Say “No” to Console Wars
“All this has happened before, and will happen again.” Battlestar Galactica.
Many years ago a battle raged between two giants in the Gaming World. It was a time of Princesses, Demons, honourable Jump Men and nature defying Hedgehogs. While what played out in the video world was innocent fun, it was human nature for things in the real world to turn nasty.
Official Magazines would proudly print images sent in by patrons of it’s company’s mascot slaughtering the other’s. No one batted an eyelid. Dissing the competition was a process that played out in monthly publications.
Then the landscape altered, kings were beheaded and new challengers entered the fray along with a revolutionary change to the industry. The interwebisphere was born. Now advocates for their chosen platform could put down their opponents almost instantly in an endless sea of petty insults. Thank you lords of the internet, that’s super.
I’ve been playing games for many many years, I remember my first console was a Game Boy, my second a SNES, by all intents I was raised a Nintendion and as the fable told I was destined to slay dinosaurs and explore dungeons forever.
But it wasn’t to be, sure I feel the same emotion when someone says something bad about my console or a game I like. That familiar sinking in the pit of my stomach, complimented with a lump in the throat. That’s anger. And anger is a natural reaction when someone puts down something that you’ve put a lot of time into.
I bought myself a PlayStation with my life savings (seriously, the only money I’ve ever saved!), it came second hand with Ridge Racer, Tekken and plenty more, but I can’t remember any of them. This was before any of the real classics came out, Tomb Raider or Final Fantasy VII.
Unlike the Nintendo consoles bought for me by loving parents for Christmas happiness, with my own money I had made a choice.
Whereas before I would defend my console because I would have nothing else till the following Christmas, now I would defend it because it’s what I chose and surely what I chose was the best.
The choice was to be repeated with the PS2, “Metal Gear?”
Having purchased the PS2 with disposable income I felt I had grown out of the Console War, the clouds would part and everyone would participate in a mutually beneficial discussion on the direction of gaming. It was not to be, the endless sprawl of gaming forums meant one thing, the Console War had gone Cyber.
I grew bored of gaming before God of War came out. But I was sucked back in by DS, “wow, Brain Training will make me smarter!” Then I watched a friend playing Twilight Princess on Wii, and I got me one of those too.
I needed something new, something fresh, not same old same old. The Wii seemed to fit that bill.
Then I bought a PS3, “Metal Gear! This is our final mission! I mean it! Final Mission!”
Again the discourse I read online is to put down opposing consoles.
It seems that no matter how someone attains their console, there will always be the need to berate the opposing faction. It is in human nature to defend our choices. But it should be more in our nature to improve our choices in the future.
We should be taking advantage of the variety all these platforms offer us and not settling for the limitations of one console because we are too proud to admit the others merits.
Say “No” to Console Wars.
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First off,
Tony, Welcome to GamingVice.Net!
Great article. I 100% agree. In the end we are the winners. We are the gamers! Be happy for the games we get! Have fun, they are games!
Console Wars just brings down gaming as if gaming is a election for the best.
nice article, but this is like wishing for a perfect world. sadly this aint a utopia just how life is.
@Dong
I disagree…saying “that’s how life is” is just accepting something that has a backward mindset…
there are console wars because Sony and Microsoft want there to be a console war….they want people bickering and arguing back and forth so it stirs things up and causes people to go out and buy the game…
whatever happened to marketing a game at it’s strengths and working the angle that way instead of using psychological tactics to get people to shell out their hard earned money?
‘Console wars’ is a good thing. It’s all healthy competition that means Sony and Microsoft need to bring out better and better games and machines to beat the other. Look at the great line ups on PS3 and 360, and the capabilites of each system. Each has to court great 3rd party titles, and make good first party efforts.
Then look at Wii, who is not really a competitor to either of the HD consoles, and has its own casual market, in which there is no real solid competition. Sure the Wii has sold heaps of consoles, but there are only 5 good games on it, and the rest SUCK.
That gaming utopia people talk about is like communism- a license to be lacklustre. When there is no reward, no competition to create the best game or console to steal customers from rivals, then all you get is shovelware like on the Wii.
I say the more competitors there are, the better. The more consoles warring there is, the gamers- the consumers- are rewarded with great software and hardware.
Thanks for the comments.
I just want to clarify that I’m not asking for a perfect world where there’s only one console.
I’m saying that we could tone it down. There’s only one winner in a war. But in a discussion, ideas flourish.
A very interesting read…
Exchanging console banter has always been part of the culture of video gaming. Back in the day this used to be fun and was generally harmless. ”Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home.” to quote a dull French football manager. As the poster laments, times have changed. I would expect the average age of the perpetrators to have increased in line with the industry maturing. Everyone is an expert on everything and can back up or form opinions based on what they read on Wikipedia. Kids scrawling pictures of Sonic punching Mario in the gut and posting (!) them in to Mean Machines Sega is worlds away from the straight-faced seriousness of today. This does detract from the simple pleasures of gaming and that fondness with which I look back at the 8 and 16 bit eras can’t be applied to now. Nor does it have any right to be. Nostalgia does not bring progress. That said we might see just one more generation of consoles before streaming content over ever faster internet connections becomes the gaming delivery platform of choice. The hardware will no longer belong or matter to the end user. So better get those insults primed and ready ‘cos soon they’ll be redundant. PS4 sucks… Xbox 720 roolz… SuperWii only has 4 good games etc etc
I would like to nominate J’s comment as dumbest of the day. The console war helps no one. All it does is keep gamers from coming together about gaming. That’s not good. His comments about communism make no sense, and obviously, the Wii has many great games. He is a hater. Haters can’t be reasoned with.
That being said, I totally agree with the author of this article. Console wars are ridiculous. They only keep us down. I own and play all 3 home consoles. I enjoy them all. If you come on this site and speak about a game and enjoy it, I’ll listen and be glad for you, and if you say something that interests me, I’ll probably take another look at the game. If you say something I disagree with, I may debate you, but whatever the outcome, I hope to have more information on the subject as well as an understanding of an opposing viewpoint. This is the type of discourse we have with TV, movies, and authors, and thats what we should have with Video Games. THe medium has matured passed the point of 12 year old playground battles. Unfortunately, the internet allows those of all ages, and mindsets equal time. So we just need to ignore the 12 year old flame wars and continue with our mature discussions. Again, great article and thanks!