X-Box Ruins Lives

CNN just reported on the release of the new X-Box 360 video game console, which, as has been the case since the original, gold Legend of Zelda* game for Nintendo was released more than a decade ago, was accompanied by the usual shortage of supplies for gamers seeking the latest and greatest of new releases.

One interesting (and very symptomatic of US society/priorities) moment:

A man (obviously not of patrician origin) complaining to the CNN reporter that he'd called in sick for work and been docked a day's pay and now he's out of a day's pay and still doesn't have a new X-Box 360.

Yes -- if missing ONE DAY of pay has economic consequences for you, do we think it's the most intelligent (let alone ethical) thing for you to do to call in sick and LOSE that pay so that you can spend $400 on a video game system?

God help us.

VC

*I actually remember my occasional trips with Wong to Thrifty's drug store to buy Nintendo games, and every week I'd see the gold Zelda game staring at me through the class display case, but for weeks I avoided it (forcing myself to get other games), because I could always sense that there was this expectation that I would want the GOLD game because, as a child, I was expected to be attracted to whatever was flashy and cool. I was SO aware of the saleswoman anticipating that choice, and was myself so averse to buying into those things I knew were being played upon by colouring the game gold, that I forced myself to not get it. I still remember when I finally broke-down and got it (not wanting to get ANOTHER game that didn't interest me just to resist the golden choice), the sales woman immediately so delightedly confirming my choice: "The GOLD one?" Yes. The gold one. You got me -- you knew all along EXACTLY what I'd choose. It ended up being an awesome game that (as gamers know) moved to different systems and I even played (in later incarnations) during the summer in college one year. It's odd, though, that a seven year old can have that perception of what was going on, and that I could also remember to this day my desire to avoid the humiliation of all the complex aspects of that choice (not wanting to be predictable, not wanting to endorse the marketing practices that MADE us predictable, and not, at the same time, wanting to force myself to NOT do what I wanted out of skepticism about what my wanting it or my asking for it would mean).