Battlestation

About

Battlestation is an Internet slang term for a desktop computer setup typically featuring high-end PCs primarily used for playing video games.

Origin

Prior to the coinage of the term “battlestation,” photographs of impressive desktop setups were often shared on various websites online. On April 17th, 2008, the tech news blog Nerd Business^[5] published a compilation of notable photographs of impressive home office setups. On November 25th, 2009, the /r/battlestations^[1] subreddit was launched, which features user-submitted photographs of high-end desktop computer spaces. Within six years, the community gained over 167,500 subscribers.

Spread

On June 2nd, 2010, Urban Dictionary^[4] user Proged submitted an entry for “battlestation,” defining it as a slang term for "a desktop computer setup. On July 18th, 2011, Redditor thrillhousevanhouton created the /r/shittybattlestations^[3] subreddit for photographs of poorly designed desktop computer spaces with damaged, cheap or outdated hardware (shown below, left). On January 17th, 2012, Redditor notnyt submitted a photograph of his home entertainment setup to the /r/battlestations^[2] subreddit, where it gathered more than 2,000 votes (94% upvoted) and 430 comments prior to being archived (shown below, right).

On February 4th, 2013, a gallery titled “Battle stations (from 4chan /v/)” was uploaded to Imgur,^[7] containing purported photographs of video game setups posted by members of 4chan’s /v/ (video games) board. On March 2nd, Redditor Jesus Cock submitted a post titled “My Tech Mancave,” containing photos of his PC gaming room equipped with five monitors and a biometric keypad lock. Before the post was archived, it received upwards of 3,200 votes (96% upvoted) and 590 comments on /r/battlestations,^[10] On July 29th, Redditor grey_sky submitted the Imgur gallery to the /r/WTF^[8] subreddit. On September 5th, Redditor GoodAtIt posted several high resolution photographs of his water cooled PC to /r/battlestations,^[6] where it gained over 5,400 votes and 700 comments prior to being archived.

On December 25th, the gaming news blog PC Gamer^[11] published a compilation of desktop computer setups titled “Battlestation showcase: the best of your PCs.” On February 5th, 2015, Redditor Marques-Brownlee posted a photograph of his desktop setup featuring two 4k resolution monitors to /r/battlestations,^[9] where it garnered upwards of 5,400 votes (94% upvoted) and 700 comments. On May 18th, the Gameranx YouTube channel uploaded a slideshow video featuring various high-end PC battlestations (shown below).