Let’s face it…the modern gaming landscape is as polarized as…well, the poles…and as conflicted as the world during the great wars. To be clear, I’m not attempting to trivialize the sacrifice and valor of a far greater generation, but simply trying to draw parallels for literary purposes.
You see history is an amnesiac Ouroboros, gladly feasting upon its own events and goings on then periodically spitting them out once more for its captive audience (us) to live/re-live, hence it is doomed to repeat itself. So how does modern interactive entertainment come into all this?
Well for starters, we the millennial generation lack a central conflict, a binding force/cause behind which we rally and identify with as our predecessors did with World Wars I & II, Vietnam, Desert storm or the liberation wars in Africa (can’t forget home). This meant that around the time corporations started vying for our attentions, this instinct pulled us into a far less meaningful engagement, but equally as divisive.
The early days were simple, the uncomplicated virtue of the arcade vs. the bragging rights and novelty of the home computer/console. Now those old mammoths could barely handle your parents’ word processors and spreadsheets and do gaming at the same time, but it was new and exciting, it was the future! Programming was also a new frontier, meaning for those lucky enough to have the likes of the ZX spectrum for a steed, you could make their own software. But by and large the arcade was where it was at. Where geek and athlete mingled as a wildebeest and lion would at a watering hole, peacefully, and with a common goal. World peace and High score became one and the same as you conquered aliens, large-barrel toting apes and friends one coin at a time, every penny of your allowance spent in this most venerable cause.
Soon however, the dust cleared on the golden age of this favored past time, dulled by the sudden crash of the industry some years before, and by the push for computing in the home arena. Thus, the console wars were born. For a time, Sega and Nintendo traded blows like tots in a sand box fighting over a toy, and boy were those good times. Genesis, Gameboy, Mega-drive, SNES! I daren’t think of it lest I go comatose with nostalgia. Then the big boys of entertainment took notice and here is where the war comparisons kick in.
You see Sony like Russia, took notice of a bickering middle territory in Sega/Nintendo (Central Europe). They intervened with the PlayStation, taking the world by storm, before being joined on the battlefield a short time later by the X-box. For a time they had dominion, establishing consoles as the preferred platform for home entertainment to this day. What is neglected however, is though PC (Germany) has lost favor in the meantime, it is STILL the most powerful and versatile of the bunch (World Cup much?).
This is a tricky point of view, especially with each faction ascribing to the “Master Race” theorem (look it up) in which their favoured platform is king. No arguments here, we like what we like, though full disclosure...PC TILL I DIE!!! That said, I’m a fan first, fanatic never, whatever floats your XP man…have at it.
Until you read again,
Yours verbosely,
-C.K…
You see history is an amnesiac Ouroboros, gladly feasting upon its own events and goings on then periodically spitting them out once more for its captive audience (us) to live/re-live, hence it is doomed to repeat itself. So how does modern interactive entertainment come into all this?
Well for starters, we the millennial generation lack a central conflict, a binding force/cause behind which we rally and identify with as our predecessors did with World Wars I & II, Vietnam, Desert storm or the liberation wars in Africa (can’t forget home). This meant that around the time corporations started vying for our attentions, this instinct pulled us into a far less meaningful engagement, but equally as divisive.
The early days were simple, the uncomplicated virtue of the arcade vs. the bragging rights and novelty of the home computer/console. Now those old mammoths could barely handle your parents’ word processors and spreadsheets and do gaming at the same time, but it was new and exciting, it was the future! Programming was also a new frontier, meaning for those lucky enough to have the likes of the ZX spectrum for a steed, you could make their own software. But by and large the arcade was where it was at. Where geek and athlete mingled as a wildebeest and lion would at a watering hole, peacefully, and with a common goal. World peace and High score became one and the same as you conquered aliens, large-barrel toting apes and friends one coin at a time, every penny of your allowance spent in this most venerable cause.
Soon however, the dust cleared on the golden age of this favored past time, dulled by the sudden crash of the industry some years before, and by the push for computing in the home arena. Thus, the console wars were born. For a time, Sega and Nintendo traded blows like tots in a sand box fighting over a toy, and boy were those good times. Genesis, Gameboy, Mega-drive, SNES! I daren’t think of it lest I go comatose with nostalgia. Then the big boys of entertainment took notice and here is where the war comparisons kick in.
You see Sony like Russia, took notice of a bickering middle territory in Sega/Nintendo (Central Europe). They intervened with the PlayStation, taking the world by storm, before being joined on the battlefield a short time later by the X-box. For a time they had dominion, establishing consoles as the preferred platform for home entertainment to this day. What is neglected however, is though PC (Germany) has lost favor in the meantime, it is STILL the most powerful and versatile of the bunch (World Cup much?).
This is a tricky point of view, especially with each faction ascribing to the “Master Race” theorem (look it up) in which their favoured platform is king. No arguments here, we like what we like, though full disclosure...PC TILL I DIE!!! That said, I’m a fan first, fanatic never, whatever floats your XP man…have at it.
Until you read again,
Yours verbosely,
-C.K…