Here at Logical Increments, we love advocating on behalf of the PC. But as devoted to the PC as we are, our enthusiasm is continually overshadowed by that of the PC Master Race (PCMR). With more than 800,000 members and growing, this Reddit community is one of the leading hubs of PC-related activity on the internet, and the PCMR has since spread its influence to Steam, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Discord. You can see everything they’re up to at pcmasterrace.org.

We recently had the opportunity to interview Pedro19, the founder of the PC Master Race community. Read our discussion below:

Q: When did you start PC Master Race, and why?

Pedro: Our community gained a proper home in April 2011, with the creation of the subreddit /r/pcmasterrace. At the time, I felt an urge to create a community where PC enthusiasts could gather for no other reason than their enthusiasm for exactly that, PC.

I felt the existing communities were less focused on a healthy pride of being a PC enthusiast and more on tech support or were an amalgam of interests, more often than not, with very rigid rules that did not cater to all PC enthusiasts but to either the very hardcore or the very circlejerk-focused crowds. Our community was born to be a mix of both. When you’re with family, you’re not expected to be serious 100% of the time, nor are you expected to joke around all the time. There is a time for both. Life is a mix of both, and so are we.

Q: What is your personal definition of “PC Master Race”? What is the biggest misconception about PCMR?

Pedro: There is something very specific about a PC enthusiast. There are certain aspects of PC, namely the tinkering, the yearning for improvement, for customization, the search for power, that are very specific to those who choose PC to be their main gaming and work machine. However, it is a mistake to think that you must sacrifice your budget for it. That search for power can be not only the quest for the latest, fastest CPU, but also upgrading an older CPU for one that, while also old and perhaps even bought used, is still much more powerful than the one that it is replacing. This means that it is possible to be a part of the PCMR and not possess the most modern or powerful hardware. It’s about what is reasonable for you. It’s not about the hardware on your rig, but the software in your heart!

Furthermore, we pride ourselves on being extremely inclusive while ignoring most of the things that can be dividing in other communities. We welcome everyone, regardless of their age, country of origin, religion, political preference… you name it. As long as you are a PC enthusiast and you respect your fellow enthusiasts, you can be one of us.

Being part of the PC Master Race doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy or even own a console. It just means that you are aware of the obvious advantage of the PC as your companion for both work and fun and that it is, more often than not, the more reasonable choice on what concerns those two activities. Those who understand this have one foot in the PC Master Race already.

Another common misconception relates to the use of the term “peasant”. We use it as a personification of willful ignorance regarding the 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. That’s pretty much it. We don’t use the term to put ourselves above other gamers. We use the term to put our PCs above consoles.

Q: Did you expect PCMR to grow this large?

Pedro: Not at all. It was quite a surprise. And with the growth of the subreddit and our initial networks we decided to expand to a series of outlets throughout the years, namely Twitter, Steam, Instagram, Discord and others. Everything has been growing quite nicely. More and more we are a voice of empowerment for PC enthusiasts.

Q: How powerful do you think PCMR is? Can you (for example) convince [well-known-reviewer X] to review [hilarious game Y]?

Pedro: We are only as powerful as how many and how respected our members are. While convincing someone to review a hilarious game probably wouldn’t be hard, we always try to use our reach for more serious matters, like the fight against cancer (by supporting and promoting Folding@home, where PCMR is currently ranked as the 25th most productive team of all time) and our fights against practices that attack PC users and developers, such as dreadful game porting and gray and black market key selling.

Q: What has been the best or most surprising thing to develop out of PCMR?

Pedro: Every time I see someone grabbing a PCMR related license plate or when a famous person talks about their love for PCs and uses the expression “PC Master Race” like Terry Crews did recently, or when I visit our Facebook stats and see that there are members of the PCMR on all corners of the earth. Every one of those still surprises me.

Q: Has starting the PCMR community changed your life? Do you have Gaben on speed-dial?

Pedro: I do not. I do. however, have contact with other great people at a bunch of fantastic hardware brands and software makers. PCMR allowed me to see what this world is like from the inside, which is amazing, but I am probably still not much deeper than the surface.

Q: Do you think it is fair that some console gamers view PCMR as too arrogant and exclusive?

Pedro: It is definitely unfair. More often that not, those who say it do not know our community but instead made up their mind by believing what they heard others say or by associating our community with some rude commenter (or troll) they happened to find on YouTube or another similar social community.

We are a community comprised of knowledgeable and friendly people whose main goal is to share their enthusiasm for PC, spread factual information and even help those in need. We are one of the biggest Folding@home teams in the world. We’ve also donated thousands of dollars to charity initiatives and are constantly trying to help others however we can.

Q: What is the most annoying fallacy perpetuated by console gamers?

Pedro: I don’t think I can pick just one. It used to be, “The human eye can’t see beyond 24FPS,” or, “Using a controller for FPS games is better.” Lately it has expanded to “PC gaming is much more expensive,” or, “PC has no exclusives.”

All of these are lies. The human eye can see far beyond 24FPS; a mouse is a far more precise input method for a shooter; PC gaming can be as expensive as whatever you are trying to achieve (and becomes cheaper in the mid-run even if you decide to spend a bit more); and modern PCs can play most of the “exclusives” from most consoles in history, while each individual console can only play the handful of exclusives available for that specific console (not the other consoles), and those would run better on PC regardless, so they are little more than artificial restrictions.

Q: What’s your personal PC build right now?

Pedro: My desktop has an Intel i5-6500 CPU, a slightly overclocked NVIDIA GTX 970, and 16GB of HyperX DDR4 RAM at 2133Mhz. My peripherals include a Cooler Master CM Storm Mouse and a Corsair Strafe RGB Keyboard.

Q: What game genres do you play? What is your favorite game?

Pedro: I play a bit of everything, especially now that we have the PCMR Steam Curator to run and recommend great games for. I enjoy single-player FPS games with a great story like Bioshock, which is probably my favorite series, but also Half-Life, the Metro series, Portal, etc.

I also enjoy adventure titles and simulation/management games like Football Manager, RollerCoaster Tycoon and Flight Simulator, for instance.

In the last three or so months, my favorite games have been Overwatch, Hearthstone and Rise of the Tomb Raider. Choosing a favorite game of all time is hard. I can easily think of 15 titles that would be good contenders. Soccer Manager for the ZX Spectrum and Championship Manager 2 pack a great nostalgia punch for me. Later on, Diablo 2, Portal, Half-Life 2, Starcraft Brood War and Starcraft 2, and then Bioshock Infinite. The list is too big.

Q: Will you ever stream, or join the PCMR stream?

Pedro: I never did find streaming enjoyable. Perhaps I would enjoy participating in other people’s streams or debating/discussing in stream, but I don’t think I’d stream by myself.

Q: AMD or Intel? (Similarly, AMD or NVIDIA?)

Pedro: Whatever is the best bang-for-the-buck in any given moment. That’s the beauty of PC.

Q: If you were stuck on a desert island with only an Xbox, how would you use it to help you survive?

Pedro: I would probably use it as a pillow or as a hat. Or to protect my toes from crabs.

Q: What advice do you have to someone wanting to join the PCMR, but afraid of PCs?

Pedro: Even if you don’t own a PC, you are welcome to join any of our communities!

If you want to buy or upgrade a PC, we have a fantastic community that can help you out on all your PC related endeavors! Check us out at pcmasterrace.org!

Q: What advice do you have to someone wanting to join the PCMR, but afraid of the community?

Pedro: Give it a chance. Check our communities, lurk on topics that seem interesting to you, visit our Daily Simple Questions Thread, check out our Wiki. Our hope is that anybody who spends time on PCMR will see the sense of community — the sense of family that we have worked to cultivate.

Q: Any last words for the PCMR community?

Pedro: First and foremost, PCMR is its members. Thank you for having helped create the largest and most charismatic community of PC enthusiasts on the internet.