I’ve been hearing an interesting argument about consoles lately. Namely, “don’t buy that one, it has a ton of awful games.” Ignoring the fact that I’ve heard this argument applied to all three consoles, based on the gaming preferences of the person making the argument, this is still the worst argument for not buying a console I’ve ever heard.

I don’t care how many awful games any given system has. I won’t be buying or playing any of them. What I care about is how many quality games a system has. I care about how many games I’ll be able to buy, play, and enjoy. Seriously, just think for a minute… would you rather buy a system with 100 awesome games and 1000 awful games, or a system with 20 good games and 5 awful games?

For me, the choice is simple. I’d rather buy the system with 100 awesome games, because that’s what I’ll be playing. Then, if I ever run out of awesome games to pick up, I might dip into the swelling bargin bin of mediocre and awful titles in case there’s something that might be worth the 5 to 10 dollars, even if it wasn’t worth 40 to 60.

Admittedly, if there are a lot of terrible games for a system, it makes finding the good stuff harder, but with the advent of the internet, this isn’t something that has to be a huge chore. Just go to your favorite review site, pick your favorite genre, click scores eight and up, and read through the list. Then look into the games that catch your interest a little more and pick a couple to buy. Alternatively, ask friends. Ask store clerks, though take what they say with a grain of salt. Ask around on internet forums. You’ll sort the good from the bad pretty quickly.

On a related note, I don’t care about good games I’m not interested in playing either. This isn’t entirely true, but it’s a general rule of thumb. For instance, I don’t generally like first person shooters. Trying to convince me to buy a system because of all the awesome shooters it has on it is futile. Sure, I might try one once in awhile, and even enjoy it sometimes, but I’m not going to look at them when making my decision on a new piece of gaming hardware. I’m going to look at the genres I enjoy. Once again, that’s what I’ll be buying, and I don’t care about what I’m not buying or playing.

Basically, there’s no point in pointing out the bad stuff that will never matter, or the good stuff that will never matter. If you want to convince someone to choose a particular console, or better yet, help them choose the console best for them, you need to tell them things that matter to them. Which games are good? Which games are good in genres that particular gamer likes? Is HD important, or do they really care that much? What about graphics in general? Technical or aesthetic? Sound quality? Just games, or complete multimedia center? And these things will be different for different people. That’s why different consoles all manage to thrive, aside from some having different exclusive games than others. They all focus on different areas, and cater to different wants. And knowing what you want from a console, and which console best delivers on that want, is the best way to figure out which one will be right for you.