By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

I have a very on-again/off-again relationship with video games. I did buy a PS One, back in 2004, for $49...of course the PS2 was the hot console at the time. And I did buy exactly one game for it, which was some game about Pooh Bear...and it was quite fun.

Before that I had bought a Sega Saturn for $49 a couple years earlier, and had played whatever pack in game that came with it.

Before that I had bought an Atari 7800 for $49, and I had "Hat Trick"...it was a really fun hockey game.

When I really think about it, my tolerance for buying hardware was about $50.

Back in the day, my Dad, who would buy the latest technology, spent $299 on an Atari VCS, back in the late 70's...and we must have boought 10 to 20 cartridges over the 8 years or so that we continued to play the same console.

So the last time I was more than a casual gamers, was back in the 1977-1985 time frame...when I was a young child.

So, anyway...I'm in that demographic of casual gamer, I guess, and I bought a Wii.

Why I would never even consider an Xbox 360: It's Microsoft. They are a monopoly, they do produce mediocre-ware, and they won't escape that criticism with me, I use their office bloatware everyday, and wish that I didn't.
Part of the video game experience is fanboyism, always was... there is zero reason to be a fan boy of a bloatware, office blech monopolist.

Why I considered a PS3, but ulitmately passed: It's a blu-ray player. I like movies and I have a hi-def TV. But, its also an ugly looking big box player, and it costs $399. Pass.

I don't care about all these wonderful games that are exclusive to PS3 and Xbox 360...because the games require a college degree in 'game-ology' to play..and they are decidedly not fun. They are as boring as boring can be.

What is fun...I like DDR revolution, I like Wii Sports. I'll consider any game that you can pick up and play and have some fun with. I'm not learning the game...period. If there is a cost to the game in terms of learning it first, before you have fun with it....then the game goes in the case, and will never be played, not ever.

I program video games. Nothing special, I am in the homebrew scene, I did a port of Frog Feast to colecovision...some of my own games too. Which is just to say, its not laziness, its not lack of intelligence.... its just about a desire to have a game, be fun, to lighten the day, not to complicate it.


Wii does that fairly well. Xbox 360 and PS3, do not. I've given the games a spin at the local wal-mart.....boring.

I find it interesting because I do program for colecovision, that my son, who is a hard core gamer, cannot play colecovision even for more than a few seconds.

It's a frustrating experience for him, and he hates it. Why.... because in the old style, you had a few lives, and if you made any mistake, you died.

Take Donkey Kong. You hit a barrel, you die. When you die, you start the level over. If you die 3 times, you start the game over.

In a modern game, you can play very sloppily. You play sloppy your health points deplete more rapidly and someone who plays less sloppy. The better players last a little longer, the worse players less long....but thats it...everyone gets to play for a while, and there isn't such a huge difference between good player and bad player in single player mode, anyway.

But, in the old days, one mistake, and you die, period....young gamers aren't enthralled with that idea, thats for sure. Now, multi-player, certainly brings some of that back...if you aren't a good player, expect to die within seconds on your typical online multiplayer.

End of ramble...to me, the Wii is easily explained. If you don't get it, you are probably 12 - 18 year old boy. You are in the xbox 360 demographic, and you aren't expected to get it.