Originally Posted by dteowner
Even Best Buy has pared down the PC shelves significantly (I remember when it used to be 3 full aisles of PC games and now it's down to 2 short sections).

Our local GameStop has started carrying some PC games again (it was completely non-PC for over a year) … but I avoid them unless needed.

I was in Best Buy yesterday picking up a couple of games (yeah I know, adding insult to injury … ) and they had greatly expanded their section and even had temporary area set up for all of the big items - Hellgate, Quake Wars, UT3, and so on … it was nice to see - the PC area was the biggest section.

Really, you East Coast hoi polloi always get the best treatment

If "old 1997" aisle = 1 unit of nebulous length, then the current console section is 3 x 3/4unl and the current PC section is 2 x 1/4unl (for games, there's also another 2x1/4unl worth of Microsoft, antivirus, educational and home office stuff) at my nearest Best Buy as of 2 weekends ago. Back in the day, if you included all the "other" stuff, Best Buy had 9 full aisles of PC software.

Originally Posted by dteowner
Really, you East Coast hoi polloi always get the best treatment

What was that? Couldn't hear you from my ivory tower …

Definitely the situation is worse than a decade ago … magerette's CompUSA example is spot on - that used to be worth the 30 minute drive from work for me …

I am just encouraged to see it moving in a positive direction from a year ago.

Originally Posted by magerette
Indeed. I boycott EB since the pimpled adolescent at my local outlet sneered at me after asking for a pc game. He said they were "phasing them out"--which they may have done, since I haven't been back since.

The EB here has a respectable sized PC section, as do other EBs that I've been to in my travels. But I had a similar experience with a franchise called Microplay - they said they weren't carrying PC games anymore. They closed down about a year later. Microplay was my first stop for buying PC games, either on-line or in-store, but then they were bought out by someone and cancelled their PC games catalogue.
It worked out well for them (at least in the local shop - not sure how well the francise is doing over all).

But browsing shops for PC games is no longer fun these days. It's usually just disappointing, though sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised.

I can relate to that. I don't remember the last game I bought at EB - between indie games, Steam and buying boxed from an online retailer and bookended against their dismal selection and service, I just don't bother.

I remember putting a deposit on Arx Fatalis and when I went in to get it, the guy laughed and asserted there was no such game. The comedy factor of the whole ridiculous situation was compounded by having a receipt in my hands for the deposit. That still didn't convince him for quite a while.

But, to be fair, it isn't all their fault. The market has changed and the internet has changed the world. It used to be fun to explore EB - but now, there's nothing for me to discover. Not only are the great games relatively rare but there isn't an RPG release that could catch me by surprise; I could probably name the lead designer and chronicle the development history of most titles I would consider buying. That may not be typical but I imagine most of us here are better informed than we were a decade ago.

Yeah, I usually have to give my local EB the rundown on what's happening in the rpg/PC world too. Usually when I mention a game it's "Never heard of it."

You've got a point, gents. I used to get my info from Computer Gaming World magazine, which meant I had little if any warning about new releases until well after the fact. Years ago, I stumbled on the Gone Gold site (turned out Rich lived about a mile from me, small world…), and that took the surprise out of release dates. Then Wiz8 introduced me to RPGDot and that took the mystery out of the games themselves. Not really much reason left to graze the racks, is there?

I tend to stay away from EB as well, but that's because they focus too much on used games for my taste. Often more than half of the shelves are filled with yellow price stickers, so to me it feels more like a pawn shop. Personally, I'm a bit of a collector. I keep the games I buy even after finishing them, so used games have little appeal to me.

Of course, there's also the fact that some of the games I'm interested in can be hard to find here in the "Belle province" (aka Quebec), and collector editions are even rarer. I never found a copy of "Mazes of Fate", a GBA dungeon crawler, for example; I had to import that one, and did not regret it one bit.

To play CRPG you are necessary hardcore player but there's different degree. For me :
- I don't follow closely news and what's going to be released. I even recently bought The Witcher collector edition just because I see it in shop and dialog a bit with a shop keeper. For Gothic and NOTR the same happened to me, I just followed an advice of a shopkeeper despite the game was out since many month and the addon sicne few month.
- Once I start play a game I can put ton of hours per week in it, but I never hesitate to stop play a game when it starts bore me and there are long periods I don't play any game.
- I'm cold to anything but CRPG since some years, I'm curious at new design but I don't see many around. If after Doom and during a long time fps shooter definitely fascinated me, this is stopped since many years and no try I made since changed my mind. Too many RTS around not a genre I ever like but I admit I enjoyed Warcraft 3 but never finished it. I don't see any game I found interesting the only exception is Majesty and I regret to have never seen the second.

So I'm hardcore sometimes and only with some CRPG otherwise I'm not all.

Originally Posted by Dasale
I don't see any game I found interesting the only exception is Majesty and I regret to have never seen the second.

No publisher wanted to fund development of a second title back then but Paradox Interactive (developed Europa Universalis and other strategy titles) bought the franchise earlier this year so you're likely to see a sequel within the next couple of years.

Really? I hadn't heard about that. Way cool, as I spent a ton of time with Majesty and the Northern Expansion. Dhruin will have to pass that bit of info along to Kayla--she'll be ecstatic.

Majesty is in my top ten of all time, love the game!

I was really bummed when Majesty Legends was deep sixed, now I have hope!

Originally Posted by KazikluBey
No publisher wanted to fund development of a second title back then but Paradox Interactive (developed Europa Universalis and other strategy titles) bought the franchise earlier this year so you're likely to see a sequel within the next couple of years.

Really? That would be cool if this is achieved. I never got the opportunity to play the extension because I was playing the Mac version and bought the windows version too late and couldn't find anymore the extension in my language.

I know I could perhaps find something through the net but it's really a pain that those older software cannot be bought quickly over internet in digital version.

Serious But Discerning, but like someone else stated, I used to be Need Counseling when I was younger. I used to play every genre and at one time I made impulse buys at the software store after browsing the aisles. I don't do that anymore and it's the rare game I buy that hasn't been out for a while.

I'm mostly RPG, both MMO and CRPG with the occasional good other genre game breaking though. I played Bioshock until near the end I got bored and sidetracked to other games. I have played all the Sam & Max adventure series from Tell Tale Games and I can't recommend them enough if you are a fan of the old Sam & Max, Space Quest, Monkey Island, etc. I'm seriously thinking about getting the Orange Box set, but that will be quite some time since I'm deep into The Witcher and still have to finish NWN2 MotB.

As for shopping in person for games, that horse has left the stable long ago. I bought both Bioshock and The Witcher via download and most others I get from Amazon. I miss the old days a little, but I have to admit, getting the stuff almost immediately sure satisfies my addiction.

don't know what my type - moderate?; but surely not hardcore is you define it as playing games 24/7 or always prefering particular genre. I usually go for top rated games and after read some reviews on its - not neccessary must be crpg, shooter, rts or adventure. the important thing it's fun, interesting and entertaining. However i certainly played a lot of shooters (especially in recent years) as i barely have enough time to invest in gaming anymore; so that i even ignored top rated games like the latest Civilization as it's game that requires a lot time and attention on every moves and others details. That's why play shooter more - it's easier to pick up from last session and put down…

Checked Serious But Discerning as well. The description fits my current playing style perfectly. Which at the moment only includes NWN2+MotB and Morrowind because the closest game store is about 800km away and when I left none of the current crop was released yet (Gothic 3, Witcher…), but I'm nevertheless having fun playing through the NWN2 expansion right now. Any new PC games I pick up nowadays will most likely be C/Rpg's since I have little time to play other genres and it is still my favourite.

Definitely belonged in the Hardcore section years ago but, let's just say it, after highschool and college gaming time tends to decrease a lot. When I feel like taking a total break from things like "thinking" or I have some friends over I dust off the old SNES or play an emulator on the PC…games like Zelda, Secret of Evermore and of course Donkey Kong are still my favourite console games.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, Magertte, and it's hard to say what makes one a "hardcore gamer" indeed…so instead, I'll provide two examples of IRC buddies of mine that I know that I would definitely describe as <insert discussed phrase here in quotes >:
(And you'll note that my definition involves level of skill like you suggest is possible)

The first, and well, the "harder" one really, by a long shot, is this guy who plays everything and anything, and does it well. Usually when I ask him about his progress in some game, he'll tell me already beat it, and dryly spout off a complaint or two regarding that game. He plays it all… Shooters, RPGs, RTSs, TBSs, you name it.

The other guy is one who's mainly into war games…the thing that makes him hardcore is comprised of two or three things : He finds tons of mods for things he likes and plays them. Some of the mods he's into are ones that make AI smarter, or just make the game harder… and more importantly, he beats em.

Hardcore gamer : More than 20 hours of play per week, that's the official definition! This means I don't see how any CRPG gamer could escape from the horrible tag of "hardcore gamer". Ok ok, that definition made me laugh but the reason seems to have some sense. Above 20 hours, gaming clearly eat a significant part of your time.

Nah pal, it isn't. 20 hours (Or say even 15, for the sake of a lack-of-a-silly-argument) of play per week turns you into . . . ready? . . . a -gamer-. Because what is a gamer? It is a person who spends a good chunk of his time and resources on games. (Besides, time is almost never a function that stands on its own in order to make a point…pardon my extreme example to support this, but what if I'm some 7 year old girl who plays Rainbow Adventures or whatever? Well, actually that's a bad example, I think I'd totally call my would-be daughter a hardcore gamer if she did that.)

Now, a -hardcore- gamer… *goes for the gold*… is someone whose main interest in life is gaming, and playing games is the bane of his or her existence.

Mmm I made this fun quote not because I share the point of view but because I found it fun in the context of the topic. I don't care at all of this, look at statistics and you get hardcore tv watcher, hardcore eater, hardcore chat user, hardcore music listener, we are all hardcore worker, there are some hardcore reader, hardcore talker (women I mean ) and so on. Hardcore gamer isn't more bad if you ask me.

Anyway the evil, and mental sickness is to play MMORPG not CRPG. Everybody know that.