The way *I* see it it is a good thing people think PC gaming is dead. For me, it was never alive to begin with. PC gaming doesn't deal well with the kind of attitude game houses are having. PC's are not for mainstream hits nor for mainstream gamers, as game houses want it to be. That's partly the reason why they say it's dead, and in what concerns me, the deader the better, as it's surely a sign those houses are going away from him. Even though the biggest best-seller in the gaming industry is PC only (The Sims), that doesn't mean PC isn't an "underground" "hardcore" machine by default, that pleases at the same time both an extremely casual audience and the most hardcore audience of them all. PC's are made for game lovers/maker/fans. You don't make a game on a console, you make it on PC and then port it. You don't mod a game on a console, you mod it on PC, and that's that! People don't want to face it, but the only reason why PC gaming is dead is because game studios never cared and never really will care (I belive) about those kind of gamers: the hardcore gamers, the PC hardcore gamers.
[edit]I felt I missed something: if you don't believe in what I say, think a bit. Remember how big consoles where some years ago? like the 80's and 90's? PC game has NEVER had such a mainstream audience, that's a fact. Remember Simon the Sorcerer and the likes? By that time, what were the hot games on consoles? Mario, Zelda, Sonic? I don't know, but all those names I referred are more than games, they are mainstream non-gamer icons that get spread all over. They are cultural icons sometimes, Mario and Sonic at least. That NEVER happened with any PC franchise, as it has been always bound to the hardcore audience. Just the same way, there are a lot of large sequel threads on the consoles, while in the PC you only have a few of those. Ultima? Might and Magic? And that's probably it. And those were never mainstream hits to begin with, at least not mainstream in the sense we give it now. Think about it.[/edit]
As for hardcore definition, no professional gamer is hardcore, so that leaves CS compulsive players out of the equation. Also, no game junkie is hardcore by any means, so that also leaves WOW players out of the equation. Graphic whores are not hardcore too, unless they have something else. What's that something else? Understanding of gaming. If you don't understand what you're playing, you are not hardcore. You understand, you are. And console gamers don't usually understand what they play, unlike PC gamers.
Now, I'm certain there are a lot of PC assholes that understand as much about games as my grandma and still play them fervorously. But that kind of gamers were brought by the mainstream wave of PC games, or are just beginners. It is my belief, and I am almost certain of it, that
if you only play PC games for more that two/three years, you will either quit PC gaming for a more cheap platform, or you'll become hardcore.
As a matter of fact, PC gaming is not dead by ANY means. It outsells ALL consoles by a large margin. A very very large margin. Remember: games bought online are not taken into account, online fees such as WoW's are also not taken into account, casual games are usually not taken into account too. I don't have references here though, and I don't like that, as I'd love to prove it...
Anyone?
