So I have a couple of thoughts on two things that Jeff said during this episode. The first is Jeff’s assertion that dedicated gaming handhelds would not exist if smartphones were around when they were made. I believe whole heatedly that Jeff is very wrong on this. I could list a couple of reasons why but I’ll just hit him back with this; couldn’t the same argument be made about consoles? Why should consoles exist if the PC came first? A PC does a lot more that any console and let’s not forget that games on PC are cheaper than they are on console. So why do consoles exist? Well gaming on a console is actually cheaper in the long run. Dedicated PC gaming can become quite expensive. Graphics cards, new motherboards, new coolers, upgrading your HDD, more RAM, and if you overclock you might need a new CPU. Now this isn’t a problem with phones per se but, like PCs, new phones are always coming out and as a lot of smartphone users can tell you your phone can become obsolete in less than two years. I own an OG Droid, (waiting for the Galaxy Nexus), and because of advances made since I’ve bought it my phone is slow and can barely run any apps. IPhone’s have this issue too. Also let’s not forget smartphones cost $100 a month to use. So since older phones can barely run any apps that means playing games on it is out of the question. Consoles and dedicated gaming handhelds don’t have this problem. With them you know as a consumer that people making games for it have to build it within its limits so you don’t feel the need to buy the latest and greatest tech, plus dedicated handhelds have MUCH better controls than any phone enabling developers to make better games.


Jeff’s problem with multiplayer games seems to be that he doesn’t get why people like it so much. He sounds like he believes it’s a separate group of people that have invaded his space and that playing multiplayer forces him to have to interact with these people. My counter to this is that I used to believe similar things… about MMO players. Why anyone would want to pay $15 a month to play a game without the opportunity to own it is beyond me. I would feel so pressured to get as much as possible out of said game that I can’t see myself having fun with it. I used to believe that the only people who play MMOs are big fat guys who live in their mother’s basement. Obviously that’s not true. I’ve met many MMO players and I know that they come from a large cross section of people. Same is true for multiplayer. Also, I’ve heard many reasons why a lot of people like playing MMOs and I would advise Jeff to listen to people who like playing multiplayer before judging them because they prefer it over single-player experiences.