The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment

[ScutMonkey]

God I hope computer gaming doesn't go away but I have to admit the numbers don't look good.  I just really don't like the controller for FPS, MMO, or RTS types of games.  We got Resident Evil 4 on the Wii and I watched my wife play and while the Wii controller/nunchuk combo is far, far superior to a typically controller it's still crap compared to the KB/mouse combo.  It was VERY obvious that a KB/Mouse combo would have been far superior for gameplay but you just don't have that option.  

The only online game I've played so far on the Wii is Mario Kart and it was painfully obvious that there was a serious drop in the pleasure of the experience simply from the lack of a voice chat option.  I'm now used to playing games like WoW with Ventrilo and being able to setup a room with my buddies and give each other hell while playing is a BIG part of the appeal for these games.  I haven't messed with an Xbox 360 or PS3 to see how their support for voice chat works but what they will need is something which is independent of the game.  I don't want to be in a game with two of my friends and 10 other random people.  I want to be able to setup a chat room with my friends independent of the game and then we can chat regardless of what we're playing or how many of us are in our particular game.

[JQPublic]

PC gaming (and by extension, PC gaming hardware sales) may not be dead, but the PC gaming industry is clearly not what it used to be. In 1998, the PC gaming industry generated 1.8 billion in sales and accounted for 32.72 percent of total video game software sales. The video game software market grew by 72 percent between 1998 and 2007, while PC gaming sales have consistently decreased every single year in both relative and absolute terms. The picture isn't quite as bleak as the graph makes it seem, given that NPD's numbers don't track digital distribution or subscription-based revenue, but neither category could possibly account for the tremendous decline in PC game sales.

Dell have some opinions as to which way the wind is blowing across the gaming world.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080513-dell-xps-phase-out-symptomatic-of-declining-pc-gaming-sector.html

[Timster]

I just really don’t like the controller for FPS, MMO, or RTS types of games.

Same here.  I could never get used to precise aiming with a controller.  One thing I attribute to the rise in console games sales is that you see several times more releases for the Wii than you see for the pc.  Instead of being epic games with stunning graphics, sound, and cutting edge game engines, many of the Wii games have simple gameplay or are packs of simple mini games.

[MrbLOB9000]

you can get an adapter tha allows you to use a keyboard and mouse with the xbox and xbox 360.

[Maturin]

I've got the new ubuntu on my Toshiba laptop with nvidia graphics and I can attest that this is the best, most polished ubuntu yet. Have not had to touch the command line yet, and have got all my hardware working properly (including a webcam and skype:))