According to the Urban Dictionary, PCMR is “an abbreviation for the “PC Master Race” which is a term of superiority for PC gaming which is often used to compare PC gaming to console gaming. The term is reinforced by the pros of PC gaming, such as better graphics, backwards compatibility, lower long-term cost modification capabilities, customization, free online play, and better overall performance.”
The term was coined in 2008 by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, a comedic writer for the online gaming magazine The Escapist. During a video-review for The Witcher he said, “What quickly becomes obvious is that Witcher is very much a PC-exclusive game, which are typically designed to be as complex and unintuitive as possible so that those dirty console-playing peasants don’t ruin it for the glorious PC-gaming master race.” He stated that it was meant to be ironic. It was intended to be a jab against the elitist attitudes that some PC gamers have, instead of being taken seriously as an insult to console gamers.
In 2011, reddit user /u/Pedro19 created the subreddit r/pcmasterrace/ to “make 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, changing its meaning and re-appropriating it, in order to express the objective superiority of the PC.” The subreddit also popularized the term “console peasant” as a personification of the willful ignorance and the deliberate refusal of the reality of the objective or technical superiority of PCs over consoles. They also refer to the act of becoming a member of the PC Master Race (i.e. getting a PC, transferring to PC, subscribing to the subreddit) as “Ascension”. You don’t need to have your own PC to ascend, you just have to accept the objective superiority of the PC.
“It’s not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart.”
PC Master Race, originally meant as a crack about the elitists, took on a different meaning and is now used as an expression of pride among themselves. And now, they turned it into a sort of chant of enticement for those who have yet to ascend and a weapon against the console peasants who stand in their way.
Sources:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pcmr
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/22-The-Witcher
http://www.pcgamer.com/lets-stop-calling-ourselves-the-pc-master-race/
https://www.pcgamingrace.com/pages/what-is-the-glorious-pc-gaming-master-race
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