You know, It's easy to blame other games for our problems, And it's easy to blame consoles. But if you really think on it, You know I have seen the "Gaming Culture" change drastically in every area, On every platform.
I remember when I got my first "gaming" PC, My aunt got it for me when I was... 9 I can't remember it's specs or it's price tag, But i do remember the many games I played on it, and upgrading it several times. Remember all those Half-Life Mods? Soldier of fortune? The very first call of duty? And do you remember the people who played them?
Yeah- Back then it was so much different. Gaming wasnt what everyone did when they went home from school. And god forbid you did it on PC you were immediately labeled a total geek. But there were good things about it;
Altho a smaller audience the standards were generally higher. Much Higher. Most of us made some sort of lifestyle out of it. While others rushed to play with friends or watch the new cool TV show, a small few of us ran home to our darked out rooms to fire up our rig and play till 2 or 3 AM once more. We took it seriously, And team based games saw strategy and cooperation.
But now, 10 years later It's so much different. My last 2 years of High school i cant remember anyone i know who didn't at a minimum own a console. And the Games have changed with the times- Across all platforms. The average player wants somethign that looks and sounds cool, is easy to pick up and makes them happy. This, for developers- Means making games easier, simpler, and awarding pointless acts with a steady stream of achievements, points and other such non sence to make the 'average' player feel good and stay interested.
So bottom line, In my honest opinion- The consoles didn't Kill Gaming, Neither did the 'other title'. The masses killed it; Or at least they killed it for the small few of us who come from a not-so-long ago time when winning the round is what we cared about.
Think about it like this- If the world's greatest, most respected universities dropped all standards and let in everyone at very little cost, We wouldn't see a world full of Einsteins and renound scientists, There'd just be that many more people who could say "hey i went there.."
