"Gaming would be better off without the Wii, cause then companies would focus more on real gamers."

When a good friend of mine uttered these words, i could only laugh at how serious he was when he said it. He's a cool guy, for sure, but a die hard Sony fanboy. If he had the ability, and stones, to burn the entire comapany that is Nintendo to the ground, i'd bet both of my thumbs he would, and do so without so much as a second thought.

I teased him a little for having said an idiotic statement like the one that had just exited his lips, and said my goodbye for the day. It wasnt untill days later that his words really began to sink in. For the past few years, I have had a decent job, and have amassed a small library of incredible games. I remember, as a project dwelling kid, when this was not the case. For the greater share of my life, my love for gaming had been hampered by my lack of the green stuff. Never having more than a small handfull of games (mostly borrowed, or never returned to the video store), and not buying my first un-used system untill 3 years after the PS2 had dropped.

"Gaming would be better off without the wii....", I began to think of how i'd handle todays gaming situation if i was still that frustratingly money starved kid.

When the PS2 was released, i had no idea how i was gonna come upwith the 300$, when i couldn't even afford the few 50$ PSX games i still wanted. Even then, though, gaming was still accessible to the greater masses. You could buy a PS2, or an XBOX, and hook them up to your K-mart blue light special TV without any issue. It seems that this generation of consoles, though, is working to make games as technologically advanced as possible at the expense of the average gamer.Sony and Microsoft had to have realized this, otherwise they would not have released the substandard, stripped down versions of their respective systems (both of which ended being sales duds, as even the poorest of gamers realized how useless these versions were).

The biggest advertising points for these lovely new systems was the shiny, high def graphics. Fantastic..... if you happen to own the uber expensive TVs capable of directing the consoles glorious graphics into your smiling face. Most of the people on my friend lists do not, though i have a cheap one(800$) that gets the job done.

Maybe you still have a dial-up connection, as i had for so long. Sure, spend a few hours downloading a demo, but no Gears or Resistance for your multiplayer enjoyment. Even many DSL services are a bit too sluggish to handle online gaming well.

Graphics, processing power, multi-friggin-media? This is how Sony justifies the doubling of its console price over last gen's, with Microsoft claiming the same in addition to the microtransaction/ media money grab that is XBL for its high price point. Many of these pricey additions have nothing to do with gaming itself. I can imagine what it would be like to be denied gaming because these companies want their hardware to be the hub of your living room. Does Microsoft or Sony realize that people buy these console to game, and no amount of attention grabbing extras is gonna change that? There isnt a kid alive, living where i grew up, who could convince their parents to spend 600$ on a gaming console because it could fold protein, and hold all their favorite MP3s.

".. then companies would focus more on real gamers." When did we, as gamers, develop this ridiculous feeling of entitlement; this elitist mindset? Who was it that threw sand in our eyes, blinding us to how we used to view games, and fooling us into believing that being a "hardcore" gamer meant anything other than you weren't going to buy a game unless it was built to suit your specific needs? Are we really that afraid that gaming, as a whole, will forget about us when it starts courting someone else?

So many of us have the means to spend thousands on gaming, and raise our noses at anyone who doesn't.This is why Im thankful for the Wii, DS, and PSP. These syestems are bringing affordable gaming back to the masses, and making sure that fun games can be played by anyone who wants to play them, rather then only those who can afford to. Hopefully, in time, these "hardcore" gamers and console makers will realize that gaming needs to be open for everyone to enjoy. Am i saying that gaming should not progress? No. I just hope that console makers don't forget who made them what they are, and that was usually that underprivileged kid who had nothing to look forward to, other than buying that one game he had been saving for for so long.