Sony haters – today is your day!

How ironic. I can provide a feed to Next Generation Online on my own site (see the Games feed on the top nav-bar) but, at work, I can’t visit the site itself.

These restrictions allow me to see the world of videogames news from the perspective of your typical shoot-first-ask-questions-never gamer:

Sony Admits PS3 Delay ‘Possible’
Few in the industry believe that PlayStation 3 will launch in the spring. It looks like Sony may be ready to announce a delay. A company spokesperson has admitted that a delay is possible. 

Hey, based on that headline I can almost hear the hate-threads being written and the haters crowing “told you so!”

Although I can’t visit it, I’m expecting “News with attitude” Sony hate site Evil Avatar to lead the mob.

I don’t give a monkeys about buying hardware on day one. To me it’s a mug’s game. Pay the highest price for the least support and fewest games. No thanks!

My personal opinion is that a rushed release is a bad idea. Furthermore Microsoft has forced the next generation on this industry. I can’t blame them for wanting Round 2 to start as quickly as possible and to get that all-important lead on their competitors. However, I think if Sony were to be seen dancing to Microsoft’s tune and pushing out the PS3 as soon as possible it would look BAD.

Well, bad to those who have an appreciation of how the industry work beyond claiming how Sony must deliberately make their machines go wrong just after warranty and other such likely stories.

Would the current generation leader being dictated to by the new kid on the block look like a GOOD thing?

Would a dominant Japanese company, a nation who own the industry more than any other, look good taking it’s cues from an American company?

Assuming your mentality is not a flag-waving american Xbox fan then your considered answer should be ‘no’.

Regardless, delays by Sony will be  lasciviously profiled by the kind of sites with an agenda, whilst championing Zelda delays, DS Lite shortages or rushed, overheating hardware as A GOOD THING.

Let’s keep it in perspective huh?

Somebody pinch me!

Am I dreaming? Surely I can’t be living in the real world. A rational world. A world that’ll defend it’s right to put guns into the hands of the irresponsible but condemn videogames on the basis that pixels pulled the trigger?

Just when you thought you’d seen it all:

Utah votes through bill on ‘obscene’ videogames
Utah representative David Hogue’s controversial violent videogames bill, which tags videogames onto existing obscenity laws relating to pornography, has sailed through the House of Representatives by a vote of 56-8.

Ok, I’m sure it’s not as black-and-white as that paragraph can suggest. But, come on! I’d normally get quite wordy on all this but I really think this is getting ridiculous now. Then again, this IS Utah we’re talking about..

..I suppose now would be a good time to show you another piece from GamePolitics. As you might guess from the text above, politicians are quite happy to jump on a populist bandwagon, make knee-jerk decisions based on ignorance and sweeping generalisations. Some of us can even sympathise with this behaviour even if we don’t agree with it.

Want to see the worst of the worst? Ok then: legislation based on heresay, conjecture and ignorance.

Playing games doesn’t make me violent. Dumb politics, on the other hand, that’s a different matter.