After my recent experiences with EA published games containing SecuROM and several conversations with friends, I have come to a conclusion (at least for me personally.)

For the longest time I have denied that PC gaming is dying. I refuse to believe it. I still believe than ten years from now PC gaming will still be going strong. That said, I'm also a multiplatform gamer. I don't discriminate. I go by the games. If a platform offers a game I know for certain that I want to play, then that's a platform I'm going to want to be playing on.

So when PC ports of console games I know I want to play (but haven't yet) are released with ostensible improvements, optimizations, or new content, I tend to grab the PC version. Yet, if said PC version is riddled with what essentially amounts to a limited form of spyware such that it cannot function properly without disabling or uninstalling certain elements of my system, I tend to take a moment to stop and think... why am I playing this?

Alright, so the interface might not be quite what I'd like and there are a few minor issues, but at least in the console version - provided they are similar or identical in terms of actual content - I know that the game will work. I put the disk in, and it works. Period.

So where am I going with this? Well, I still deny that PC gaming is dying. However, hypothetically speaking, let's say that the lack of parity between profitability on PC and profitability on consoles becomes so poor that developers are forced to develop exclusively or predominantly for consoles. Let's say that one reason for that is that people simply don't wish to bother with potential antipiracy pitfalls after shelling out money for a product they simply want to play. If that were to happen... could we really blame anyone but the developers and publishers? If I have to buy the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect, for instance, in order for it to play because I don't feel I should have to uninstall or disable my antivirus software, then why shouldn't I? That isn't what happened in my case, but I've seen others with that issue in that game and in many others.

All too often I see people saying that it’s the customer's fault, essentially, for not being tech savvy enough or patient enough to solve their problems. You and I may know how to maintain our systems properly and optimize for game-specific conditions, and that's all well and good for me... but what about total neophyte computer noobs who just want to play a game? Should the learning curve be so high that they're excluded, just because developers or publishers (or both) want to protect themselves from pirates who are meanwhile already playing cracked versions of their software while paying customers are stuck with the bill and an unplayable game? How is that the customer's fault?

I don't think PC gaming is dying. However, if it does die, I say we should know where to point the finger...