Friday Memes & Arts #17

This week we are discussing the “PC master race” meme which, it turns out, has much to do with the original Witcher game and Nazies.

When I hear the term “PC master race” I have a little smile inside me because I’ve never seen anything “elitist” in owning a PC. Everyone I’m friends with or work with do own one, at the same time, many people don’t have a console although they’d like to.

Where the term “PC master race” came from

In 2011 Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw made The Witcher review for Escapist magazine and used the term “Glorious PC Gaming Master Race,” referencing the Nazi ideology of German master race. The phrase caught on, and PC gamers started using it to highlight that you get more advanced graphics settings, backward compatibility, modding and other features console gamers are deprived of.

By the way, I enjoyed most parts of playing The Witcher, although I “hacked” it to work with my Xbox One controller and wish I didn’t get into the Dice Poker questline. I recommend the game to everyone who enjoyed reading the Witcher book series and loves RPGs.

A couple of years later Yahtzee wrote a column for Escapist explaining his use of the “Glorious PC Gaming Master Race” term:

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.

The silly joke Yahtzee made has developed a life of its own. It has an organization of hardware companies, a subreddit, a Wikipedia page, an Urban Dictionary entry, and everything else a successful meme could wish for.

There is even a byproduct of “PC master race’ in the form of the “console peasants” meme, that indicates people who don’t invest thousands of dollars into gaming rigs and just buy a console instead.

And now, let’s check some good memes and arts that surfaced throughout this week.

Memes

Nice mashup by u/Mewiee.

A new take on an old meme.

This post u/PKAJohn made me lose all the words I had.

Good guy Gabe Newell.

Torte de Lini nailed this Jungle LC build name.

That's a hell of an idea by u/Fosteroid.

Everything!

Battle Royale players will appreciate! By u/Massacre20794

Arts

Sexy Gwynevere from Dark Souls cosplay by m_mellu.

A masterpiece gaming setup.

A beautiful console pixel art by u/talkshitgetshot.

What a genius! By u/hootersbutwithcats

The cutest thing I've seen in a while. A foster family gives every adopted child a controller of their own. Posted by u/GuardianFerret.

Real-life Earthshaker art by Joshua Dunlop