The people holding the smoking guns… The rumblings have been heard in LAN parties, Clan gathering and the internet, PC gaming is dying. If you ask ten people why you might end up with ten different answers, but the current trend of providing less freedoms in game play and more post purchase costs is what, in my opinion, is going to put the final bullet in PC gaming,
I remember playing games like Duke Nukem 3D and seeing the player made maps and multiplayer support. Even when online services such as DWANGO and KALI came about they respected the communities love for customizing their gameplay (within reason).
Now with announcements like the once that came from Activision on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, it is not hard to see the end game for these companies. It is one thing to provide specific servers and promote in house multiplayer options it is another to restrict what has been a stable for online gaming since online gaming began.
If MMO’s killed the LAN party then removing options like play ran servers and PC mod tools will surly bury it. Something as simple as the command line being removed is a giant step in the wrong direction. In my early LAN days the command line was the only way I could join many games and now with Activision’s decisions they are nullifying LAN play and CLAN play.
I can understand the need to protect against piracy, but I do not believe that is the end game here. It is about more than just control and protection; I do not think it will be long until you see many companies asking their player base to pay for options that use to be free such as player ran servers, mod tools and custom maps.
When companies see that people have no problem paying ninety-nine cents here and two dollars there for features, they will continue to add more and more until we are paying subscription rate prices for every single game.
What can we do about this? Little, when massive companies come together offering products people have paid for years it has been proven that few will leave or give up a chance to play the next generation of said game. All we have to do is look to Blizzard (Owned by Activision) to see that.
Blizzard announced the release of three separate games for StarCraft and though there was an outcry it has had no impact on sales. With the juggernaut of World of Warcraft and other games under the Activision banner there is little to no risk that any boycott will impact sales enough to cause the bat of an eyebrow from the most money hungry accountant.
Unfortunately, I do not have an answer. More and more companies refused to take the time to make a correct PC version of their game the way it should be. It is easier and cheaper to port directly from the console with little to no changes. In their mind PC gaming is dying, so if moves like this hasten its death, to them, that is fine, they figure most of us own consoles anyway.
J.A. Laraque is a freelance writer and novelist. His passion for writing mixed with a comedic style and intelligent commentary has brought him success in his various endeavors. Whatever the subject, J.A. has an opinion on it and will present it in writing with an insight and flair that is both refreshing and informative. 
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Great article sir! I own all 3 consoles but I am a PC gamer first. And while I don’t mind playing dumb console fps’s sometimes, saying you are the best or great at a console fps is like saying you were the U.S. Champion in hungry hungry hippo.
With PC hardware more cheap and affordable then ever, I don’t understand this switch away from PC gaming.
It’s odd, but there is still hope. we still have epic and valve more than happy to give us free access to their SDK. some people never forgot where they came from.
I will say this: you wanna blame someone, blame the console gamers. they buy more games than we do and settle for much less. as the current generation of console and the future ones become more closely related to purpose built media machines, it becomes easier for developers to just make one game for everybody.