zwolanerd

You put the bumper sticker on your car, the signs out in your yard, and you wore the T-shirts. You hooted and hollered and argued and bragged and discussed and debated and got all fired up. Then your your guy lost the election, or your team lost the big game. You still think you made the right choice, but either not enough other people agreed with you or you were just flat-out wrong. It doesn’t mean you’re sorry you made those choices, but it does put you in a melancholy mood and you don’t want to talk to anyone about it, especially not anyone from the other side of the issue, because they’re the worst gloating jerks in the history of everything. The stupid thing is you know it’s ridiculous to feel that way because it doesn’t matter. How often do politicians make positive changes?  Who even remembers who won Super Bowl XIII? (I know you do, sports guy, but most people don’t. Smart aleck.)

It’s just… your team lost. By extension, you lost. People mocking your team are mocking you – all the bad stuff your side is accused of is stuff you’re accused of.

All of this is to say I am really, really bummed by E3 right now.  I have put all of my gaming eggs in the Microsoft basket for a long time now (almost ten years!). I mean, sure, I have other consoles, but the Xbox is my main dude. I have been really enjoying where the 360 has been for a while now: I love the “Metro” dashboard, I enjoy the available games, I’ve invested a lot in my Gamerscore (currently 74,592), and the controllers are my second-favorite of all time. Conversely, I use my PS3 mostly as a media device, and really, really dislike the PS controllers (seriously: if someone made a way for me to use Xbox controllers on a PS3, I’d probably play a whole bunch of games on it). So what I’m saying is: I’m an Xbox guy.

Which is why I’m sad now. Like, actually sad, which I know is ridiculous! I went into this planning to get the next Xbox, excited to see where they were going to go from the excellent setup of the 360. Instead, Microsoft is doing everything they possibly can to keep me from doing it:

• more expensive for lesser hardware
• inability to loan or rent games
• no real ownership anyway because if you can’t connect to the Internet every 24 hours you can’t play your game.

We just talked about this, right? “If you don’t like it, don’t get it.” Well, sir, I don’t like it. Realistically, the inability to buy used games or borrow from a friend takes me from being a 20-30 games a year player to a 4-5 games a year player. So, while I am an “Xbox guy,” I’m really a “gamer guy,” and all the brand loyalty in the world doesn’t make that stat any better. If I want to play more games, I will need to get a PS4. And use that controller I despise.

I get that not allowing used games is theoretically better for publishers, who do not see any money off used games – unless, of course, said buyer likes the game so much that he buys all the available DLC for it. Oh, and gets hooked on the series so he does buy new versions of future games in the series. And then there’s the supply and demand side of things: if more people buy a PS4 because the system is cheaper and you can borrow/rent games, then the publishers of Xbox games will see less overall money because the install base is smaller.

So, yes, I’m sad. And, yes, I feel ridiculous about being sad because it is such a silly thing to be sad about. But I’m also future-sad because the best solution is the same solution there has always been in every generation of the console wars: get both systems. The future sadness is because that’s a lot of money and a lot of convincing my wife that it’s money well spent, something I don’t even know for sure myself.

Written by: Mark