Silent Wings, unless I've misunderstood what you've said there (and you are an easy person to misconstrue, I hear), you're having a little jab at multi-platform gamers? Multi-platform gaming is the highest level of gaming, with which one eliminates (or
can eliminate) all forms of bias from one's mind, and one can truly sample the greats of each generation. Or,
you get to play all the good games[/i]
Furthermore, it gives one a rounded view of gaming, each generation, and each console contained therein. It is with complete and utter honesty, that I proclaim the Xbox my favourite console of last gen. Also (being a strictly multi-platofrm gamer), I can put forward a solid argument as to why the Xbox was the [b]best console of last gen (I don't believe that is something which can be stated as fact, per se, it's part opinion).
Multi-platform gaming is like, the 'Zen' of gaming. To be at complete and utter harmony with your digital entertainment. I have all the consoles of this gen (and alot of the consoles ever made, in fact). I'm agamer without any real bias. In my younger days, I would foolishly 'ally' myself with one of the major console manufacturers of the time. Each generation, I'd jump the gun, and immediately buy the next console from the same stable.
This pattern only actually continued for two generations. While that may seem a brief period, that's ten years (thus, half of) my life. Quite a time span. I
nearly did it again, and went steaming ahead and bought a Saturn. Through a few mitigating circumstances, I ended up instead buying a PlayStation.
To try and avoid another overly-lengthy post here, what I'm getting at is; Once I had broken the 'cycle', I saw how foolish I had been. Years after their respective deaths, I found myself going back to consoles like the NES, the Amiga, the SNES, the Neo-Geo, the Game Gear, the Atari 6800, and other more obscure platforms/variations. A couple years back, I finally got around to getting a Saturn :-)
Point = limiting yourself to one platform is exactly that, limiting your gaming options. At best. At worst, you become a jibbering fool who couldn't hold an intelligent debate/discussion with another gamer if their lives depended on it. Many single-platform gamers end up somewhere in-between, unfortunatly. These are the people who succumb to marketing, and believe everything
their console manufacturer says, whilst instantly dismissing anything else.
Some people think that to be a multi-platform gamer is to be born with a silver spoon up your arse. Untrue. While it's not cheap, it needn't be any more expensive than anyone else's gaming expenditures. These days I do the sit and wait routine. Case in point; My Xbox 360, with all the trimmings, bell and whistles, will be bought next year for £200, at the most. It will incidentally be an improved model which is far more efficiant, and much less likely to die on me.
Moreover, the game (for there is only one of) truly worth fifty big ones, will be readily available for a fiver. By then there will actually be some other games out worth getting, also. I will no doubt be buying a PS3 some years down the line. The Revo will come before or after the 360, not sure. I'm going to wait to see which has the most games.
"It sucks to wait" I presume some of you are thinking. Well, does it? I mean, really. I still get plenty of enjoyment out of my Xbox, and Sony certainly aren't going to let the PS2 'die' for some years, at least. My GC seldom, but sometimes does spring back into action when I pick up a dirt cheap game from the bargain bin.
Over the years I've built up an absolute quality collection of games, a good portion of which is utterly timeless. I can play Earthworm Jim today on my Megadrive, and the experiance will be just as great as the first time I played it, twelve years ago. In fact, better. For not only does it (and a great number of others in my collection) embue me with a magnificant sensation of nostalgia upon playing it now, but I've grown up, and can appreciate certain things about certain games that a little boy can't.
Multi-player GoldenEye can never get old, if you have a willing and skilled adversary. Fact. This goes doubly true for Perfect Dark. That's why I have no trouble waiting. Paying lots of money at launch for crap that's going to break quite soon, totally sucks. Add to the mix the utter lack of games, and that sucks even more.
I can wait, because I'm a multi-platform gamer, who isn't impressed in the slightest at the rubbish each company spews, to get your attention. I care not fortalks of virtual consoles. I care not for FMVs showing what your new console 'can do' (hello Sony). I'll care when these things are actually happening, not before. Then I'll get them at a better price, and get better hardware with early bugs ironed out, unlike foolish early adopters.
The thing about consoles, and each cycle is, inevitably, most of every console's games is utter dross. Each console has roughly five games by the time of it's official 'death', that you would consider to be absolute class, classic games that will go down in history as such. There will be ten or more other great games to go with, but not groundbreaking ones. The other 500 games for that console? Complete and utter turd.
If you just stick to buying the good games, and can bear to wait for prices to drop, etc, then
anyone can afford to be a multi-platform gamer. There really is no other way to game. Having played and loved Xbox, for example, it saddens me to think how shit my gaming would have been this gen if I only had a GameCube. I probably would have completely given up on gaming altogether (I've grown less interested).
Mutli-platform gaming > Gardening > taking calligraphy lessons, watching paint dry >>>>>>>>>>>>> single-platform gaming. Multi-platform is better in ever concievable way. It's all about the games.