Over the years, PC gaming has faded from the pop-cult consciousness, even as franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Halo have pushed videogames ever deeper into the mainstream.

That's because many games, like Crysis, require an overhaul of your computer’s innards, and because PC games are usually a lot more complicated than their console counterparts which can now match (or exceed) computer-quality graphics.

Plus, PC games are as easy to download as the new Beyonce CD.

(There are exceptions, of course. The Sims is the biggest game of all time ever and its spiritual successor Spore has seen similar mainstream buzz.)

The dangers have grown so great that Microsoft, Intel, NVIDIA, Epic, AMD, Acer, Activision, Razer, and Dell formed the ominous-sounding PC Gaming Alliance to be “the guardians of the PC as a platform for gaming.” Not that you would think such an organization necessary if you walked past the thousands of costumed World of Warcraft players who camped out for last Thursday's midnight launch of the game’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, a release one reviewer memorably noted was "tantamount to finding a mountain of blow in your girlfriend's vagina." (And yes, I'm jealous of that turn-of-phrase.)

It adds a new character class (Death Knight), lands to explore (Azeroth’s new continent Northrend), better battle modes and improved graphics. More importantly, it keeps the 11 million WoW subscribers, who shell out $15 a month, hooked on this massively-multiplayer world.
Lich looks set to match 2007’s expansion The Burning Crusade, which was the fastest-selling PC game ever (2.4 million in the first 24 hours, 3.5 million in the first month).

The world-enslaving fantasy franchise is big enough to be parodied on South Park and The Colbert Report but it can’t be the only game in town forever. Bioware is entering the ring with Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO based on Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time is in production and Lord of the Rings Online will launch its own expansion pack Mines of Moria later this week. There’s even a Hello Kitty MMO. Oh, and Warcraft-makers Blizzard are working on a top-secret new game.

The PC Gaming Alliance can do their best to prevent piracy, but just as the music industry's salvation is in un-downloadable live shows, computer gaming's way out seems to be a subscription model for an an experience that can’t be duplicated (so far, anyway) on consoles. After all, illegal downloading is irrelevant when you have your players' credit card information.