When I first started to play games, admittedly I did not start on the PC. But I quickly turned heads toward the PC gaming scene.
 
I remember first playing Quake and from there its sequels as well as getting into UT. I guess as time quickly passed the arena genre was ignored. It seemed that the last arena game I played that had a lot of attention was UT2k4. And that was a good amount of years ago. I find myself nearing the end of 2009 left wondering; what happened to arena games? I have not gone back to install old copies of past games to see player bases but from some research I hear there isnt a lot of people still playing them, was my research at fault? Hopefully it is. Because the last Arena game I purchased was UT3 for the PC, I also bought it for the PS3 for some reason and no one plays either at all.
 
I then look at things like Quake Live. It seemed popular back in February back when its Open Beta started. Its now August and I cant tell whether the player base dropped drastically or have the people who got into QL gone back to the original Quakes?
 
I look back at these relics and smile, but I also hate to see it drift away. What caused the genre to fall in popularity and what happened to all the players?