But see, that's a big part of my point right there.
You, like so many other people, see PC Gaming as "work." Not me, and not the people who have been doing it forever. Installation and Configuration of settings for a game takes all of 10 minutes up front, total. And then if upgrade your hardware down the line, then yeah you can up the resolution/AA/whatever settings. But to see installation and configuration of settings as "work," that in itself is an example of what I'm saying. It's work to console only people because they're used to being told what to do and how to do it. But it's not really work at all to PC people.
And then when it comes to the installation and configuration of mods, add-ons, stuff like that, yes I understand that things like that can SOMETIMES be a little technical. But this is the perfect example of what I'm saying about effort. You can go online, and within 5-10 minutes read up on how to install whatever modification it is you're downloading. And then look at how much extra enjoyment the game will give you for something you just got for FREE. Everyone goes crazy about the prices for DLC on Xbox Live, but look at what you're paying for. The convenience of just clicking on it, and having it all be installed on its own without you having to go through the "effort" of doing something like that manually. why do you think PC gamers think all the DLC stuff is ridiculous? Because we've been downloading stuff like that for a decade-plus now, for FREE. And by the way the stuff we download is at worst equal to, and many times far superior to what these companies put on Xbox Live.
I guess really it a lot of times it comes down to what you've been conditioned with. I grew up with consoles and PC's, not just one or the other. So I can throw a game in the 360 and be happy, but at the same time I can buy GTA: San Andreas for the PC, download all the mods, and make it 50x the game it could EVER be on consoles. Where as someone who grew up doing console-only stuff probably just doesn't have the patience to do those kinds of things, they want it now.
I don't know. Like I said, everyone should play what they want to play because in the end, like you said, this is a leisure activity and everyone should do what makes them happiest. But if a person truly has video gaming as a hobby, I just don't understand how they can discount the PC because of the near limitless amounts of possibilities it offers with what you can do to the games.
And hell I'd surely be willing to wager that a lot of these companies are going away from the PC because of the fact that it's so customizable. They've found the platform where they can control the consumer, put out whatever content they want, at whatever pace they want, and tell people what it's going to cost. A recent release by our good friend EA Sports is a perfect example, the NCAA March Madness Bracket and Alternate Uniforms pack on Xbox Live. Something that could never, EVER happen on PC because the community would obviously do those things for free, and better than EA. That is of course, if the game was released on PC. These companies have found their cash cows, and we're all being milked for all it's worth. Think about that the next time you go on Xbox Live and see all the things we're being squeezed for that are things to easily get for free on the PC.