The End is near!

I've come to the conclusion that democracy sucks. Any system that allows a block of people (sometimes that block only being close to the majority) to dictate to the entire population that "You CAN have this; you CAN'T have that" means that that group gets what it wants, but others outside of that group have to settle for watered down "compromises', or often nothing that they want at all. You can see it in politics. You can see it in business. You can see it in democratically run common interest groups. And now you can even see it in the game stores.

"What", you rightly ask, "has brought this on?" In this instance, it was my (very) recent trip to Costco. You know Costco, or else stores much like it. It's the stereotypical Big Box store. Buy your groceries in case lots -- and save a large chunk of change when you do. This time of year (the "holiday season" for the benefit of any hermits reading this) the store would lay out a HUGE assortment of toys and games, all at about a 20-40% discount from the regular kind of stores. In years past, I would score at least 3 or 4 games on my wish list. But not this year.

"Why is that?" you ask. Well, it's because I'm apparently one of the last of a dying breed: someone that exclusively plays PC games. This last trip to Costco revealed MANY games for the Xbox; MANY games for the PS, and even quite a few games for the Wii. But for the PC? Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero.

I _should_ have anticipated this eventuality. For the last couple of years I have seen the local Gamestop's PC selection shrink from one full wall down to just one 5-shelf rack. And just so you don't get the idea that that rack is any larger than it is, let me say that it's narrow enough to be placed as an endcap. Though that is not that shelf's placement in the store. Noooo, that would be far too prominent. Rather, it's stuck waaaayyyy back there in the corner, the one with the faulty flickering fluorescent lamp overhead. You know, the area in the store where there is the least amount of wear on the floor, because it's almost impossible to get there without having to suck in your gut to squeeze past those other racks that are practically bursting with merchandise. Heck, even the movie Action Figures have more shelf space allocated to them.

Sigh.

It's NOT because there simply aren't that many PC-only players out there. There are, in fact, a significantly large enough number of such gamers. It's just that in comparison to console gamers, that number is a somewhat insignificant percentage of gamers. If not insignificant, at least ignorable. At least when it comes to manufacturers contemplating where to invest their production capital: "Hmm. Do we want to manufacture this PC game that will sell perhaps 100,000 units, or should we make it an Xbox title that will sell a million units? Hmm. That's a tough one."

Now, it may be that the manufacturers realize that they could still make a reasonable profit selling to PC players, but why bother? If they wait to do a PC run by paying for it with the profit from the console version sales, what they usually find is that there will be a LOT of interest in the next latest, greatest console title on the horizon, so that's where they really should be directing their resources. Besides, delivering a PC version several months after the console release is sort of like trying to drum up interest in yesterday's news.

Sigh.

The writing is on the wall. The bones have been cast and the shaman is sadly shaking his head. The gypsy has looked in the teacup and nearly dropped it when she saw what the tea leaves had to tell her. Soon, in the not too distant future, you'll only find PC games in flea markets, right next door to the 8-track tapes and 78-rpm Victrola recordings.

Sigh.

Anybody know the address of the Elephants' Graveyard? I'll need to know where my mail should be forwarded to.