Hello everyone out there in CHUD land, it’s a pleasure to be here. I’ll keep my introduction short as I don’t want to bore you to death with details of my life. I’m a pretty happy go lucky guy with a very boring office job. I drive a Chevy Impala. I’m very much into video games, and I used to religiously collect toys, comics but I’ve recently lost the desire to keep doing that. So now I mostly just collect movies and video games. I’d say more, but I want to keep the mystique going. Oh yeah, and contrary to my picture, I don’t always look pissed off.
So I’ve got all the current generation systems now. I keep up on all the newest releases and snatch up anything new that looks entertaining. I spend a good portion of my work day listening to gaming podcasts and I realized I was getting caught up in a part of the new video game culture that I don’t think I like very much. That would be the NPD numbers that are released every month.
Now, for those who don’t know, the NPD numbers for video games track how many units of a game were sold, what console it was on, and they track console hardware sales as well.
Visit any of the more “hardcore” game sites and the forums are usually filled with threads with people discussing what sold how many units and how it proves that so-and-so hardware maker is winning the console wars.
And I have to ask…why?
Why do we care about these things? Does the fact that one system sold more than the other in a particular month mean that the other is dying and they should just give up? Does it matter if the new game you bought two weeks ago didn’t debut at number one? Isn’t this whole hobby about having fun?
When I was a kid, I didn’t care if Sega or Nintendo were on top, all I cared about was if the game I just bought was fun. Sure there was the pissing match between console makers in the ads (Genesis Does What Nintendon’t!) but that didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to play the games. I didn’t care that the Genesis had “Blast Processing” and I don’t care that the Playstation 3 has a Cell processor.
I would love it if people would just enjoy their hobby. Stop focusing so much on what sells how many units. Focus on finding a way to have Mario get that elusive star . Focus on playing Halo 3 with your friends. Focus on guiding Solid Snake unseen through that tank hangar. Just focus on the fun.