Just to clear up any misconception. I did in fact turn 63 last week. I do not live in a retirement home. I am retired but still working a full 40 hour week at the same medical research because I was asked to stay on. I also volunteer on an importantl environmental research program involving coral and am presently writing my third book.

I do leading edge image processing and analysis and have extensive computer knowledge. I have played video games constantly since pong and I played COD 1 & 2 extensively on line so I know a bit about gaming and gaming consoles. I make purchasing decisions on electronic equipment professionaly so I buy nothing on a whim. I am not a gullible consumer and I bought the Wii because I like the new and innovative interface. I am completely happy with my purchase and while hardly athletic in a 20 year old sense, I do exercise on Wii Fit everyday.

Just so you know. 

As opposed to the reams of data to support your point?  I can't seem to find any reviews on Rock Band 2 to indicate 'how quickly Wii standards are brought up.'  Same with GH:WT.  What is your point?

I would prefer to play any 3rd party title on a console, because PC gaming is on life support.

You might touch a nerve with that one. I'm not a PC gamer myself, I find it inconvenient, but I can tell you PC gaming is certainly not on life support, in fact Worldwide I am pretty positive more PC games are sold every year than any one of the consoles (dunno about DS as it is a beast at the moment) and yes I said "sold" so I am not factoring in any pirated games (of which there are a lot on the PC)

If it weren't for the Wii, I'd have an Xbox360 by now. For me, price is still the main deterent to buying a PS3.

I'm glad that Nintendo have taken gaming in an entirely new direction though. Traditional games were getting a little stale and the industry was crying out for something new. I applaud their philosophy that has fundamentally changed the way people play and interact with games as opposed to the traditional focus taken by the opposition on superficial advances such as graphical enhancements.

In many repects this philosophy remains somewhat unfulfilled, yet I am sure that in the years to come, through innovations like motion plus, the Wii will finally live up to that initial promise.

Well said...that's why gamers have migrated over to consoles....PC gaming is inconvenient.

And while saying that PC gaming is in its death throes might be an overstatement, it has most certainly moved into niche status while console gaming has become mainstream.  PC gaming has slowly been losing perferred status in a lot of different genres and seems to be the last bastion for MMORPGs and real time strategy games like Civ....

But getting back to my original point, for the life of me I can't understand why Wii owners like frybread feel the need to justify their choice in gaming consoles over and over and over again.  I guess having a choice is suddenly a bad thing in their eyes.

Imagine how stagnant gaming would become if Sony and Microsoft weren't in the market...I might be in the minority, but I'm glad that I have choices.

Actually PC Gaming is growing, by some estimates faster than any other platform.

Even the CEO of EA acknowledges this.

 "One of the things we try to look at at EA is the total business represented on PC game software, and we're seeing a growth in business there. It's been growing for several years," Riccitello said during a financial conference call yesterday. 

"It's just been categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box side of the equation, he added. "The fastest growing [sector] is subscription, microtransactions-based and casual games, many of which are pretty much centered on the PC."

And no matter how bad you think the retail box sales are, the fact is most of the best console games including Bioshock, Orange Box, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, CoD 4, GTA 4, DMC 4, Oblivion, and when it comes out, FF XIII, and every other multiplatform title is on PC, with higher res and more detail.

For PC owners, PS3 and 360 offer very little in terms of games.  Wii, on the other hand, has more exclusives than I can count, including more AAA games unavailable to PC owners than any other console. So like I said, if not for Wii, then there's no reason for me to own a console this gen.

Where in that quote does it say that PC gaming is growing faster than consoles?

Like I said, MMORPG is the last bastion of PC gaming (subscription).  Microtransactions-based and casual games have nothing to do with any of the mainstream games that you mention...he's talking about crap like Club Penguin and flash-based minigames, as well as card-and-board game site like Yahoo Games.  It's great that those areas are flourishing, but that means zero to gamers in general.

The truth is that poor box sales and rampant piracy are killing PC gaming.  Companies can no longer count on PC-only sales to support game development, which is why you see marquee games come out on consoles first and then PCs later.  It's just a footnote to extend the sales of a game slightly, an afterthought.

PS3 and 360 offers gamers a stable platform for which to buy their games.  The Wii offers that too, unfortunately it is so underpowered and feature-poor that it will be replaced in 3 years.

blah blah blah blah blah

Keep talking about how bad PC is while I have access to all the best PS360 games on it, and unless I want to play those games in lower resolution, with worse framerates and less detail, PS360 offers nothing to me.

720p?  No thanks, I'll stick with 1200p.

PC Gaming is growing by leaps and bounds over the HD consoles, which are losing their companies money.  If anything is dying, it's "hardcore" gaming.

As long as you don't mind waiting for those games, as long as six months after their primary release on console, then have at it.  You'll be playing GTAIV long after I've beat the game...twice.  But hey, if you prefer sloppy seconds, then you'll get them.

You can SAY that it's growing by leaps and bounds.  You can hope and pray and screw your eyes shut and wish it to be so, but it is not.

Console gaming is what's driving the industry now, and PC gaming has pretty much been relegated to stay at home Moms playing pinochle while the kids are at school.  If anything, you pure PC gamers have become "hardcore"...the same segment that Nintendo has abandoned.  Kind of a paradox, isn't it?

If it werent for Nintendogs, I would not own a DS. Yes, the truth hurts sometimes.