hhhmmmm, I would do what i did when the dreamcast died, i would buy a 2nd hand sony console and every game i got for my 2nd hand sony console would be 2nd hand too (Line sonys pockets directly? NEVER)

I'll always buy Nintendo machines due to the sheer amount of respect i have for them due to thier immense contribution to the gaming world

So in conclusion i would be a supporter of Nintendo but would own both consoles (Nintendo's one i would pay for full price with cold hard cash, Sonys one 2nd hand with traded games and dvd's)

If by default Sony's equivalently powered PS3 had received the Xbox 360's enormous library of AAA and high-quality games, Sony.

Probably PS3. The 360 has more varied library but as others have mentioned the games would probably have appeared on the PS3 instead.

i have no system allegiance, my allegiance is to video games... the system i might play them on is irrelevant

Back to PC or PS3 in 2-3 years ...

While Nintendo have made immense contribution to the gaming community, they have also stifled it for almost a decade due to the total domination of the NES and Nintendo's bully tactic when it comes to software development in those wild west days. If not for Sega forcing Nintendo's hand one must wonder how much longer people would have been stuck with their 8 bit NES.

Acknowledge Nintendo as a pillar of the gaming institution, but always encourage competition.

If there is no M$ or Xbox, then there would have been a small chance that Sega and the Dreamcast might still be alive. I would most likely be an advocate of its successor as I've enjoyed Sega's console since the 8 bit days. They've had their share of screwups but their games always had more appeal to me than Nintendo's first party contributions

I like all 3, but I guess the PS3 would fill the 360's void. They're pretty similar.

Bolded part: It would help if you understood (or expressed it) the context of what your talking about, In that time developers were jumping to PC builds and console gaming was all but dead in the US, those same bully tactics didn't become negative until the SNES era to which both Sega and Nintendo practiced it - the age of exclusivity. Even then many of the gamers who were around for those times would argue to the grave that the content of the games back then surpassed games today in accomplishing a singular goal; being a game. But that's pretty subjective anyway however even developers under such "bully tactics" have stated that the competition within platforms (As well as technological limitations) forced them to do their best work. (Chrono Trigger interview)

So though your reffrencing in that comment in whole is true from the context of those times in relation to the point your making is exposes it as slander.

i'd have gotten a ps3...

I would probably be playing Mario Kart on a Wii.