That comment about how PCs are so much more capable than consoles is the first believable thing he’s said in five years – and then he goes right back into fantasyland with that VR crap. I think it might be near time for Johnny to hang it up, especially since he hasn’t produced a good game in a decade.

Carmack is an I**ot

I don’t think the future is in full-immersion VR that we pour our lives into, but smaller, portable devices that we wrap our lives around. With that, we’re going to see an entirely different species of games and gamers that look nothing like what we have today. You see glimmers of it every time a adult plays a round of Angry Birds while waiting on the metro.

Who knows, it might even break the industry out of the 14-26 year-old White Male demo they seem to have their hearts set on.

I have to disagree about that “14-26 while male” demographic, especially in mobile gaming. The biggest thing going for a couple years was (is?) The Sims, a game so blatantly targeted at females they might as well have wrapped the box in a big pink ribbon. The vast majority of mobile games seem clearly targeted at the puzzle lovers, and that group is totally dominated by women. Certainly I don’t know any CoD addicts who can stand much time playing Cut the Rope. PCs have become primarily an MMO platform, and while those are dominated by the 14-26 age group, accounts are usually split pretty evenly between the sexes – and I’ve read that the girls may soon overtake the boys in most of the AAA online worlds. The only reason that the PC may still seem to be chasing the young male demo so much is because most new PC games are lazy console ports, and that means primarily online FPSs, racing and a few other sports titles. What’s left of the “real” PC gaming scene – RTS, sims and god games, mostly – is dominated by the 27-42 male group according to every stat I’ve read.

carmack used to be king. now he’s just a sourp*ss. somehow i feel he doesn’t “get it” anymore.

some of what im reading is fundamentally contradictory. how will the industry broaden it’s audience without expanding the genre beyond what it currently offers. this requires willingness to experiment. thank god for id and nintendo. these two are constant pioneers.

Carmack was an inspired, talented programmer for many years even. So
His position and role at id have always been technical .
The last few id games have really dissapointed me as its obvious
they are a console game developer and merely port for pc nowadays.

Other companies (and programmers) have created much better games
In more recent years, i think carmack, and id are not relevant enough to even
comment on the future of console gaming, or gaming in general

Wow posting on my iphone is a grammarical nightmare