While most of you were out celebrating whatever Labor Day commemorates by drinking cheap beer through funnels and hoses, I spent three back-breaking, soul-crushing days hauling my crap from one apartment to another. Let me explain to you how much I hate moving: the last time I had to do it, I ended up vomiting out of pure rage. Or maybe it was too much potato salad. Science has never been able to provide me with an answer.
Whatever the case, I now believe in the one-console future because it takes an entire carload just to move my A/V gear from one place to another.
I'll admit that some of my pain is self-inflicted; I may have stopped hoarding games since I signed up for GameFly three years ago, but the dated nature of my equipment makes for some irritating adventures in moving. My main inspiration for wanting an HDTV is that my current SDTV--while it is a top-of-the-line Sony Wega--weighs about 500 pounds for reasons I have been unable to determine. I know that upgrading to hi-def may mean no longer having a small nuclear reactor with heavy lead shielding display images of Dexter in my apartment, but that's a loss I'm willing to take.
And then we have the consoles. Services like the Wii's Virtual Console and other forms of emulation have allowed me to retire my old devices into storage, but I still have to contend with four different machines wrestling for space in my entertainment center: Wii, GameCube, XBOX 360, and PS2. If I ever had the money/incentive to get a PS3, it would be impossible to place in my apartment without the use of hover jets. Even then, I'd still have to contend with the jungle of wires that become indecipherable once plugged in and placed next to dozens more.
So am I just being a big, whiny baby about this, or is my concern actually legitimate? I once had a non-gamer friend marvel in pity after seeing the horrible electrical orgy that goes on every day in my living room. Now that I know what the other side thinks, I'm worried that society may look down on the massive fire hazard I use to entertain myself daily.