Gaming isn't doomed, hardcore gamers are just getting bored

[Veknoid_Outcast]

The article in the OP is very well-intentioned, but I have to disagree with a lot of it.

The hardcore gamer (by which he/she means hobbyist gamer, I think) just isn't that important. The amateur gamers are much more important. Why do movies like Avatar and The Avengers make so much money? It's not because all the movie buffs united and saw it 50 times each. It's because those movies, through advertisements and word of mouth, attracted the highest number of ordinary people who like going to the movies. Why do Wii Sports and Call of Duty sell the most copies? Not because all of the people who love video games to death decided to purchase 8 copies. It's because they attracted the most people who are only marginally interested in video games.

The hobbyist is very much the core of the industry. We love the games more than anyone, we have been playing the longest, and we buy up as much as we can afford. But the average video game players are the ones bringing in the profits.

Also, I don't agree about a lack of innovative, stimulating titles out there. How many users here have hefty backlogs because they simply can't play all the new games they want to? Every year we get 5 or 10 great games, some of them all-time greats. In the last 3 years, we've gotten Skyrim, Uncharted 2, and Skyward Sword. I know many here consider those some of the very best games ever made.