Proof of Life (again) and the XBox One

I am alive!!

No really. I checked my pulse and everything and I'm happy to report I'm still kicking and making a concerted effort to miss the bucket.

After the craziness that was April, I continued my quest to write myself into the ground by doing a Murder Mystery. I'm not going to go through how much I wrote. And I won't go into the amount of hours I lost sleep over it. But it was done, and... well it was done. There was survival and death and food and people - have to have those - and it turned out to be a really enjoyable evening even if it took three days to come to that conclusion and a week to shake it all off.

Well, most of it.

For the rest of the time, I've been gaming like crazy. I haven't had the opportunity since March to do that. I'm still thinking of what I'm going to play as I write this.

But first... XBox One.

Let me first make this absolutely clear: I understand. I really do. I understand that this machine is the 'next-generation'. I know that technology is an amazing thing and that the possibilities for consoles are spectacular. I understand that taking everything to the cloud enables developers to do extra awesome stuff. So don't think I don't understand any of that. What can be done with it is really great. The possibilities are endless (at least until the next console comes out).

Glad that's cleared up. On with the show.

Yes, the whole announcement was disappointing. I'm not going to go into that so much. What can be said has been said, I think. There is a greater disappointment brewing in me. 

I've been listening to podcasts and reading articles and looking at tweets about the whole XBox thing and here are some of the comments that come up a lot:

• Come on! Are you really telling me that people will fork out half a grand (USD) only to play games?? 
• It's just PlayStation fanboys that are knocking the system. Seriously, if you hate it so much, don't buy it! Go buy the PS4.
• There seems to be a generation of haters. Just look at the whole Bioware thing. They seem to be only content on hating whatever is put out there. 

So in short, and pardon the language, the message I seem to picking up is:

FUCK YOU!

Thanks guys. Really appreciate it.

Here's my response to it. I know I'm in the minority, but none of these comments completely fit me or I think the people making them are missing the point. But here's my pitiful story. Haul out the tissues now.

I've always been a PC gamer at heart. Gameranx shared this one pic on Facebook about finger placements

on a keyboard. When I looked down at my left hand, guess where my fingers were at? But I just can't win the upgrade battle. It seems like every game out there expects a better machine. Thus, while PC games are a lot cheaper, I always ended up paying more to build up my computer. For that I also needed techies since my scope of hardware knowledge only spans that far. Plus then I have to open up my machine - every time exposing it to the risk of something getting damaged along the way - just so I can do it all over again the moment the next game hits the scene. I'd have to install it onto my computer with a myriad of other small programmes to somehow make sure that the disc I stuck into my computer will end up working. And then you have the fun where one of those mini-programmes end up not being compatible with some other programme and there ends up being one major turf war right there on my PC.

People fork out thousands for a gaming rig and you're surprised that people would do any different for a gaming console?

The PC battle was why I caved and went to console gaming. Yes, I'd pay more but I didn't have to worry about hardware save for my controller's batteries - and the red ring of death... okay that WAS a pain. But yeah, okay, console gaming... okay, I'll go with that.

Also note that these machines are called gaming consoles - as in primary reason they exist. Yes, the media experience and whatnot are all awesome features. TV and Skype and watching movies that either aren't available in my country or the services promoted by the system simply don't exist. My television (which I need to replace because it's old and decrepit) is solely there so I can play games on it. I haven't connected it to an antenna in over 6 years. Why? Because I don't care to watch television. Simple as that. The tv shows you can rent in box sets at the video store where I can sit and watch as many episodes as pleases me without having to endure commercials for products that I couldn't care about.

Anyway, back to choosing to switch to consoles. 

My arch nemesis

Truth of the matter is, while I love some of the games available only to PlayStation, I absolutely hate the controller. I hate the fact that on the PlayStation consoles I am limited in playing games by the amount of pain and discomfort I can stand rather than the amount of time I have available to play. So I went with the XBox360 and, save for the South African version of Microsoft Service during my red-ring fiasco, I haven't ever regretted going for it. 

So I'm not a PS fangirl. 

And I'm in general not a hater - though those who know my obsession with Mass Effect would know why the Bioware statement was a particular low blow, but anyhoo.

I am also a single-player kind of girl. The only time I want to connect with others about games, is around a cup of coffee or on the internet talking to them about it. My game is my game. I don't play well with others and I don't care to. I don't have to. Why? For what? If someone else wants to go for that, awesome, but why should I? It's called being introverted. Gaming is my hobby. I draw energy from being by myself and not from having to try and not be frustrated at friends or worse random asswipes messing up my game. That's not a relaxing activity at all.

With that in mind, why should I then have to buy a yearly subscription? More money in your pocket just to have my console be touched once a day, y'know, just to make sure that I actually exist, that my games are my own. Oh and HEY! Since you've already invaded my sanctuary, my cave, my fortress of solitude, how about adding some other nonsense that pulls from the bandwith I pay for and which I so jealously guard? 

Seriously dude, keep your fingers off my machine. I don't want your features, you can shove them somewhere. I just want to game. Why is that so hard to understand?

Finally. Let's talk about the internet issue.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, are the devices through which I connect to the internet when not at work:

 






I have no telephone line or DSL or whatnot because my need for internet connection is limited. I use it for communicating and reading and writing. As such, I don't need to pay our crappy service providers more for a bigger cap. Again, why should I have to? And let's not get onto the reliability of said service or signal or all that jazz.

I would want for nothing more than to stick with XBox and a part of me would really like to believe that the press conference was as inaccurate in the few statements it made as Microsoft claims - though if that's the case, it doesn't say much for them now does it? 

Someone stated that, just because Sony omitted it, doesn't mean that they might not have similar requirements. If that's the case then I wouldn't buy their new console either. Because it wouldn't change the problems I have with it.

So my current gaming plan of action is the following:

• Get a better TV.
• Buy a PS3.
• Play everything I can play on it.
• See whether Microsoft and Sony really are going to cut my console gaming career short.
• Buy a gaming rig.
• Bat my eyes at techies and try to catch up and learn as much as I can so I can upgrade my PC myself.
• Scowl about the injustice of it all.

Because, y'know. That's what we haters do.

Again, let me make this clear. I know you're offering me the sun and the moon and the stars. Problem is, I just kinda want this patch of dirt over here called Earth. Think you can manage that? Not too big for you, is it?