Maybe once again this is a sign I'm getting old, but remember the console war of the 90s?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7nsBoqJ6s8

I looked back at the SNES/Genesis back and forth and talking with friends from that gen. What were the arguments regarding those consoles in which was bette?.

Well the obvious one was Sonic vs. Mario. Sonic's game had a hip, edginess to them, where Mario was easy going and candy colored but at the same time Sonic's games were shorter and Super Mario World was a massive adventure full of secrets.

The SNES Mortal Kombat looked and sounded better but the Genesis version had all the bloody, gory finishing moves that hyper 12 year olds love and parents were outraged over.

The Genesis was better for sports games where the SNES had better RPGs (sadly in a time before JRPGs were mainstream).

Most interesting, these arguments all revolved around GAMES as opposed to now where we're bickering over which console runs the same generic shooter in 1080p so we can see the arm hair better. Or worse arguing over non gaming bells and whistles, that, let's face it, we're not going to bother with after the first couple weeks or so.

I think a lot of this comes from the sheer fact that consoles are no longer made by game makers rather the gaming divisions of giant multinational corporations and with Microsoft, they don't even have a sole gaming division anymore, rather the video games got lumped into their "entertainment" division but that was pretty obvious when the Xbox One reveal focused more on watching TV than playing games.

That's the saddest thing I noticed in this "console war" across the forums. No one has mentioned one thing about what games are worth playing rather it's 60fps this and 1080p that. See when I buy a console I really don't give a rat's ass about all the technical beeps and boops that nerds seem to lose their mind over.

Graphics: good graphical power means nothing if the game plays like crap. See Lair, Too Human, etc. And most regular folks don't see the huge graphic jump like we did when we went from PS1 to PS2. If you have to point out little details like shadows, then it's not that big a jump.

Online play: Now this does matter to a lot of folks, however I'm not one of them. The reason we got rid of our 360 was not only because it died on us three times but we rarely played online enough to justify paying $60 a year for that privilege plus a lot of the games I liked to play online either didn't have it or as was the case, if you didn't have a ton of friends, you were stuck playing with the garbage and filth that made up a lot of random online communities. Also I hated seeing games ditch local multiplayer assuming no one had human friends that came over to visit. It sucks that I couldn't play a co-op mode with my husband for Spec Ops: The Line.

Video streaming and sharing. Ok, how self absorbed and insecure are you that you need to post everything you do to Youtube and Facebook? I already roll my eyes at people who feel the need to post their food and every aspect of their life on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Let me give you a crushing reality check: You're not as important as you think you are. The people actually making a difference in the world and doing worthwhile things aren't Tweeting it every five minutes. GS has that Raptr thing that shows off users's achievements and trophies. Does anyone here bother looking at that? Didn't think so.

Watching TV/Movies: I will agree that a lot of console owners did use Netflix and maybe MS mistook that as "people want to watch TV on their game console!" But honestly does anyone plan to use those Smart TV features that MS keeps pushing? Look you can play Madden, while watching the NFL and uploading your Fantasy Football stats. And we wonder why we have ADD. Some of us probably used the PS3 for Blu Ray movies but I don't know of a single person who bought it solely because of that.

See this is how I buy console. I don't buy it on "future potential." I know folks who bought PS3's at launch on Ebay for $800 then had a fit when they found out stuff like Devil May Cry 4 and Final Fantasy XIII weren't exclusive. That's stupid. Hell I remember when my husband got a 360 and I was looking forward to see what great stuff Rare would make....talk about disappointment. Basically once it gets a few games I want to play, then it's worth the purchase for me. As much as I love my Nintendo franchises, I didn't get a 3DS until it got Super Mario 3D Land, Kid Icarus Uprising and Mario Kart 7 and now I get a fairly steady stream of games on it I like. Same with the WiiU. I didn't get it at launch because aside from NSMBU, there wasn't a ton I was interested in but now when I do get one I'll have Super Mario 3D World, Wind Waker HD, Earthbound (eshop), Sonic Lost World, Rayman Legends (I could get it for my PS3 but I'd rather play it on what it was originally intended for) and those will keep me busy until 2014 when we get new MK and Smash Bros. As a bonus I can still play my old Wii games like Mario Galaxy, DKCR, Sonic Colors, Rayman Origins and some ones I like to revisit.

I buy a video game console to play games. Not to watch DVDs, or TV or surf the web or post videos. I think Yahtzee made the point in a video he did about the next gen. "This is our console. It plays these games." "I want to play those games so I'll buy that system."

Actually in our house both my husband and I decided that instead of a PS4 or Xbox One, we're just going to stick to our PC. It's backwards compatable, we get lots of cheap games without paying a monthly fee (yeah Steam) and we get the fancy graphics of the consoles. And no I'm not going to say "PC master race" but at this point the consoles with their day one updates and patches, are pretty much computers so what's the difference.