This might be a bit harder for people who didn´t start gaming in the 8 and/or 16-bit generations, but anyway...

Imagine this...you played the NES, the SNES, the Genesis, the whole Nintendo vs Sega thing, no fanboy wars on the interwebz back then, etc...then, you´re frozen in 1994 and thawed this year, in 2009...you never got to see and experience for yourself how gaming and this industry evolved in these 15 years, you just suddenly see these strange times, you are surprised (and most likely sad) to learn Sega is no more as a hardware maker, that MS is now in this industry, there´s no more Gameboy, etc....

Can you imagine how you´d feel knowing all this all of a sudden?

More important...how would you feel about gaming and the industry as a whole?

I'd be happy that games look better and have more content, and I started with the original Atari. Really doesn't matter who is making the games and consoles.

Apparently Nintendo never was dethroned as the king of the industry.

"Holy shit Mario's face looks so real!"

Looking at how Microsoft opened up Online Gaming, no I wouldn't be sad.

I would be sad that I can't get Mario, Zelda and Main Final Fantasy games and the big fighter games on the same console anymore.

Is this thread inspired by the new Malstrom article?

Id be sad and confussed and absoletely AMAZED at what consoles can do at this time AND how small and powerful the handhelds are getting.

I would be extremely sad that this generation of gaming, games are what matter the less. Now it's all about who's got the biggest amount of graphical mumbo jumbo in their games, who can do 1 fps more than the other, who can make the most nanosecondal perfect motion sensor, who has a 0.1 better score on some random internet web page....the list goes on.

There have been a lot of good things in this generation, and bringing more and more gamers into this medium has been a great plus, but I feel if things go on like this, we will reach a day were people will stop talking to one another just because they don't share their same views of gaming. It's kinda like a xenophobic (in gaming terms) feeling that it's starting to boil and it will reach a rupture point. Hopefully people will realize that those attitudes are just a bunch of c***, and that what really matters are the games and the enjoyment they bring us.

If I could go back 10 years and bring my PSP 3000 with me, I would be a very rich man, and the ipod would have never released.