I’ve never been a really big video game player. When we were younger, my sister and I had a Commodore 64, Atari, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Gameboy and a bunch of handheld electronic games. We didn’t play them nearly as much as other people I knew, and we never upgraded beyond that. Currently, I have a Wii (and yes, I still have the SuperNES and Gameboy), but still don’t play all that often.
There are many people around the world, however, who spend a great deal of their time gaming. There’s something for everyone: Rock Band for music fans; World of Warcraft for fantasy buffs; Little Big Planet for creative, social players; countless sports games for athletic enthusiasts… the list goes on and on. I can understand how people could get sucked in, and how it could easily end up becoming more than a hobby for people with addictive personalities.
Even though I have long been concerned about the time people spend on video and computer games, things seem to be reaching new, horrifying heights.
The always innovative adult entertainment industry pounced on the new XBox 360 Kinect system, developing a way to use the motion detection software to simulate sex acts. Just what people really needed – interactive porn. Lovely.
And apparently, the average person’s attention span is so short that they even need amusement when using a restroom. Seriously? Are we that desperate for entertainment that we need to, as this article so delicately puts it, be “a first-person shooter” in the bathroom?
If these two developments are really in demand by international gamers, then I may be ready to give up on the human race altogether.
What are your thoughts on the current state of the gaming industry? Please join in this conversation and help me wrap my head around all of this.