I disagree 100%

Niche games are already gone. There are a few niche markets left, but they are fading quickly, and getting more and more dated.

X is one of the few that stands out. X4 on the way, a high tech game, and extremely complex hard to get into niche.

One game that I would die to see, is a new 'Castles'

A game where you design your castle, rule your castle, rule your providince. The level of detail in building your castle should be incredible. (in terms of 5-10 hours to design it if you want to invest that much time) Each castle could take that much time. As you expand your empire, you build more castles, to defend the land. With a combat system like Total War. Allowing you to build your armies, from your excess cash, expand your borders, and grow into a country, and take over the world. Being able to have as much control as you want, or as little as you want. (AI is your friend)

I hate to say it, but Complex Simulaton games are a thing of the past.

There are so few of them, it's not even funny. I dont think that Total War, is too much of an improvement, over the ones that came out 10 years ago. I just find it sad, that great games like that are gone.

It's so sad, that the games, that created modern gameing, exist no more. With all the technology, and ease of makeing a game today, they cant make a game as good as a 15 year old game. Castles

Seriously. That article is BS. They are gone, the exist no more. 

Ah Mechwarrior how I lament Thee. Flight Yoke, Saitek X36 RIP. The Age of Simulation is over I doubt we will ever see a revival.

I remember making my own keyboard overlay for Stealth Fighter after loosing the original.

Unfortunatly for me I don't see a place for niche gaming in the future. There won't be enough return to justify the investment.

Freelancer as much as I loved it as a spiritual succesor to Privateer was the nail in the coffin.

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

This article is basically saying that hardcore gamers only play complex simulation games that takes days to learn. Stupid.

I was a hardcore gamer even when I was using only a joystick.....Pac-Man. Or even a joystick and one button....Galaga. Or even using just 5 buttons....Asteroids.

Being hardcore is not about what type of game that is being played...it's about passion.

Double post 

I think complex games and "shallow" games can co-exist. About Tabula Rasa etc, I believe WoW is quite popular and can be quite complex (from what I've heard) if you want it to be. I think that's the point, you have to think about making your learning curve reasonable and rewarding. If you make a game that's just boring and frustrating the first hours, many people will just give up.

This relates to the story thread. Morrowind is a good example. You can just mess around and have fun, or you can really get into the story, read all the books etc. Play it the way you want.

I agree with this completely, classic arcade games might be simple but I doubt even 1 in 1000 could break 100k in Donkey Kong, and that's nothing compared to people like Steve Weebee, or Billy Mitchel, go watch King of Kong a fist ful of quarters those guys are hardcore players if there is such a thinkg