Guess what has come out recently in the market. SONY CORP. has just released
a new hand-held gaming device nicknamed the “PSP.” The cost of
this device that can play music, movies, and most importantly games in the
palm of
your hand is about $250.00.
As one of Chris Rock’s characters on the show “In Living Color” proclaimed, “Good
Lord! That’s a lot of money.”
Now Sony’s target audience for this product are the consumers who buy the
Apple iPod and their target audience range is from 13-32 year old demographic.
Is the webmaster (who fits both criteria for the marketing aspect) going to buy
the brand-new “PSP?” HELL NO.
While surfing through the remote control, I spotted this show on CNBC about
the “Wall
Street Journal” talking about SONY CORP. and this new handheld device.
Sony’s stock has fallen dramatically nearly over $100 since the start of
the new millennium. In other words, the New York Stock Exchange and world-wide
investors don’t have confidence in buy shares of stock for this once,
powerful company (Before, I thought they were doing just fine). Even in Japan,
Sony is
losing to other companies in the electronics industry.
Before the new millennium, many people (including the webmaster) bought SONY
products because they were considered the best of the best and many consumers
were willing to pay a little extra in order to buy the brand name behind the
product. (Heck…the webmaster still buys SONY products including a great
pair of headphones, and my personal favorite, this portable laptop I carry that’s
a SONY VAIO…Enough of the cheap product placement in this article).
There’s one reason why the webmaster won’t buy this “PSP”:
VIDEO GAMES. I love playing video games, but the problem is just those GAMERS
and their addiction to playing these games. (By the way, I am not trying to
insult most of my male friends who are gamers. I am just trying to prove a
point). Being
a gamer takes a lot of dedication. In other words, in order to be a true gamer,
you have to have really NO LIFE. Having played video games for about five hours
straight, I know how addicting they can be.
While watching MTV, I saw this documentary entitled “True Life: I Am a
Gamer.” There was this one group of guys from some town in the rural, southern
part of the United States. A group of 10 guys formed their own cult for video
game play. These lazy, fat 20 something guys (mainly white guys with a fat Asian
guy) would revolve their work schedules around their game play. While one guy
takes a shift working for “FedEx” from Midnight till 6 AM…the
rest of the guys play on their Playstation 2s (PS2), X-Boxes (X-BOX), and Nintendo
Gamecubes (Gamecube) consisting of a diet of chips, soda, and TV dinners.
This story is tame compared to the real life tragedy I go through living in
a college dorm.
During my freshman year, I live in a quad (two bedrooms for two people and
a common room). Half the time my roommate is conscious (meaning awake) he’s
playing video games on his PS2. The only type of genre of video games he doesn’t
play is sports. He’ll play a “Street Fighter” game, a “Pokemon” game,
a “WWE (Pro-Wrestling)” game, and my most hated game of all time “So-Com” (I
don’t care about spelling).
From what I heard, “So-Com” is one of those military games with teams
from different branches of the United States defense forming teams trying to
kill their opponent. Most importantly, this game is played on-line. As a result,
gamers from around the world can “VIRTUALLY” kill each other and
hear that line, “THE SEALS HAVE BREACHED THE PERMITER” for literally
five hundred times. (That line annoys the hell out of me).
By the way, my roommate plays by himself most of the time. Sometimes, I could
hear him scream 200 feet away when I am walking towards my living residency.
SADLY, my roommate is not that bad compared to my neighbor/other roommate.
This guy spends LITERALLY 95% of the time when he’s conscious JUST PLAYING VIDEO
GAMES. As a result, he either doesn’t go to class or he’s always
late for his classes. As expected, this leads to bad grades and possible dismissal
from the university. THAT’S NOT EVEN THE WORST PART…IT’S
THE LACK OF PERSONAL HYGENINE. Literally, this guy has gone 8 straight days
without
taking a shower and changing his clothes. By the way, the room smells really
bad due to personal odor.
Now, remember I said earlier that there’s a common room. SINCE BOTH ROOMS
STINK AND BOTH GUYS PLAY VIDEO GAMES FOR LONG PERIODS AT A TIME, the other guy
and I have decided to SLEEP IN THE COMMON ROOM. The other roommate sleeps on
the couch, and I sleep on an inflatable (air) mattress. (It’s not that
bad). Even the other “smelly” roommate/neighbor admitted to me
that he has NO LIFE.
To be honest, I don’t want to play video games that much anymore…because
I know how addicting they came became and how much money I can spend on it.
If I can remember one thing, I will refer back to the show “Boy Meets World” and
the character of Mr. Finny (This is a paraphrased quote) “All you kids
do know is try to beat KOOPA (referring to Mario and his nemesis) and what will
it get you in the end…NOTHING.” Sure many guys are well educated,
but at the same time I wonder:
“ Are video games just a distraction or some form of brain-washing?”