescue Princess on Super Mario (Nintendo), and loving the antics of the famous blue hedgehog, Sonic (Sega), many gamers found something that turned hobby into passion: the personal computer. This does not surprise me at all since PC technology offered superior graphics at the time. More importantly, the PC also offered a feature no console had until a few years ago: online play. Enter competitive gaming and an entire new breed of gamers.

There are many reasons why PC gaming is so far ahead of console gaming, but the most important aspect is the online capability. Online functions help people better their techniques and match their own skills with people from across the world (i.e. ranking ladders). It also enables gamers to “checkout” other competitors' skills, play competitive matches, and form allies for team games. This is how gaming has become a viable e-sport (although direct correlation to a real sport is still highly debatable). However, with the birth of Xbox LIVE and PS2 online, consoles now have those same benefits. Xbox360 has proven that consoles can also have superior graphics and fast game play. We are now equipped, and we console gamers are ready to take our place in the hardcore competitive gaming community! You see, it was not us console junkies that kept us away from our PC friends; it was the inability to play online in competitive arenas! The new generation consoles have already began to bridge that gap. All that separates console gamers from PC gamers now is a keyboard and mouse! We owe our PC brethren greatly for building such a great progaming community, and we are excited to finally be able to participate in the world of e-sports!

The acceptance of console gaming has already begun. Major League Gaming (MLG) created a highly successful pro console tournament circuit that has hundreds of console gamers excited this season. Even the PC world had to take notice when the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) showcased Halo 2 on Xbox for its 2005 Summer Championships, and events everywhere have followed suit. Rumor has it that you will probably see console tournaments in almost every major PC event in 2006… which has this Xbox gamer whistling a merry tune indeed! The many amazing gamers I have met, whether it be PC or Console, have always reaffirmed my pride in one thing: gaming. Be it with a keyboard or controller, what I ask the entire gaming community to do is realize that we are all here for the same reason: to play with passion and have fun. Perhaps PC gamers can look back on their gaming roots and pick up a controller again. Who knows, perhaps you could have as much fun as Fatal1ty did when he decided to play Halo on the Xbox. Or perhaps us console players will find a new interest in PC games in the new year. Regardless of your choice of gaming systems now or in the future, I raise my glass to all my fellow gamers, and look forward to seeing you all at the tournaments of 2006!