Xbox 360, meh?

For the geeks on the internet the entrance of Microsoft to the console arena a few years ago was a blessing and a curse. It challenged Sony to get off their collective ass, and gave Nintendo continued reason to innovate (well hello Wii, wanna stop by my place later for some multi-player?). In all Microsoft was the grown up coming to the cool kids party, sure they had lots of money and bought you beer(Halo) to make you think they where cool deep down you knew they wanted to use you(for money you sicko), and you where using them to have a good time. On the whole during the last console round this I-wanna-use-you-while-you-use-me relationship worked but I was in college and roommates/dorm mates made Halo(and MarioKart64)better it was social and fun. I never got into the XboxLive and doubt I would enjoy it for the same reason I don't enjoy WoW, yelling at people is more fun when your spittle has the potential to contact them.

Where does this leave the Xbox360 for me? Well I am married, and my wife was never any good at FPS game play, or really anything that isn't frogger. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all have identified that gaming is increasingly social, each attacking that value proposition from a different angle. Microsoft in typical Redmond fashion aims to suck every dollar they can from that potential revenue hole with the large and looming Xbox Live infrastructure and content delivery platform. They want to own the living room with your Xbox as the portal. From the ecosystem perspective, I see how this could be a successful endeavor if only I didn't feel so shackled by it. I am not only on board the Media Center bus, I also drink most of the koolaid they hand out, and yet I resist the urge to buy a 360. It would fit nicely in my home theater setup, is one of the cheapest HD-DVD players the market, has lots of games that let me shoot and destroy things, and once that movie content distribution system thing gets worked out beats having to go get someone else's Set Top Box.

Still I resist. I don't have a great set of reasons for it, but I do have a few.

• I don't actually have all that much time to devote to gaming any more, it is an excessively antisocial (yes talking to strangers you meet on Xbox live still counts as anti-social) hobby


• I own a home and projects to improve that take precedent over entertainment


• Married, and want to stay that way

In order of toys I want Everun, Neo1973, 42-52" LCD, a Core2 Duo or Quadro pc (I'm easy) , then a Wii, then Xbox360. Sure the 360 is on my list, but it is like $6000 dollars down the list.

If Microsoft wants to climb my list they could do a few things

• Make the internal drive HD-DVD


• Fix the reliability issues (few people like having to RMA things)


• Make it cheaper (this should be a no brainer)

Tags: Xbox360, Wii, Microsoft, Console Wars, Home Entertainment

Is WOW all there is?

I guess I would have to admit that when I first heard about World of Warcraft a few years ago, I was rather excited about the company that made some of my favorite lan and single player games was going to make a MMORPG or me to play, and I will admit that I had thought about being in on the release. I had just started into the real world of work and decided that I probably shouldn't sell my soul, and get absorbed in the whole playing of games while I was working on establishing my career and getting married, so it was few years later when I fist toyed with the idea of playing.

My brother (younger) played all the time, and when he moved in I figured it wouldn't be too bad, as I would have someone to play with at least, (really more of a solo player normally) so I made the leap and bought the game. I will admit that for about the first month it was fine and good to get a quest, kill a beast, return for prize, rinse, repeat. Now sure there are other things that could be fun, you can fish, or make clothes or leather, make guns, or poison. But ultimately what I think is supposed to be the charm (simple set of rules to success) really came to be a drag.

How many quests did you go on that you arrived and had to wait for the "Boss" to respawn, and group with a few people so you all didn't have to wait for him to respawn? For me it was nearly every quest, and maybe it was my fault for joining a "new" server, but ultimately the experience was not fun. Still I soldiered on and played all the way up to level 40 before I just decided that I had too much left to accomplish in life to play an open ended, monotonous waste of life. Needless to say, I suspended my account.

Several months pass and My brother still plays nearly every day, and my wife (for reason's unknown to me) decides that she wants to give this World of Warcraft a try. I reactivate my account, and purchase the Burning Crusade, (thankfully the brother unit had the disks, as the download would have taken forever) and started the updates. God bless the woman, but she got frustrated before the updates where even done and doesn't want to play at all leaving me with $50 out of my pocket playing a game that well, doesn't really do it for me.

I really am just more of a Console person, mmm Wii Sports .


Hopefully world of Starcraft will come out and be nearly as cool as the original Starcraft.


Ha ha Zergling rush bitches.



Tags: WOW, Starcraft, Wii, Convictus