In the OP's opinion, it seems mainstream does not mean 'popular with people who play games of various genres on various platforms' as it does in the opinion of some posters here.
In the wider view, 1-10 million players isn't all that many. A quick Google search reveals that 200 MILLION people play Facebook games every month, and that there are at least 10 games with 10-15 million players EACH.
As others have said, many of these 200 million people won't even consider Farmville a video game, and despite logging 2-20 hours on it a week, they might still looks down on 'gamers' who spend the same amount of time killing orcs.
I was even asked once, with no hint of irony, why I wasted so much of my life playing computer games, by somebody who spent almost as much time playing FreeCell and watching soap operas.
In my opinion, games becoming mainstream would be them being, say, acceptable 'watercooler topics'. These days, you might be asked if you saw the [insert your country's/region's most popular RL sport] game last night, and in many cases you would be ostracised if you'd never seen more than 5 minutes of that game in your life because you considered watching it pointless. In a world where games are a mainstream part of society, you might say, "I finally killed [and this is where my complete lack of contemporary games is revealed, because all I can think of are bosses from a few expansions back in WoW, and the Weapons in FFVII] last night!" and not be laughed at.
In the wider view, 1-10 million players isn't all that many. A quick Google search reveals that 200 MILLION people play Facebook games every month, and that there are at least 10 games with 10-15 million players EACH.
As others have said, many of these 200 million people won't even consider Farmville a video game, and despite logging 2-20 hours on it a week, they might still looks down on 'gamers' who spend the same amount of time killing orcs.
I was even asked once, with no hint of irony, why I wasted so much of my life playing computer games, by somebody who spent almost as much time playing FreeCell and watching soap operas.
In my opinion, games becoming mainstream would be them being, say, acceptable 'watercooler topics'. These days, you might be asked if you saw the [insert your country's/region's most popular RL sport] game last night, and in many cases you would be ostracised if you'd never seen more than 5 minutes of that game in your life because you considered watching it pointless. In a world where games are a mainstream part of society, you might say, "I finally killed [and this is where my complete lack of contemporary games is revealed, because all I can think of are bosses from a few expansions back in WoW, and the Weapons in FFVII] last night!" and not be laughed at.
