I’ve always found the “master race” moniker on Reddit subs really offputting/distrubing. Why repeat that here? It could just as easily be called “PC Enthusiast” or something totally normal.
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It’s a part of the history. The original PCMR started back when the mods of the original /r/gaming banned posts about PCs, saying “There’s nothing inherently gaming about PC. You could just be using it as a tax machine for all we know”. This understandably created friction between the 2 cliques of gaming, with the console clique calling the PC clique a “master race” as a form of insult. At some point, everyone got fed up with arguing about it. /r/pcmasterrace was made, and leaned fully into the “master race” out of spite, and was spurred on by PC hardware at the time being way more cost effective than consoles. Over the years things mellowed out and it became less and less about console peasants “individuals who at the time insisted that console was superior, not individuals who later could only afford console after PC hardware went up in price. Important difference” and more about becoming one of the master race “owning your first gaming centric rig”.
If you wanted the tried and true down to earth gaming forum equivalent for PC, you’re looking for the PCGaming magazine. PCMR will always be an enthusiast forum, that was based separating themselves from the console ecosystem.
I believe the term originated via the video maker Yatzhee’s “Zero Punctuation” video series (where the header image comes from), which was similarly tongue-in-cheek.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure it pre-dated /r/gaming but those sentiments were probably shared in 4chan, so both may be pre-dated.
Interesting.
TIL
Thanks for sharing history.I still hate it.
I always wondered where that awful name came from, and why it gained so much traction. Thank you for this helpful internet history lesson.
However, since this name was born from discord (not the app obviously) and we’re regrouping on another network, why not give it a new name and leave the stale history behind?
I think part of the issue is probably that when making a platform jump, keeping the same name and branding is important to make sure members can find their way back. I don’t know how federation handles the closing / renaming of magazines, but once everyone’s established it could certainly be something to vote on.
It certainly makes sense to keep the name to help people find what they are looking for.
Even if in this case the contributors decide to not change the name, maybe a redirect or “formerly known as” function for magazines would make sense in the future.
Neat history, I guess? Still seems to be an abhorrent label to self identity with.
The justification behind it is deeply unserious
Does that make it better or worse to keep using it?
Worse, I should’ve been more clear.
They’re using a reddit piss match from a nearly a decade ago to justify the use of a disgusting piece of language.
Your meaning would’ve been clear in almost any other context, but in this case I could just imagine someone saying “it’s not a serious justification, just chillax bro, we just like it”. Or something equally asinine.
The term has always been somewhat tongue in cheek, in part because it goes against the principles of PCMR to actually be elitist about liking PC. But also because it’s a lightly mocking response to outside claims of superiority over PC that were rampant in the past (usually while lacking objective reasons for said superiority).
In my opinion, the term has grandfathered in to such a degree that it’s relation to how Nazis used the word is kind of disingenuous to attach to PCMR at this point, since it’s obvious the two uses aren’t the same.
I also don’t really blame the fact the name was kept, because that’s what people migrating will be looking for. If they can’t find it easily, someone else is just going to make it and the community will split. Who knows though, if people agree, maybe Lemmy will provide an option to rename the community - once it’s grown large enough or something.
I just now found the community on my first try searcing for “PC master race”. If it hadn’t shown up I would have just assumed it didn’t exist, rather than that it just had a different name.
I never followed the sub but stumbled across it here so I’m onboard now lol
Well it’s a joke by Zero Punctuation years ago, that sub is inspired by that joke, this community is the colony of that sub.
and now the community IS the joke /s
no /s needed, look at how butthurt everyone in this thread is at the mere suggestion that they name their community something less nazi.
Look at how butthurt everyone in this thread is over a joke name and bringing perceived politics into it where there is none. This was all started by one game reviewer making fun of people who took PC gaming too seriously and then the subreddit name leaning into the joke. That’s it, that’s the story. If you want to start your own “”“less nazi”“” PC enthusiast community, you can feel perfectly free to do that just the same as you could’ve on reddit with exactly the same amount of relative success as it would’ve had back there.
The fact is that the community was always going to be named “pcmasterrace” because that’s what it was on reddit. Someone, anyone, was always going to make a community called “pcmasterrace” because that is how all the PCMR reddit refugees would find it. What you’re getting mad about is the equivalent to what happens when people get mad over road names and petition to have them renamed. The small fraction of people who petitioned for it to happen feel real proud of themselves, good job, and then everyone else who never cared about why the road was named the way it was and just wanted to be able to get from point A to point B are indifferent at best and annoyed or angry at worst. All most people really want is to find their community and get back to discussing, so a huge chunk are likely to come to any of these instances’ version of “pcmasterrace” because it’s a simple way to accomplish that.
Is simply answering OP’s question considered “butthurt” now?
You say “everyone” in this thread is butthurt. Who, specifically, is butthurt in this thread? Call someone out by name.
You seem pretty butthurt, for starters.
Yeah, that’s what I thought, lol.
PC Master Race started as a joke from Zero Punctuation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSJKffmWZSk So it’s a community in-joke.
still sounds racist and off-putting
Many things we humans consider humor do.
There is something inherently funny calling your friends names that other people would find extremely offensive.
Only if you have zero sense of humor
You’re welcome to go create “PC enthusiast”
The term is used facetiously. There are much better things to be offended by, sir.
Just block the community if you don’t like interacting with it.
/m/linuxmasterrace would like a word
It’s because they aren’t enthuisiasts, they are PC nuts. Master race is a god way to make fun of them or say “it’s not serious”.
P.S you can make your own magazine or sub instead of complaining.
Its not that serious lol
PC Gamer 2015: Let’s stop calling ourselves the ‘PC Master Race’
Thanks for pointing out how trashy this community is.
…It’s just a popular fad/joke. Nobody is forcing you to “eat it up” tho – just make an alternative community with “a least disturbing name” and move on.
I appreciate all the information here. This is like the 6th piece of history from the old place that I never knew the context too. Is there some kind of a lore page or doc for all of this information? It’d be cool if there were a few pages or a timeline that encapsulates all the different major sub squabbles and rifts that happened over the years. I was there for so many, but I clearly missed so much. Maybe askhistorians@kbin.social or a like minded instance could do something along those lines one of these days.
Honestly a Reddit Historia would be sick. Especially if we could put together a visual timeline to mark the major events.
A timeline full of markers such as “cum box” and “Woody Harelson AMA” might actually be hilarious. Too bad the context would be lost or require the need to visit such posts again. Maybe it could utilize the way back machine instead of giving reddit any traffic.
Just going to tell the story that I broke one of the cardinal rules of PCMR by drunkenly pointing out the origin of “master race” when someone in a PCMR thread was going on about some other group being offensive and how PCMR was so much better.
It’s always been tongue in cheek; it’s meant to be a statement that PCs are superior to consoles. At a certain point it seems like PCMR just turned into talking about PCs. And that’s fine. The sticky thing about it is, if it’s not about jokingly talking about PCs being superior, does it need to be PCMR? On the other hand it’s dang near a brand at this point. Can you move a PCMR audience over to something else entirely?
Nazi’s don’t get to own anything. They got their asses handed to them both physically and ideologically during WW2. And it’s not being used as a way of indirectly targeting marginalized communities in this context.
