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Friday, September 29, 2006
Wii, the people of Nintendo.... Not unlike the war on drugs or crime, the video game-system battle for supremacy rages on, and Nintendo reveals it's latest weapon here . With the most up-to-date interactive features yet, it just may be the victor this year. That is, until....someone else comes up with something new....again. It's not much of a stretch to assume that someday, when my kid is in her teens, that these games will literally rival Real Life in terms of virtual interactivity. This is what scares me the most. Especially when you have such ubiquitous themes as sex and violence in modern-day games. In this latest system, there's actually a feature where you use true physical motion to simulate swinging or throwing action. Ummmm....call me silly, but why not throw a real ball, or swing a real fishing rod instead? If your arm is gonna get just as tired, wouldn't you prefer the latter, cheaper version anyway?? No facet of technology sees such dramatic increases or so often as in the video game world. I'm all about the progression of technology, but can't we use the talents of these designers and programmers for things a little more important in the world? What about the medical field? How about the mass production of healthy foods? Or....maybe findind an alternative to the 100-year old gas-powered, combustable engine?? Don't get me wrong, I'm probably the biggest kid at heart that you'll ever meet. (I'm a vintage toy collector.) I grew up with video games just as most others did at my age. Yet, I grew up in a time where video games were there as a recreational, get-away to real life. They weren't a life in and of themselves, nor were they ever meant to replace the effects of real-life interactivity. They were there for rainy days, or for when your school-mates were on vacation. We played until our thumbs hurt, or our parents yelled at us to get out of the house. Then, we went outside and played for the rest of the day/night. Simple. Just like the games and the systems themselves. Sinlge-bit technology brought me a thousand times more pleasure than 10,000,000-bit techonology of games today. Of course, I wasn't looking for a virtual outlet to rape young women or to car-jack autos from citizens. Shooting aliens and dodging shopping with one joystick and one button carts was good enough for me. Not to mention that from an invenstment standpoint, I learned that always having to have the latest and greatest in video game systems is just not a good move. You'll pay hundreds of dollars for something now, only so that it can be obsoltete in less than 2 years, when the same people rush out and buy the next big thing. Thus, flooding the second-hand market with these now, unwanted game systems for a fraction of the original sale price. People would be better off spending that $300 on a vintage "Star Wars" toy because it will still be worth, at least, the same amount of money 2 years from now. However, as much as I know parents of younger kids are scrambling to pay thousands for the latest Elmo, the older "kids" are making the same investment mistake with this game system. Meanwhile, the execs are laughing all the way to the bank, while our obese and attention deficit disorder-striken children continue to travel through real life with a virtual pair of glasses on. Sorry, guys.....but I think I'll pass on this one. Just as I have with the other uberillion video game systems that have flooded the market since 1985. Bring back the Atari 2600, and then we'll talk. :) Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by -W. Anthony Foust- at 3:39 PM |
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1 Comments:
Wow.
Not all of us are escapist obese low-self-esteem rapers and car-jackers, thank you very much. Sure, I play games. But either it has to be a social setting like a Halo 2 party,(Yes, those can be intelligent. You would be surprised how much strategy is in a simple FPS, if you play it right.) or, if I play by myself, has to be a very thought provoking or storyline driven game (I.E Zelda, Final Fantasy, The Elder Scrolls). Regrettable though it is that some choose to waste their time playing games where the only point is criminal activity, please do not lump us all in that group.
As for the playing outside stuff: All things in moderation. As long as they don't take over your life, a love of video games isn't going to hurt you any more than the love of T.V shows or movies.
Of course console prices are going to go down over time. I notice you have a blog: I would like to point out that computers of all kinds do the same. Would you decide not to own a computer just because its not prudent from an investment standpoint? No, because when you buy a computer, what you are really buying is a gateway to content, to an experience. Consoles are the same. You pay more to have the technology sooner. If you want to wait and play less, that is your decision.
Video games are horribly misunderstood. Yes, there are many that are senseless examples of all violence or crime and no thought. But try a Zelda game, or Final Fantasy, and perhaps you will come to realize that there is legitimate material within the scope of this medium.
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