Video games: the vice of our generation. Subsequently, technology: the ultimate moneymaker. New systems are released every year, sometimes more than once a year, as competing companies must constantly put out the latest, top-of-the-line, cutting edge interactive entertainment.
If money had been a concern regarding careers, I should have become a video game/system designer.
Don’t get me wrong, I can get down on a little mindless button-pushing action every now and then. I don’t devote hours out of every day to playing them (as some people I know do).
However, I’m more of an old-fashioned gal, a vintage video game player if you will — no new-fangled Wii or PS3 for me, thank you; I’ll stick to my good-old Xbox, Sega Game Gear and 8-bit Nintendo.
Speaking of which, what genius at the Nintendo Corp. came up with the name for its latest technological foray? It sounds like the noise a kid makes going down a playground slide. Wheeeeee!
I was an Atari kid myself, but since that particular system was before many students at OSU were born, I’ll save you the confused head-scratching. (Pong, Donkey Kong, Combat, Dig-Dug, Pitfall and Pac-Man? Heck yeah!)
I absolutely cannot get into the ones centered on a complicated backstory. You know, the games that require one to sit though a 10-minute-long narrative before being able to play the actual game.
Thanks, but no thanks. If I want to read or be visually entertained, I’ll pick up a book or turn on a movie. I’m also no guitar hero or rock band star. My hand-eye coordination isn’t THAT good.
At the risk of inciting a sexist label, I’m a girl; I frequently exercise the practice of pushing random buttons and hoping they do something helpful. I don’t know any secret codes or special moves. If I push a combination of buttons and it makes my fighter throw a fireball or execute a fatality, naturally I act like I meant to do it - but I rarely actually do mean to. It does, however, happen purposely on occasion.
My favorite types are the good old racing ones and bloody, kick-the-crud-out-of-your-opponent fighting a la Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Killer Instinct. The NCAA football game that comes out annually is my absolute favorite, though. Not so much since the OSU team on the game did away with my game-winning Hail Mary play, but I still have every copy since the 2005 version on Xbox format.
The 2009 version was released Tuesday. Much to my chagrin, needless to say, I can’t get it. It’s not a question of money; I have my 50 bucks ready to spend. Apparently Xbox games aren’t being made anymore.
Ergo, in order to keep up with my NCAA collection, I will have to do the unthinkable.
I have to break down and buy an Xbox 360.
That’s OK.
My vintage, antique Xbox will be obsolete but worth lots of money in a few years, when video game companies have figured out how to physically put people into the games they play.
Until then, Mario Kart, anyone?
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