Starting with Pong and Atari, video games have been occupying a place in my living room entertainment cabinet for just about 30 years. I remember spending nights playing "Breakout" with friends until the sun came up - and becoming seriously addicted to "Tetris."
My children were born into the world of Zelda and Mario Brothers, and by the time they graduated high school they knew about all the violence in "Grand Theft Auto." Today, my son, at 21, is in college studying game design. He has discovered "The World of Warcraft" and we both watched the South Park episode that satirized that game.
So, you might say, we are a savvy family when it comes to video games and video game systems. You might think that we were sleeping in a tent overnight at a local store, salivating over the new PS3 system, but no, we weren't. It is ridiculously expensive, and artificially in short supply- a marketing technique that goes back to the first iteration of Cabbage Patch Dolls in 1982.
Yesterday, I saw two young men walking around the parking lot of a local shopping center with a sign, "PS3 - $1400!" I'm scared that they may have actually gotten someone to pay that price.
How sad is it that we will trample each other, even shoot each other over these consumer goods. How obscene is it that we will pay $600 and up for the privilege? Maybe it is because I have seen these systems come and go, seen the prices plummet, and spent time with my kids trading in games for pennies on the dollar that I just don't get all the excitement and hype over this one. Six months from now we will probably be able to buy as many as we want for half the price.
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