As you may have heard DICE had a contest of sorts where each platform, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, had to reach 69 million team actions to unlock the final map in Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam. The PC reached this number in a matter of days while the consoles struggled, today finally having the map unlocked despite still not reaching the magic number: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/02/bad-company-2s-operation-hastings-map-unlocked-for-ps3-and-xbox/

Thing is, PC was the least played platform. In all that time the Xbox and PS3 had more players and more hours played, according to DICE. They just didn't do team actions.

I'm not going to rant about "stoopid consul gamers harhar" but really, how can one avoid discussing the implications of this? How can one not see the obvious meanings behind the disparity? Also in a world where achievement stats drive developers to change games to appeal to more people, what does this mean for Battlefield 3 and future online shooters?

Discuss.

Much simpler and less biased explanation:

There is no arguing that it is easier to do precision aiming on a PC than a console. So PC gaming tends to focus on camping and sniping.

Consoles on the other hand would focus on the run and gun. Close quarters combat.

From my recent attempts at playing BC2 again (here is hoping the new nVidia drivers next month finally fix the problem), most of my team points (whether they be ammo as an assault or health and defib as a medic) come from doing a deploy next to a bunch of morons who are trying to engage in a long-range sniper war. As they use up ammo and take hits, I get team-action points.

Whereas, on the front line, you only really have defib as an option, since people don't stay in one spot long enough to rack up the points. And defib on the frontline is a dangerous activity, to say the least.

You already stated it. Console gamers that play it online tend to just shoot the hell out of things. PC gamers tend to coordinate their actions.

You really haven't played much Bad Company 2, have you? :p

Seriously, on a pub, it is a bunch of 13-year olds who just want to get the highest kill/death ratio possible. The helpers (medics and assaulters who at least put down ammo before charging in) are rare. The snipers who actually use motion trackers are non-existent. Lots of people like mortars though :p

I don't enjoy the online play. I actually do snipe and use the motion tracker, but that of course is a waste of time when you have 3 guys in the streets shooting each other.

I haven't had that bad an experience on the servers I play, but perhaps I'm lucky. Tanks usually have an engineer to repair them, and I'm never the only medic. It is hard to get people to drop ammo sometimes. I see motion trackers quite often. But as I said, maybe I'm lucky.

I see a lot of teamwork when I play on PC, so I doubt it is just the sniper thing as Gundato says. Who knows though really, I guess.

It's still interesting.