Speculation: Could CoH go to Nexon?

[Turjan]

Indeed, it's all a matter of "Ooh, the shiny is SO shiny it blinds!" as is so often the case whenever new tech comes along.

The explosion of smartphone use is huge, so understandably the games companies have all jumped on that bandwagon. And because 90% of their attention is taken up with the world of their current projects and target market, it's also understandable that we keep hearing this mantra of "PC games are dead!" over and over, like a schoolkid who's dizzy-crazy with a new toy who thinks all their previous toys are now trash.

When the first home consoles arrived in the 1980s, the same folk of the day said "You can't play games on a PC!". And then when PC games really took off, the same folk said "Consoles? Bah, you can't upgrade them like PCs, consoles are yesterday!". And when the Xbox 360 and PS3 came along, yes, the same folk said "PC gaming is dead, man!". So big shock - when it becomes apparent that smartphones have the capacity to play games, the modern incarnations of that same voice are bawling "PC gaming is dead, dude!"

The truth of PC gaming today is that the reason it's reached the plateau it has is because it physically can't get any higher without starting a colony on the Moon or somesuch. The market is 100% saturated. To say "Look, it's not going up, it must be stagnant! The end of PC games is nigh!" is crazy talk.

But talking crazy is what shiny-obsessed companies do. And when this latest shiny wears off, they'll no doubt be chanting "Smartphones are shallow man, if you want a real game it's gotta be PC!"

[Victoria Victrix]

Here is where I relate the "graying of America" talk Larry and I had.

Us old farts can't SEE what's on the phone screen half the time.  No, seriously, why would we want to give ourselves a headache to have alleged fun?  Tetris good.  Sidescrollers bad.  Free good.  Pay for a headache bad.

Us old farts are buying BIG monitors so we can sit way back from them in a recliner with a keyboard on our laps.  Think I'm kidding?  That's my office setup.  Zero-g recliner, keyboard on my lap, two big monitors, one for work/games, the other for chat programs.

Us old farts grew up with comic books and the very first video games.  I was 22 when Pong came out, and it was a bar sensation.  It is a well known fact that once you get over 50, nostalgia for the stuff you did when you were younger hits you, and you want to recollect all those toys you had, and recreate the memories you had.  We are only just starting to see those people come back to the PC games they played in their 20s.  Why do you think the emulators for the old standalone games are so popular?  It's not just because the games are free or cheap.  I actually predict a surge in users of Everquest and Ultima, and watch the "old" games cascade from there as people go back to their favorite games again.

Us old farts are losing our hand/eye coordination.  A lot of us can't play the newest console games, nor even the twitchier PC games.  But we want to play.

Us old farts have a lot more free time, especially those of us who are retired.  But we're on budgets.  Even a $15/month subscription is cheaper than cable with all the channels, and there's way less crap.

Us old farts have friends and family scattered around the country, and what with the economy being what it is, gas prices being what they are, the kids needing to work two jobs or both parents working, we don't get to physically see the kids and grandkids.  But having family-friendly PC games we can play with the grandkids at least--maybe the whole family and a couple friends on the same team?  That's a no-brainer.  And it's harder for us old farts to do that with console games than it is with PC games (hand/eye thing, and the TV is a lot farther away than the monitor is).

[houtex]

37" monitor and a microfiber reclining office chair here, myself, VV.  But who's nit-pickin'.

/I'm not old... in my head.  My body, unfortunately, has other ideas, and I associate with a lot of that post.
//Dammit.  Truthiness sucks sometimes.