Death of the hardcore gamer

[cAPSLOCK]

I can see where the article is coming from. It's funny hearing console gamers talking about the Wii killing hardcore gaming when consoles did the same thing to PCs in the last 5 or so years (being in most PC gamers eyes as nothing more than dumbed down PCs).

As someone who used to be in the really hardcore crowd as a high level competitive gamer I'm kind of glad it's moving away from that model.  Looking back, those days were a waste of time and really distorted what I loved about video games in the first place. 

I think it's a bit greedy and selfish on the part of gamers (and I was guilty of this, too, to be young again ...) to get so much enjoyment out of games, really love them, expect people to respect their beloved past time then turn around and say they don't want others to participate.

I think the happiest times I've had as far as games in the last 10 years has been sitting beside my wife playing Mario Party 8 (after her Wii Sports introduction) for the first time, which led to our playing through the Gears of War campaign together. 

10 years ago gaming would have been a huge divide between us (me being the socially retarded XTREMEHARDCORE mole I was), but all it took was a non-hardcore game or 2 to open that door and make it something we have in common. 

I do miss competitions and sponsors paying for my rig, though