I certainly hope that you've heard of Theodore Geigel. In case the name does not ring a bell, remember that his pseudonym was "Dr. Seuss." If you're still struggling, remember that his literary works include "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Horton Hears a Who", "Green Eggs and Ham", "Red Fish, Blue Fish", and countless other favorite children's books.
It is to one of these books, "The Lorax," that I allude to now. "The Lorax" is in itself a book commenting on the destruction of an environment for industrial purposes. While this message lends itself to eager and heated discussions, it is rather a tiny portion of the book, in fact one line, that I base my column on today.
The situation is thus: The Once-ker (the profiteering, industrialist protagonist of the story) cuts down a truffala tree in order to create the item he calls a "thneed" from the truffala's crown. As he begins creating this item (with a pair of knitting needles) an orange creature who calls himself "the Lorax" makes an appearance and demands to know what gave the Once-ler cause to cut down the tree. The Once-ler promptly explains the uses of this "thneed" item, describing it as "...A Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need! It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat. But it has other uses, yes, far beyond that. You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For Sheets! Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!"(Seuss 25).
The Lorax expresses how he feels this is unnecessary.
The parallel I am attempting to draw here is a question that was brought up at the time of the PS2: Convergence. We all know that gaming systems are including more and more features. We know that Sony and Microsoft are glorifying this effect, and Nintendo is fighting it at almost every turn. We know that some people like convergence, and others scowl or even rage at it. I have no real stand on the issue, so therefore will present a point-counterpoint self-argument on the issue.
Point: Convergence can only be a good thing for the industry. It ushers in convenience and ultimately cuts costs.
Back when some people didn't have DVD players for their televisions, and the PS2 was new, it must have been a no-brainer for customers to decide on either a DVD player or the PS2 itself. The PS2 would play the movies they wanted to see anyway, and could play games to boot. And since DVD players were the same size as the PS2, you could have double the functionality in the same space. It could act as everything you needed to have in your entertainment center, in one place. You only needed to turn one thing on!
Of course this was a good thing. And the Xbox 360 just makes it better. It networks with absolutely everything, and can practically act as the entertainment hub of the house, going above and beyond anything the PS2 can do. It plays all your MP3's, lets you watch all your DVD movies at their full 800x600 resolution, lets you chat online, and of course it lets you play games.
The PSP does almost all that, and you can take it anywhere. It lets you take your movies and music AND gaming on the go like almost nothing ever before.
How can you argue with this, Mutenpika? It's clear that this is progress, and of course, convenience. Why just play games, when you can do so much more?
Counterpoint: Convergence swings the focus of the industry from games to the extras, and dilute the experience.
Mutenpika, your bastions of progress are less than the positive examples you think they are. Just look at the PSP. If you examine it, why do most people own PSP's? not for the meager collection of games, that's for certain. Most people use their PSP's for almost solely multimedia purposes, having already played Lumines and WipEout Pure to death. The focus of this system is completely and totally to its multimedia functionalities.
What about the Xbox 360? It offers up the finest online experience anywhere. But one can't help wondering whether Microsoft's obsessive focus on online will cause them to neglect Single-player or even split-screen multiplayer. Developers might make the single-player component of their new FPS or racer less complex or long in order to focus on the online component. Some developers might not iron out technical difficulties arising from displaying graphics on two or more screens. Thus those who aren't playing online get the short end of the stick, to quote the trite saying. After all, not everyone is playing with a broadband connection. Some people don't even have access to the networking tools to connect their console to the internet! And in that contingency (which is more common than you might think), which also happens to make the media sharing technology useless.
When game systems do "so much more," the more drowns out the gaming. The best thing for the industry is to stay on the path that leads from games and to more games.
Well, there's my point/counterpoint. It's my arguments, and I may have missed some glaringly obvious things either side might have said, but I enjoyed writing it.
Boring Stuff:
My Xbox 360 froze for the first time on Monday, January 16. It was an isolated incident, and it happened in Need for Speed Most Wanted. I'm not worried, because the PC demo I downloaded had serious stability issues, and the Xbox 360 version froze at almost the exact same place that the PC demo would've. Ah, well.
Next: And Now For Something COMPLETELY Different