Holiday Season 2006

Happy Holidays everybody! We have a lot to talk about. I'm sorry about the posting delay; my grandfather passed away the Friday after Thanksgiving. Ralph St. Hilaire was another cool older person in my life, a person who's personality and story could be deserving of a website all his own rather than just a blurb here. When one goes through the death of someone close, everything else in the world seems trite and inconsequential; not even the most popular forms of escapism- alcohol, video games, television, religion- could distract us from the ultimate memento mori, and mortality became the principle focus above all else.

But this isn't the place for that discussion. Far from it.

While it's difficult to segue to Grandma's thoughts on the console wars from such a subject, know that even while I waited at the hospital during the last moments of my grandfathers life on what, at the time, the rest of the country ironically called "Black Friday", the unnatural chatter flooding the ICU unit in Akron among nurses and people waiting to see their loved ones, hopefully in better conditions, was always about the same thing: who had called who to secure early morning deals at any number of BestBuys, Targets, Circuit Citys, and GameStops.

"My God," I thought. "It's come to this."

Of course, I was irrationally angry; angry that anyone could talk about something so stupid as PS3's, Wii's, PSP's, DS's and 360's while a man lays on a bed and dreams for the last time. But that was unfair.

Life goes on. It's too emotionally and physically exhausting to concentrate on the end. I know how fucking cliché and hollow that may sound, but one only learns through experiencing the consequences of failing to empathize.

Which brings us to this console war mess. In this country, the election in the beginning of November seemed only to set the tone of animosity that would finally show itself in the form of an all out Battle of The Fanboys. The negative campaign ads you saw during the election are quite tame to some of the shit you've probably read about The PS3 and The Wii in the past couple weeks.

Here are Grandma's thoughts:

To all the people who actually got either a PS3 or a Wii when they were released: fucking ENJOY THEM! I say- be happy! A lot of people think you're all a bunch of rich assholes who only snagged a new console because it's cool to be the first, but they don't know what it's like. You know what, you decided to pay a bit more for your system. You knew what to expect. You're adults, you can spend your money how you choose. Is it wrong to be that excited about a new game console? No! Not if you're responsible about it. Let's face it, you paid for the hype, and goddammit it felt good, didn't it! When you wait in the cold for 3 days and finally get that box home and open it up, or when you enter your credit card numbers on eBay and wait just a second before pressing Enter (knowing that bills are going to be a bit tight for awhile), it's only going to feel worth it if you WANT it to. So play on your new console! ENJOY IT!! Make your console worth every penny you paid and treat it well. If you don't, then what's the damn point?

But you probably already knew that part. What bugs me, and this is the second part, is please stop wishing that the company that makes the console you DIDN'T buy would go under. If you bought a PS3 why should you give a shit about the Wii unless you were planning to get one of those too? If you bought a Wii and you don't want to buy a PS3, then... who cares?! All you guys need to stop this shit. We're only telling you this because we love you guys and we want to see you get along! I don't mean that you can't criticize a crappy system, shit- you SHOULD do that, but at least be honest about it. You don't need to cheer when Sony releases a press release saying they aren't shipping the numbers they thought they would, we get it- you're a Nintendo fan. And Sony fans, don't announce the death of Nintendo when somebody busts their tv with a Wiimote because the strap broke!

I like Sony, I like Nintendo, I like Microsoft, hell- I like Atari, SNK and Sega, too. So I feel like I'm in the middle of a big family table and everyone hates each other and I end up being the one getting bored! If you think a game is crappy, tell me! If I think a game is crappy, you'd better be DAMNED sure I'm going to tell you! But neither you or me are doing it because we hate some fucking company, it's because the game sucks, right? I just think we're all gamers first, friends second, and I think "company stooge" is a lot farther down the line than that... somewhere like.. Thirty.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say about that.

Also, an update on everyone's gaming status... Grandma's final time on Final Fantasy XII = 246 HOURS. People who said it was a short game didn't get everything, I assure you :) We'll have a full review up later this week. I'm still hurting myself trying to master everything in Guitar Hero II, and Grandma and I both are looking forward to Twilight Princess coming to the GameCube, as well as Lumines II for the PSP, Final Fantasy III for the DS, and (this one might surprise you) Lost Planet for the XBox 360. I know, I know- Grandma's not much of an FPS fan but for whatever reason she REALLY enjoyed the demo at the Capcom kiosk at E3.

In other news, Joe from Cleveland Scene Magazine is trying to start some shit :) Whadya mean "run-down two story?" We like our house! (Just fuckin' with ya' Joe, you know we love ya, dude!)

Also, Michelle Hinn is doing great things working with game designers to make games more accessible with people with disabilities. The first thing for which Grandma looks when she puts in a brand new game is the option to turn on subtitles. People in the industry are doing better when it comes to providing content for the hearing impaired, but there are a great many other disabilities that can prevent a lot of gamers out there from enjoying games as they are. Michelle is trying to remedy that. Score one for the rest of us!

Game on, everybody!


Rest in Peace, Grandpa- you keep riding, man.