Computer Gaming
I fell in love with computer games in the mid 70s the first time I played Pong on a home-built computer at a mall show. During the 80s I fed my quarters to the arcade gods and had an Atari, but about 25 years ago I stopped cold turkey and for 20 years I never looked back.
Why? The short answer is that video games stopped being fun. The long answer boils down to the fact that I'm an Epicurean. I like my fun in moderately-sized, hassle-free bites that leave more good memories than bad. Sometime around the late 80s - early 90s game developers went for creating a longer, more intense gaming experiences at the cost of a lot of money and a great deal of personal commitment spent learning arcane jargons and skillsets that took more time and effort to maintain than my marriage. IOW, gaming went from being an Epicurean pleasure to a Hedonistic pleasure, and there I could not follow thanks to a mental affliction. My PTSD has trouble with the notion of a "pleasant" long-running stressful experience. Whatever "fun" I was supposed to have after going through all that hassle never materialized.
Cut to 2006, and the Wii is introduced. It looked like someone finally came up with a proper fun/chore ratio for gaming again. We thought about getting one (dh is even more easily bored with computer games than I am), but our old analog TV was still working and it wasn't worth the trouble to modify or replace it.
This summer the vacuum tubes finally gave up the ghost, and by Christmas we may have the den of the new house ready for a TV. Looks like it will be time to finally get that Wii.
Except that Nintendo is coming our with a more advanced system, the Wii U, this spring. Some people are confidentally saying that Nintendo will stop supporting the Wii at the end of this year.
Personally I think they're blowing hot air. The advanced console is not as user-friendly to children and other newbies as the original system, and Wii has over a dozen new games slated to be released for the original Wii this Christmas. I don't see why the market can't support both a beginner and a more advanced sytem.
But I haven't been able to find any confirmation one way or the other. I don't want a Wii U, I want a Wii. But I don't want to spend money on a system that's on its deathbed.
So, have any of y'all heard anything about whether Nintendo will continue to sell/support the original Wii next year?
Why? The short answer is that video games stopped being fun. The long answer boils down to the fact that I'm an Epicurean. I like my fun in moderately-sized, hassle-free bites that leave more good memories than bad. Sometime around the late 80s - early 90s game developers went for creating a longer, more intense gaming experiences at the cost of a lot of money and a great deal of personal commitment spent learning arcane jargons and skillsets that took more time and effort to maintain than my marriage. IOW, gaming went from being an Epicurean pleasure to a Hedonistic pleasure, and there I could not follow thanks to a mental affliction. My PTSD has trouble with the notion of a "pleasant" long-running stressful experience. Whatever "fun" I was supposed to have after going through all that hassle never materialized.
Cut to 2006, and the Wii is introduced. It looked like someone finally came up with a proper fun/chore ratio for gaming again. We thought about getting one (dh is even more easily bored with computer games than I am), but our old analog TV was still working and it wasn't worth the trouble to modify or replace it.
This summer the vacuum tubes finally gave up the ghost, and by Christmas we may have the den of the new house ready for a TV. Looks like it will be time to finally get that Wii.
Except that Nintendo is coming our with a more advanced system, the Wii U, this spring. Some people are confidentally saying that Nintendo will stop supporting the Wii at the end of this year.
Personally I think they're blowing hot air. The advanced console is not as user-friendly to children and other newbies as the original system, and Wii has over a dozen new games slated to be released for the original Wii this Christmas. I don't see why the market can't support both a beginner and a more advanced sytem.
But I haven't been able to find any confirmation one way or the other. I don't want a Wii U, I want a Wii. But I don't want to spend money on a system that's on its deathbed.
So, have any of y'all heard anything about whether Nintendo will continue to sell/support the original Wii next year?