On Gaming

I read this in a thread elsewhere about why Microsoft made their Kinect and Sony their Wiimote and Nunchuk Move

"Why wouldn't Sony and Microsoft want a piece of the braindead sheep market ? "

Sony has controlled that market since PS1 days.  What Nintendo did was make gaming a widespread affair again, like it had been up until halfway through PS1 days.  Sony has you convinced that playing games as if they were your job makes you "hardcore".  It does not, it makes you sad and pathetic.  Gaming on video systems was, at one time, like any other hobby; working on models, board games, playing impromptu baseball with the guys.. it was something you do in your leisure time.  There have always been people who take hobbies far too seriously, they have unbalanced lives.  As it should be, these obsessions are looked at askance.

We are the true core of gaming.  Sony simply has a vocal minority convinced that it's normal to forgo a life in favor of a hobby.  So long as Nintendo continues to find fun things for us to do with our friends... REAL friends not just anonymous names on a  contact list, and fun things to do when you can snatch moments of spare time... Nintendo will always be around.  And Nintendo has always (post Atari)been on top.  "Portable" gaming is not a magical different category, it's all video gaming.  The systems that have sold the most have always had Nintendo's name on them, except for the days of Atari.  The Sony PS1 did not outsell the GBA.  The DS outsold the PS2 (and obviously XBox), but I'll be darned if Sony and Microsoft didn't go through contortions to try to play that fact down.  The Gamecube?  Ugh.  They shot themselves in the foot not releasing the model with a fullsize DVD player, if it weren't for their core designers working hard on their other systems, that piece of junk woulda hurt them.

Hobbies are not a lifestyle, they're hobbies.  Just because you're not part of the main herd does not mean you're not brainless, unthinking followers.  Sony (and to a lesser extent, Microsoft) has you herd of black sheep convinced that it's healthy to spend 30+ hours a week hiding from the real world in a hobby.  You are told that it's a badge of pride to be "hardcore" into gaming, despite it providing no advancement, and you swallow it up and line up in the pasture to be fleeced by the next time sink.    You play the same three games over and over, afraid to try something new, afraid to innovate, afraid to be challenged.  When something different comes along, you dismiss it as "casual" like it's a bad thing when adults treat a leisure activity as a leisure activity.  Nintendo will continue to innovate like it has since they first took a chance on this "arcade" media when they were a small card game company in Japan, and everyone else will continue to play catchup.

Also, anyone noticed how sad and pathetic gaming magazines are getting?  "PS3 sold more during this month than the Wii did!" and all the sad and lonely people who treat gaming as a lifestyle rather than a hobby rejoice, even while claiming sales don't matter.  Game Informer's statements were the funniest "If this trend continues, in the next 3 years the PS3 will outsell the Wii!"

So which is it guys?  Do sales not matter or are the HD consoles are inherently superior, which is why the sales are "finally" starting to catch up?  Are Sony and Microsoft showing Nintendo how motion control should be done (three years later) or are they grabbing a "piece of that casual pie"?  Are you the "real" gamers, part of some "silent majority", or are you the minority oppressed by the masses?

28 years ago, my father, Grandfather, and I played Atari 2600.  My father hung with me until SNES days, but darn it the PS1 stopped being a fun social activity.  Sure, there were deep time consuming games in all generations until then, but plenty to do with your whole family.  Not so once Sony got on board.  The PS2?  Forget it.  Litte to do with your friends, much less your family.

Gaming has come full circle again, and I can see my wife, her parents, and our future children playing the Wii 2.  Thank the Sun that gaming has gone back to they way it was always supposed to be... I want to have fun times with my kids... not argue about who gets to use the TV to play the latest RPG or FPS for hours at a time.