I've been as guilty as any doom and gloomer over the noticeable downtrend of the PC gaming market in the past few years, but there's no doubt to me that PC games are about to make a comeback.

Hello Spore, Left4Dead and Dragon Age. There are significant PC games on the horizon. The MMORPG market has exploded, thanks to WoW's high subscriber rate and I believe WAR will hit big and expand this even further. Plus digital distribution is finally poised to push brick-and-mortars into irrelevance.

The question is how much Microsoft will continue to botch it up and will Apple grow some PC gaming balls to take advantage of the missteps of Vista + DirectX 10?

Apple's PC marketshare is on the rise again. They've got some gaming fanbois despite themselves, thanks to Blizzard's stubbornness to give triple-A quality to their treasured platform. If they just tried a little, they could capitalize on the discomfort PC gamers are feeling from Microsoft's squeeze to push Windows Live.

Apple needs to do what Microsoft did once-upon-a-time and support PC game developers in a big way, flat out cater to them. This isn't Apple's strong suit, I think they like absolute control even more than the Redmond giant, but if they're going to do it, they should skip their usual tendencies and wrest the steering wheel away now before Microsoft realizes what they've screwed up.

They just need to convince one man really: Gabe Newell. He may not like Apple much, but he's an opportunist too. Partner with Valve, let them take the reins of a new gaming initiative for the Mac. If Apple was smart they'd realize these are the PC gaming savvy guys, they're the ones that get stuff done.

If Apple doesn't clue in quick, they'll still trickle in more marketshare, but they'll be missing out on an opportunity to grab the whole shebang while it's sitting right on the table being neglected.

You've probably already heard it elsewhere, but I'd just like to say on a personal and selfish perspective that I'm glad Microsoft has given up their pursuit to buy out Yahoo!.

I'm neither a Microsoft nor a Yahoo! fan, but I do use some of each of their products and in particular I didn't want to see what Microsoft would have done with properties like Flickr and MyBlogLog.

Truth be told, I was a bit baffled by the whole thing, Microsoft could not have dreamed that they'd meet with anything but a wave of bad press from trying to fold Yahoo! via acquisition (after wrapping in what they'd want to keep, namely the advertising space). And obviously they were mistaken thinking that they'd be met with open arms by a company that operates much differently than their own.

As many people have been pointing out, Microsoft should have set their sights on AOL instead.

Note: I've posted two followups to this article.

Will Age of Conan tone it down to avoid an Adult Only rating? The folks at Funcom seem to embrace the adult-content, staying true to the world Robert E. Howard created, or at least the way Frank Frazetta envisioned it in stunning detail.

The thing is, Microsoft only allows max M rated games for their Games for Windows brand. Funcom has an agreement with Microsoft for the DirectX 10 / Vista stuff with this branding and I'd bet there is some fine print about the game's rating. No doubt for the Xbox 360 version too.

A bit of fuss was kicked up recently when Rockstar's Manhunt 2 was labelled as Adult Only, causing Nintendo to drop it like a hot potato. Frankly, I think it's about time that videogame publishers stopped acting like Blockbuster and pretending that anything not-for-kids isn't publishable. Responsible adults should still be able to play these games.

I would love to see Age of Conan leave the prudes and children behind. I'm looking forward to playing an MMORPG where the game doesn't feel dominated by pubescent adolescence. A little while ago in WoW, Sakkara told someone they were acting like a 12 year old and the player turned out to actually be aged 13. Hey, that's fine, let kids play WoW, but I'd like AoC to be a vacation from that crowd.

Let me make it clear, I wish AoC could have a rating and content that makes parents flinch and insist that their children will not play it. M doesn't cut it, it's the kind of rating where parents go "oh, okay, I guess so" to their kids and then if they do see something shocking they complain. See this gorgeous and gratuitous Frazetta artwork?

This is what Conan should look like. Gorgeous and cheesy with that Heavy Metal-esque adultness.

But I understand that Funcom may make compromises for a reduced rating. It would disappoint me, but they may be forced to make changes given the current climate with the Media, politics and publishers.