Olympic-level couch-sitting
Question for the group: Is it pathetic to buy an Olympics game for the PlayStation? It's nearly universally acknowledged that the last decent Olympics video games were Summer Games and Winter Games from Epyx, back in 1984 or so. But it seems that Beijing 2008 is...well, not bad, anyway, if not excellent, and certainly a step above previous Olympics games. And I do tend to get excited about the Olympics when they come around, so there's a level of interest. Playing an Olympic PlayStation game smacks of pathetic, though, in a way that, say, Madden doesn't. The Olympics are supposed to inspire people to fitness and greater athletic participation, whereas the NFL just inspires people to sit on the couch and watch more football. In a way, the level of interaction you do in Madden is a step up from the way people usually interact with football. With the Olympics, I realize I'm not going to be inspired to go run the 100 meters in 10 seconds, but I could be inspired to go running or swimming or cycling, or take up archery again, as I occasionally threaten to do. And that makes playing an Olympic video game seem a bit worse, somehow.