I'm Just A Poor Boy With Spinning Disks

The eternal developer marketing battle in four panels! Left side: "OUR LATEST MODEL" shows a perfectly chiseled Chad CPU flexing its processing muscles. Right side: "OUR COMPETITORS' MODELS" depicts three pathetic alternatives—one literally on fire with smoke coming out, one crying while plugged in, and one having an existential crisis. Every benchmark presentation ever made by hardware companies in a nutshell. "Our processor? Absolute unit. Theirs? Literal garbage that might burn your house down." The selective benchmarking and cherry-picked performance metrics are basically a developer rite of passage at this point. Just don't read the fine print that says "tested under liquid nitrogen in a vacuum chamber on a Tuesday during a solar eclipse."

Gaming enthusiasts have zero chill when it comes to the Steam Deck's cuboid shape. The second Valve released their portable PC gaming device, the internet collectively decided it's just Gabe Newell (Valve's founder) trapped in a box. Now we can't unsee it—a sea of GabeCubes ready to invade our homes, bringing Steam sales directly to our couches. The perfect rectangular prison for a billionaire who just wants you to play Half-Life while sitting on the toilet.

The GPU arms race in a nutshell. NVIDIA's marketing department is out here bragging about the 5060 having "controversial new GDDR7" that "accelerates my brain," but when asked if it fixed the stuttering issues, they just admit "I'm stuttering FASTER" with the same 8GB VRAM. Ten years in this industry and it's always the same story - fancy new tech that somehow manages to introduce the exact same problems but with shinier packaging. Like getting a Ferrari with a lawnmower gas tank.

The final boss of "gamer" peripherals has arrived. It's what happens when a keyboard has an identity crisis and thinks it's also a phone stand, credit card holder, and possibly a missile launch system. The RGB lighting is so intense it could probably be seen from space. Somewhere, a UI/UX designer is having chest pains looking at this monstrosity. The three metal rods are particularly concerning - are they for kebabs? Acupuncture? Self-defense against people who judge your setup? This is what happens when you let the marketing team make design decisions after a Red Bull binge. "MORE FEATURES! MORE LIGHTS! PUT A CREDIT CARD SLOT IN IT! WHY NOT?!"

Remember when we used to brag about our rigs running Crysis? Fast forward to 2025, and we're still using poorly optimized games as hardware benchmarks. Borderlands 4 is the new "but can it run Crysis?" — the question that separates the budget builds from the second-mortgage-required setups. The circle of tech life continues: developers release unoptimized code, hardware manufacturers rejoice, and our wallets quietly weep in the corner. Some traditions never die, they just get more expensive texture packs.

Ah, the sweet delusion of the elderly PC builder. Remember when $1000 could get you a beast of a machine? Now that same budget barely covers a decent graphics card after you've sold a kidney on the black market. The chip shortage, crypto miners, and "gamer aesthetics" tax have turned PC building into a luxury hobby that requires a financial advisor. Meanwhile, the younger generation just pats us on the back and humors our ramblings about the good old days when we weren't choosing between rent and a new CPU.