WHAT IS PC MASTER RACE ?

PC MASTER RACE expresses, first and foremost, an idea of community. We're a community of PC enthusiasts who acknowledge the objective advantages of the PC for a multitude of activities, gaming included.

Our main objectives are:

  1. To create a large, friendly, varied community where PC enthusiasts can discuss and share content about anything PC related.
  2. To strongly contribute to the spread of correct information as well as to fight against misinformation in technology and in gaming.
  3. To discuss the advantages of PC, and to help and guide anyone who wishes to join our community.
  4. To make the PC users' voices heard throughout the industries of technology and gaming, ensuring they are not forgotten or ill-treated.

Anyone can join the PCMR. We are an inclusive community where one's age, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion (or lack of), political affiliation, economic status and PC specs are irrelevant. EVERYONE IS WELCOME! Please remember that your love for PC, or at the very least your desire to learn more about this awesome platform, is the only thing you need to be part of the community! YOU ARE WELCOME!

IS PC REALLY THE BEST CHOICE ?

Yes. Here's a guide that explains exactly why from every angle possible. It's packed with helpful information!

 

HOW DO I JOIN THE PCMR ?

Anyone can be part of our community! You just need to share our enthusiasm for PCs and be respectful towards other members.

Remember that you don't need to own a top-of-the-line gaming PC to join our community! There are members of the PCMR who are only saving up for a PC as they have none or play on desktops or laptops of average or even low specs!

 

WHAT ELSE DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER ?

We have a constantly growing list of guides, all of which will save you money and/or increase the amount of fun that you have with your PC. These guides have helpful information for both beginners and experienced users.

How was the expression born?

The term "The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race" was used as an ironic expression to describe PC Gamers by game reviewer and comedic writer "Yahtzee" on a review for The Witcher.

"Quite some time ago I coined a phrase in Zero Punctuation ... The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race. It was intended to be ironic, to illustrate what I perceived at the time to be an elitist attitude among a certain kind of PC gamer. ... I meant it as a dig."

/u/Pedro19's intent when creating this subreddit, back in early 2011, was to make it a home for PC Enthusiasts, a place where all of us could come in and share experiences, a place that didn't exist yet. The name's choice was not entirely innocent as it was meant to grab a term that was used as an insult and make it our own (albeit getting rid of "gaming" in the title since the community's purpose is not just gaming but everything PC), changing its meaning and re-appropriating it, in order to express the objective superiority of the PC.

This is not a satirical or circlejerk subreddit nor did it start as one. Do not confuse it, however, with the fact that we do have several tongue-in-cheek and satirical humor elements. Life isn't either 100% serious or 100% joke. In life, you will many times share both serious and funny moments with those you love or spend more time with. The PC Master Race is like life, both serious and funny.

Term re-appropriation

"But the term Master Race means A, B or C!" - Please read this thread and its comments, where we discuss and explain how, in our opinion, that is a non-issue.

History is full of examples of term re-appropriation. One that best fits the story of "PC Master Race" is Yankee Doodle, an anti-American song sang by the British during the American Revolutionary War.

Much like the Americans made the term Yankee their own, so did we with PC Master Race, and much like the British of the time, the "concern trolls" were angry at us for proudly adopting the term and subverting its original intent of being used as an insult. You'll often hear them say "the term was meant to be an insult" and that it's "embarrassing how badly we misunderstand it". Most say so because they heard someone else say it and simply repeat it. More often than not, such people do not know what they're talking about.

Stats

The expression "PC Master Race" being used as a synonym to the objective superiority of the PC was popularized by the PC Master Race subreddit. Its global growth, as well as its status as a meme, is the direct work of this subreddit and its communities.
Subreddit Subscriber count
PC MASTER RACE expresses, first and foremost, an idea of community. We're a community of PC enthusiasts who acknowledge the objective advantages of the PC for a multitude of activities, gaming included.
 

What is a "Peasant"?

You would not believe how many people misunderstand the definition of "peasant". It's possible that, at some point in the past, the popular definition of the new term was "anyone who owns a console", and it's very likely that some people who are not part of our community use it with that meaning, but that's just either not true anymore or makes no sense outside of friendly banter.

The PC Master Race uses the term "peasant" as a personification of willful ignorance regarding the objective superiority of PCs over consoles. The term is especially applicable when facts are ignored or dismissed in lieu of regurgitated console marketing disinformation in an effort to defend some abhorrent practices by console manufacturers.

Such dismissals are not limited to, but may include:

  • the reference to popular misconceptions such as mentions to how the human eye can not see past a certain number (usually in the high 20's or low 30's) of FPS, or that a high enough number (usually above the high 30's) can easily make people sick.
  • A praise of artificial restrictions (exclusives!) as an advantage of consoles over other consoles or over PC's.
  • A very strong post-purchase rationalization (or Buyer's Stockholm Syndrome), a cognitive bias whereby someone who has purchased a product overlooks any faults or defects in order to justify their purchase.

That's pretty much it. We don't use the term to put ourselves above other gamers. It's not the people, it's the platforms.

  • Not being able to afford a PC with incredible specs does not make you a "peasant". There are members of the PC Master Race who are only saving up for a PC as they have none or play on desktops or laptops of average or even low specs.

  • Playing on both PC and Console does not automatically make you a "peasant". Nor does it playing only on Console as you can simply be saving up to buy a PC, for instance, or just have no way of acquiring one in the immediate future.

  • Using a controller on PC does not automatically make you a "peasant". PC is about choice and different games benefit from different peripherals.

Interviews and events

PCMR's team has been interviewed on a few occasions. Please check these interviews to learn a bit more about what PCMR stands for:

The Great Ban

In November 2013, shortly after entering the top 500 subreddits, /r/PCMasterRace was temporarily banned. The situation behind the ban involved the supposed doxxing of a user by another user of the subreddit, and a downvote brigade against multiple moderators and a Reddit site administrator.

Although relatively short, right after being unbanned, the PC Master Race mods chose to adopt stricter anti-harassment and anti-brigading measures which, with time, became its current rule set. Reddit-wise, /r/pcmasterrace has some of the most strict and protective rules in place to tackle such improper behavior, rules far stricter than most other subreddits and internet communities.

Charity

We are a generous community of PC Enthusiasts with a soft spot for education and charity, both amongst fellow members of the community and all those in need.

Besides the incredible and constant displays of generosity in the form of software and hardware giveaways and donations, the community has also contributed strongly to more "mainstream" forms of charity.

Notably:

  1. Together we have contributed with over $1000 to St. Jude Children's Hospital on the St. Jude Give Thanks. Walk. initiative in November 2014.
  2. We have contributed over $5000 to Reddit's chosen charities in January 2015 through our two charity Official PC Master Race T-shirt runs.
  3. PCMR continues to contribute to the Stanford run Folding@home disease research program. You can find the stats of the PCMR Team here and more detailed statistics here. Our team averages 15 million points a day, that's good enough for top 15 of 250 000 teams!
  4. PCMR has hosted an Extra Life team for Extra Life 2016, helping to raise over $1500 for the Children's Miracle Network of children's hospitals!
  5. We joined forces with OSPA and collected hundreds of thumb drives to help victims of domestic violence make it out of their abusive situations
  6. PCMR has joined forces with the Folding@home project, a distributed computing project developed by Stanford University, regularly pushing members of the community to donate their computer power to science, and organizing promotion events to fight against cancer and other diseases, as well as hosting an AMA for the Folding@Home team themselves, which had the participation of investigators and students from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford University and Temple University.
  7. PCMR founder Pedro was appointed to the Communications Advisory Board of the Folding@home initiative.

PCMR Game of the Year