Reply #11: Bill, buddy, pal, let's talk... [View All]

[Prophet 451]

Now, Billy boy, I know you and I haven't always been friends. I remember calling you a liar repeatedly and describing you as "less credible than the Hitler diaries" but it seems your real problem is that you can't adapt Bill O and we're here to help you with that.

Here's the thing Bill. You know those PS3 machines? They cost around $600 a pop, more if you have to get one on eBay. Where do you think gamers get the money for that? They ain't bilking the welfare system for it, Bill, nine times out of ten, they're working for it. They work for their money and decide to treat themselves to a method of entertainment. When the PS3 eventually launches in this country, I might do the same.

Bill, gaming is no longer the preserve of geeks in their parent's basement, if it ever was. Gaming is a lucrative economy these days. Many of us work in that economy. Some, yes, spend their entire waking time playing games and that's a bad thing but they're a tiny minority. Most of us treat our games the same way we do a movie: We work all day, come home, relax, play a game for a few hours or watch a movie and go to sleep.

And Bill, how many people in cities know what their neighbour looks like anyway these days? These are not the days of white picket fences and neighbourhood BBQ's. We work increasingly longer hours at jobs which increasingly don't pay us enough to live on. We don't have time to socialise with our neighbours. We don't know what day it is because increasingly, the only difference between our weekday and our weekend is whether the post turns up. We don't have a relaxing weekend with our family and neighbours, we work every day, including weekends.

We no longer live in an economy based on manufacturing things, we live in an economy based on information (the same economy, I should point out, that has made you a very rich man). You're fighting the future here buddy.