Acceptance! That is all we have ever wanted as gamers, to be held to the bosom of society and embraced as normal people. Not to be frowned upon or have disparaging looks cast upon us as we walk past, clutching our new games in the branded plastic bags of games shops as we rush home to play our new releases. Yes, we rush home in this baking weather to sit inside mastering our latest purchase, we spend countless hours mastering the games as our peers sit in beer gardens and parks, socialising, interacting and being outside in general. It has just occurred to me, this is where we fail, this is the point that we become nomads and geeks or freaks, we shun the outside life for the pursuit of our love. But it’s not our fault, oh no…
For years and years companies have tried to get us gaming on the go and up until fairly recently have failed miserably. The first incarnation of handhelds were simple monochrome LCD affairs way back in the early 80s. They were small, pocket sized devices with severely limited game play, but at least you could take them with you anywhere. There was never a handheld system for the spectrum era and indeed it was not until the time of the Master System that portable gaming was attempted again. Sega released the Game Gear which offered full colour portable gaming but as usual battery issues nullified it. The USA, a few years later, got the Sega Nomad which played all Mega Drive games on its built in full colour LCD screen, but guess what? Yup, battery power let it down. It wasn’t until the Game Boy Advance and latterly the DS and PSP that we truly had the option to take our games on the go with us. Yes, the original Game Boy had been out for many years but the games weren’t up to the standards of the home consoles available. It has only been in the last few years that the general public has taken an interest in portable gaming, largely through the DS, in fact there are not many households with children that don’t have at least one DS. This doesn’t solve our problem of acceptance though, it goes a bit deeper.
Think about this, you buy music and you can share it almost instantly with all your friends via phones, laptops, mp3 players, etc. Buy a DVD or download a film and it can be shared in much the same way. Most people these days have the technology in their pockets or bags to share vast amounts of media without thinking twice about it. Phones are whipped out in pubs and clubs, buses, trains, parks anywhere. Huge quantities of visual and audio media are shared but very little of that is games related. Imagine if you will, a truly portable device that would play all your modern games along with all the media you need to swap about, it just may make the whole game experience acceptable.
To go down this route we first have to embrace the whole concept of digital distribution. It is completely ludicrous to think of a machine that you insert game discs in to to take with you, that takes us back to the whole battery power issue. So you download the games to your machine that boasts a high definition widescreen display, stereo sound and most importantly dual thumbsticks, it has Wi-Fi, bluetooth, MP3 and a camera. It is now the must have device, most people have them, on a sunny day groups of people can be seen in the park playing Call of Duty 4 multi player, outside. The game that you didn’t have the time to finish in the house last night could be finished on the commute in the morning, but wait, you link it in with your console to carry over achievements/trophies. We now have the ultimate multimedia device capable of all the tasks associated with modern life but also capable of taking gaming truly outside, no longer will we be shunned and laughed at. That hot guy/girl you have your eye on will no longer sneer at you, instead they will ask you to help them with Mile High. Our shackles are broken, our restraints are lifted and we can once again integrate with society. Oh… it hasn’t been made yet! Get the DeLorean out, we’re going we don’t need roads.
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