Setting the Record Straight

It's a really good time to start a blog about the gaming industry. E3 2006 is just underway, and already we have had three interesting keynotes on each of the Big 3's consoles: the XBox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. These keynotes give a strong indication of where gaming is going in the next few years, and there really is a cause for concern.

But I'm going wait to comment on that subject matter for a second. Before I start talking about the next-gen consoles and the direction I fear gaming is going, I wanted to make sure I cleared up some facts about myself first. In order to properly gauge my comments, it'd be a good idea to get an idea of where I'm coming from and where my loyalties lie. Because I know exactly what's going to happen: I'm going to post something negative about the XBox 360, and then people are to claim that I'm a Nintendo fanboy, that I hate Microsoft, and that I'm totally biased. Well, before anyone has even a chance to make such claims, I wanted to take the time to set things straight:

I am a Nintendo fanboy, I hate Microsoft, and I'm very biased.

Believe me, admitting it doesn't make me feel good about it nor does it add any credibility to anything I say. I honestly do want to change my feelings and really try hard to give everything its fair shot. But it's tough. I grew up with Nintendo, so it's easy to see why I tend to give them a bit of favoritism. Most of my fondest gaming memories came at the hands of the NES. And my hatred of Microsoft spans from multiple sources across many, many years now so it's not just the gaming industry aspect that has given me this negative association with that company. But, in all honesty, I want to shed myself of these biases to the best extent that I can so I can try to be as fair as possible.

And I'm already off to a bad start because I don't even own an XBox 360 yet (not that I could have gotten one even if I wanted to). But how can I honestly write and compare the consoles when I don't actually own the 360 yet? Thus I've been very tempted, of late, to go and buy myself a 360 just so I can experience Geometry Wars and downloadable game patches for myself. Plus, if I wait to buy a 360 at anywhere near the time the PlayStation 3 is released, I'm going to have to take a mortgage on my home in order to afford it all. I should take the opportunity to get that machine now while the PlayStation 3 is still months away so I can start saving up money again.

See? I'm sure you can already detect the sarcastic negativity surrounding my comments about the 360. And I said I wouldn't do that. Bad James! Okay, I'll try to be better from this point forward. So hopefully, my next post about the three consoles won't come off as too biased.

But you've been warned.

- jchensor