My friend just went to and got an Xbox 360. But here's the kicker. He wanted a REFURBISHED Premium, not Pro, but Premium. You know, the ones that break so much. And it was understandable, because it was $200 (obviously for a reason). Now, the reason he gave for wanting this is because he had been playing COD4 so much on another friend's 360 that he wanted one himself. Me, being myself, said "Why don't you get a PS3?" to which he responded, no, exclamated "THE PS3 DOESN'T EVEN HAVE COD4!". First WOW.
Of course I told him that it did have it, but he didn't care. So then, looking out for him, I said, "If you're going to get a 360, at least get a new one, cause those first generation ones (especially a frist gen refurb) break down" He didn't believe me.....so I called ANOTHER friend who works at Gamestop (He trusts EJ more about video games than myself, even though I know about price cuts, release dates, and even GS conference calls before EJ does). We both told him that it will probably break on him. He then says "Well, these things are like computers, so I'll just take a look inside and fix it if it breaks on me" Second WOW. EJ then said "No, when those things breaks, stuff melts together, so there's no fixing it.....so you'll have to get a warranty, and with all that extra spending, you'll end up with the price of a new Pro". But regardless, we ended up going to Fry's, and he got one.
While at Fry's, he looked around for a while, but eventually picked up the 360, and went to the checkout. I asked him, for the last time, why he he wouldn't get a PS3 if A.) You're only going to play COD4, B.) Free online (he's cheap), and C.) You're not even going to be playing for a paid service most of the school year. To which he says "Man, I don't trust Sony. They're a ripoff. They made Betamax". Third WOW, and a big one at that. He said that Sony was a ripoff because of Betamax (like Blu-ray didn't fail or something), and he also said that the Walkman was a failure, BUT at this very moment he's borrowing my PS2 (so much for a company being a ripoff).
The last WOW is bigger than the previous one. This one takes the cake. He said that the 360 had the most marketshare and that Nintendo wasn't producing anymore Wii's (simply because he couldn't find one). He's like "You haven't seen a Wii in the last 6 months, Nintendo isn't making anymore" and I told him that that was simply because they're in high demand, and as soon as they hit retail shelves, they sell out. He didn't believe, but then the guy that worked at the register was like "Uhhh.....we get them every Tuesday".
Some other smaller WOWs include:
He thought that the 360 had an internal 2.5" HDD (no....you have to buy a proprietary HDD that's external)
When I told him about the fail rate, he said that it was typical of consoles (even though my PS2 which he is borrowing is 7 years old)
When he was told about the RROD of the older models, he brushed it off, and then when I told him about the disc eating tray, he brushed that off too
So, this brings up question from myself. I guess he is what is described as a "casual gamer". He doesn't play them very often, he only plans on playing one game per system (COD4 on his new...err...used 360, and GH3 on my PS2), and he thinks games are too expensive right now. THe question I have is, are "casuals" typically this ignorant when it comes to the video game market, in the past AND as it stands today?
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