I don't dig business. I don't dig big business, and I don't dig small business. I don't enjoy stocks, I'm not really concious of what bonds are, even. Are they money? They're probably money. I don't enjoy business from any standpoint because my opinions and interests aren't situated towards that sort of facet.

However, I do enjoy gaming business. Mergers, bankrupcies, in-game advertising (which I don't necessarily agree with, by the way, more on that later), all of it grabs me and I can't get enough of it. Is this the sign of some sort of video game maturation on my part? Reading reviews and playing the games, perhaps those two passtimes aren't enough for me anymore. I need to feed myself with more information. When I walk into an EB games, I want to know more than the other customers (not a tough accomplishment, generally), I want to know more than the 'sales associates' (depending on the store and the employee, this could be a little tougher), and I want to know more than you. I want to inhale this media form, in every respect. Wish I had a lot of spare time so I could do that. But I don't. Stupid fiscal obligations. If I could get away with not paying rent....or having to buy food...anyway, I'll aleve you of my personal problems (and poor spelling).

This being said, however, I don't necessarily appreciate the fact that games are tying to become big business. Billions of dollars in revenue per annum isn't enough for you guys? Seriously? This is the 'quiet' little industry that grosses far more money than what's realized by those who aren't interessted in the industry. Parents, primarily. The general, non-gaming public (filthy as they are). It seems to me that gaming as an industry is doing just fine. Sure, we've had our piracy scares in the past, but I still purchase my PC games. Can any of us say that we don't empty our wallets into this medium? Please. I don't know how much I spend on video games in a year, but I'd ballpark at least a grand or two, and that doesn't include system purchases. And I assure you, if I had the cash, I'd empty a lot more coins into the coifers of EA, Ubisoft, Square-Enix, and so on. The list varies in size and consistency for all of us, but we all need to fuel this industry just for our own addictions. Look at each other's game collections, for instance. The money's there.

And yet, the community isn't satisfied. They want big-time advertising. Strangle independance. Put all of our lusts on billboards. Hollywood. That's what they want. If you read it, if you look at it closely, you can easily see it. The CEOs and publishers (at least the powerful ones) want Hollywood. I don't want Hollywood. Neither do you. Trust me. Can you imagine it? It would be cool at first. Game ads as frequent as movie trailers on TV. Master Chief plastered to the side of buses. Link is Time's 'Man of the Year' (sure he's fictional, but he still deserves it more than Bush). I can see it. It would be cool. But only for a while. I find myself smothered by the movie industry these days, and I've grown weary of it as a result. Money can taint things you apprciate. And it will happen with gaming in time. Look at the direction they're going in now. Notice the shift in focus? E3 is dead. Read it again. E3 is dead. The definitive expo for the games we love. The stuff we dream about playing. A first-hand look at things that the public has never seen before. And there you are. I always hoped (and fantasized, I'll admit) that I would be in attendance for an E3 show at least once. Now it will never happen. And that special event-that colleseum, that orgy-is gone. Now, this is where it gets dangerous: Who's been cut from the picture? The public. Why did it happen? It all cost too much money. It got too big. Too saturated. Booths and babes and lights and plasma screens. Anarchy set to motion. Everyone had to out-do everyone else, and in time the real reason the event occured in the first place was forgotten. It was shrouded, and now it has been extinguished entirely. Keep going with me here. Who gets to go next year? To the new, bastardized, re-named version? Media. And? ...and? Investors. Publishers and investors and dudes in business-casual outfits debating how to best market their new products. Guys who don't play games in the same way that we do. Guys who possibly don't play games at all. And no, I'm not referring to the developers and the media guys, obviously they obsess about this stuff more than we do. But we've been cut. You've been cut. I think that's something that you should really think about.

So, E3 now lives only in a collective memory. These days they're holding the M16 conference, which is geared solely towards marketability in games. Now, don't get me wrong. I think that this is important, but it's still unsettling. I implorey ou to read up on it, if you're not familiar with it. I'd give you a link, but I'm kinda tired right now.

As for my take on in-game advertising. Well, i enjoy it for the level of realism. I understand that in Yakuza (which I haven't played yet) you can order drinks in bars all over town, and purchase actual brands of liquor. It's a cool level of depth, sure. But necessary? I'd call that into question. Depth is cool, but I still get nervous when I stalk by Powerade machines while I'm playing my first-person shooters. Maybe you should be, too.