| Goodnightmoon said: why is this important at all? |
The same reason all categorizations are important; they help us have a shorthand when talking about things. If there is no consensus on that short hand, it creates an issue of affective communication.
If I say that, for example, that I hate Japanese games because they all have boring combat, you might be confused because of how varied combat can be in many different Japanese games and how "boring" the combat in some western games can be compared to Japanese games. If I then clarified that I don't like turn-based games, even if you don't agree, we at least have an agreed upon understanding for what I'm saying, what I'm including, and when I'm excluding.
This discussion of generations is important because we're stumbling upon a situation where some videogame consoles fit under a categorization where others eventually never will. It makes talking about game and timing in the same way difficult, if not impossible.
