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As anyone who has participated in the daily act of mastication and
consumption at any school would know, or would most probably know,
seats are a very important thing. A seating arrangement in the
cafeteria, ascertained at the opening of the year, is a strict medium
used to identify the different classes of students. These seats are
barriers, used to both shield the students from those they despise and
grant them spheres in which they can identify with others, at least to
a certain extent. When these barriers are crossed, there is only one
reaction possible: a conflict of ideas, an exchange of vitriolic words,
and chaos. Now, I'm sure you're wondering how a lunch-table anecdote
turns into an editorial about stagnation, but don't worry; I'll get
there.
Recently, a friend of mine began inviting several of his friends
from "another table" to "our table" in order to discuss the workings
and strategies of World of Warcraft. During one of these discussions, a
side conversation involving the PSP was somehow conceived. I didn't
pay much attention; my tuna sandwich was, at the moment, much more
interesting. However, things soon became quite ugly, as someone began
bashing the DS, an action that my soul will simply not allow me to turn
away from and leave uncontested. Now, I'm not here as a system fanboy
to bleat that "lol ur system is teh sux DS is SOO cooler OMG WTF ur
gay." Heck, I'm not even here to vouch for any splendor the DS may
command. I'm here simply to remind several people why we play games.
First off, I will openly admit several things: the PSP has a better
list of games than the DS, better hardware than the DS, and more
capabilities that appeal to the general public (some advertised, others
not so much)
than the DS. It also looks better, in my opinion. Despite all of these
supposed advantages, though, the DS still possesses one quaint little
aspect that continues to get less and less attention as the days go by:
innovation. That's right, folks. Not only this, but it possesses
innovation on a level we haven't even begun to fully comprehend.
Think about it for a minute: two screens, one of which is a
touch-screen. At first, it appears to be nothing special; I mean,
"Wahoo! I can have a map and a game at the same time! Phht. Big whoop."
But, if you really think about it, the potential there goes far deeper
than a simple map/game scheme. Granted, I'm not the god of creativity
and imagination, and my scope of such things is rather limited, but
just think what could happen if this sort of configuration was handed
to a true genius, such as Mr. Hideo Kojima. We've all seen the things
he can do with standard, everyday hardware that stands out in no way,
shape, or form; just imagine what he could do with this.
But, the funny thing is that try as you might, you can't envision what
he'd do. Or what anybody would do, for that matter. And this, my
friends, is precisely what makes the DS so extraordinary; it has
potential, untapped and dormant, to breathe life into a medium of
entertainment slowly but surely destroying itself through monotony and
repetition. I'm not joking about this, either, and we should all
realize this: the majority of consumers in the world will, after
finding something they like, latch onto it like a parasite and demand
more and more of that same thing. Publishers, seeing this demand for
similarity, churn out second-hand games of borrowed greatness;
creativity dies, and soon every game in every genre steals concepts
from one another until nothing is original. Where's the entertainment
in that, I ask you? I'm not saying innovation has died already; I'm
just implying that it is well on its way.
And now, to analyze the PSP. A remarkable piece of hardware,
I must admit; however, it wields not a single ounce of originality or
innovation. It is, in effect, a home entertainment system smashed into
a portable PlayStation 2. (And don't think I'm talking about the
innovation of the games; I am simply commenting on the system itself).
Where's the ingenuity in that? How does this revolutionize the world of
videogames? How does this give us, the players, something new and
different and amazing; something that will enchant our hearts and
capture our imaginations? Heh, the PSP does none of these. It gives us
a charlatan of greatness: a shell composed of borrowed achievements and
hackneyed concepts, built on graphics and gimmicks. Here's a
fact for the ages: graphics do not make a game. While arguing
with this Champion of Stagnation, I continually heard the phrase,
"...but the PSP has such better graphics," to which I responded, "But
graphics don't dictate a game's greatness!" The reply I received, "Yes
they do!" was almost as painful as having someone take rusty nails to
my skull. This mindset, this desire for looks without substance, is
precisely why I vie for the DS (or, at least, the concepts that
conceived the DS).
Before I conclude this editorial, I suppose I should voice several
things once again. First off, I do not believe that the DS has better
games than the PSP. This is not what I mean to convey. The point I'm
trying to enforce is that the DS has greater potential, has a greater
wealth of originality and transformation than the PSP, which is simply
a mess of fancy hardware and cliché-ed ideals. For those of you who
understand this, I applaud you; for those of you who don't, I eagerly
await any rebuttals you deem necessary.
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