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$#^! Happens, and the Lepolt’s Buy a Wii
By Jonathan | January 28, 2008 at 8:26 pm
This is a t-shirt I found from bustedtees.com. If the shirt didn’t have the word ‘shit’ written on it in capital letters, I might buy the thing. I just really don’t want to be that guy you see walking down the street wearing a shirt that says ‘shit’. Besides, who wants shit all over their shirt? It’s just not right. The shirt however, is still quite hilarious.
The slogan reminds me about a scene from Forrest Gump when Forrest was in his “running stage” when he helps that hippie come up with a new bumper sticker slogan. Come on, I know you remember it:
Hippie: “Hey, man, hey, listen. I was wondering if you might help me, huh? Listen, I’m in the bumper sticker business and I’ve been trying to think up a good slogan. And since you have been such a big inspiration to the people around here, I thought you might be able to help me jump into… Whoa! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dog shit!”
Forrest: “It happens.”
Hippie: “What, shit?”
Forrest: “Sometimes.”
From here I suppose I could transition into how great a movie Forrest Gump is, or how great an actor Tom Hanks is and question how he gets involved in some really crappy movies (Cast Away, just awful. The Terminal, thoroughly disappointed). I could also tell the story about the summer when my sister, brother, and I all got into a huge Tetris tournament with the old school Gameboy…which then led my mom to force me into getting a job.
I think I might spin off the second topic and talk about the Wii.
Since purchasing a Wii and playing it for hours at a time, I can honestly say that I have missed playing video games since the introduction of the Nintendo 64 (circa 1996). Yes, that is correct: the last video game system that I purchase was the Nintendo 64. You may wonder why I didn’t get a GameCube, or a PS2, or an Xbox. Well, if I had to pick a single factor, it would have to be price. Holy crap have you looked at the price for the high end PS3 these days? $500 for the system, one controller, and a crappy game. The price of these gaming systems was beginning to get out of control, and thus I began to focus on collecting/buying the older games like Super Mario Bros. I remember buying the original Gameboy in 1990 for $90. Looking back, that was probably a large amount for a portable gaming system…but come on, the screen was shades of, err, green? The Gameboy at least came with Tetris, a game that could keep you busy for hours trying to get over that 100-line milestone.
Then there was the Super Nintendo that I bought some time after that…for $119.99 I remember it came with two controllers, Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, and for $4.99 shipping and handling, it also came with Super Mario All-Stars [which contained Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, & 3 and the Lost Levels]. That thing was sweet and to this day, Super Mario World is still one of my favorite games of all time.
At some point after that people in the video game market decided they weren’t making enough/could make more by selling all of these required components separately instead of packaging the required stuff together so that the gamer could simply buy the system, take it home, and play without having to shell out additional coin. Ick. Then the N64 purchase:
System: $150
2nd controller: $25
Game: $50
Yikes, already up to $225.
[Click the ‘Live’ button on the DVR remote]
Playstation 3: $400/$500
Xbox 360: $350
Wii: $250
Now I know we have to take into account inflation, and the rising cost off all the required parts to assemble the video game console, and the advancement of the technology inside the boxes, but holy cow…500 bucks is a lot of money, not to mention the other crap you need to buy!
So what am I getting at here? Well, now I’m a sucker and have bought back into the video game world. Even though I now have the cheapest system available, you can be assured that plenty of birthday and Christmas money have been spent on accessories. Maybe I should have just stuck with Tetris.
Topics: Wii, complain, video games | No Comments »