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I remember it like it was yesterday. For my 21st birthday, I got a brand new Microsoft Xbox 360. I was pretty hyped, but I did feel a bit like a traitor. For the past two generations I've been a Sony man. I've been one of the millions of Playstation 1 and 2 owners in America, but now I've gone to the other side. I told myself that it's the logical choice. I didn't have $599.99 to blow on a gaming console while working my part time job, paying off a car, dating women, and going to college. Pair that with a crappy 2D spaceship game addiction and I was leaning on full tilt. Six hundred bucks just wasn't in the cards for me at that time. I don't know, I just never shook that dirty feeling I had afterward and I believe it still affects me today.
(picture from four20twister on Photobucket.com, game console case modder)
After a sordid relationship with my Xbox 360 that saw me go through 3 consoles, 6 controllers, a couple of headsets, and 3 Gamertags due to hacking attacks, I called it quits on our relationship of 6 years and I finally moved back to where I felt right. I bought a PS3 Slim, 8 games, a spare controller, HDMI cord, and Pre-Order on a couple games I was pretty excited to play from GameStop after trading in over $800 worth of Xbox games and equipment. For the next few months and into 2012, I felt like a kid again getting a feel for my new console and it was good. My friends list was never longer, my experiences never better, I had an amazing career, and I never got hacked once so far (Fingers Crossed). After turning 27 in March, things felt the same again. I finally got together with the one I felt got away and I felt life was good, until one day I woke up. I woke up in the mountains, without a job, starting my life all over again after being laid off at my previous employer due to their borderline illegal business practices shutting them down. With more "adult" problems keeping me from playing my console, as well as a lack of spare funds, I found myself watching the games industry from the sidelines, browsing websites on my phone in the pass time between interviews.
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(picture from Photobucket by player "posn" on xbox360 achievements.org)
Back when I had money this was never a problem, but now I have to keep asking myself, "How much will this cost me in the long run?" Never before in a console generation did I ever have to ask myself how many accessories, do-dads, add-ons, and passes I needed to make my game completely work. Times have changed, the industry has changed, and the people who used to be fun nerds with a hippy-like quality to their business have turned into cold CEOs answering only to their shareholders. When I buy a Call of Duty, I have to wonder how much I'm going to have to invest down the line to play the complete multiplayer experience with my friends and family. When I buy Street Fighter, I have to wonder how many iterations of the same experience will I have to buy into to get the complete, competitive quality title I was promised to begin with. In my older age, in my new situation, I don't see everything in rose-tinted glasses like I used to. I've become jaded. I've become more critical. I've gone from Andrew Zimmerman to Anthony Bourdain in just a couple of years. Whenever I get a chance to play a round of Modern Warfare online, I get the urge to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" to the kids with [YOLO] clan tags. This is what I have become and this is where I got the idea to tell my story. I may not have an English Degree or any experience in writing, but regardless, I've got a lot to say. I may not be old enough for social security or even retirement, but I already feel leagues away from my Nintendo Entertainment System and EGM issues to say to you kids with your 3D TVs and digital magazines to get off my lawn while I play Final Fantasy 6 offline in peace.
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(picture from gizmowatch.com of something I find quite badass by Ben Heck)
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