ok, this has to be the most asinine article I've ever read

http://www.nyunews.com/opinion/columnists/7936.html

While Microsoft's Xbox is quite an eyesore, weighing somewhere between three and four tons, with controllers designed for gorillas with abnormally large hands, the way to counter that was not to make a purple box the size of a sugar cube. It makes you look girly, which would be fine, except that girls don't play video games. I'm not even going to go where this logically could go, because you are a family company.

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I just take a huge offense at that. I mean...wow. For one thing, he just ignores that the Gamecube is available in black and silver as well as purple. Secondly, girls do in fact play video games. And most girls don't even like the purple Gamecube, so that statement is just staggeringly stupid.

The GameCube has had some awesome games, I admit, but your newfound philosophy of simple gameplay over good graphics kind of sucks, and so do some of the games. One of your biggest mistakes was selling "Rare," which delivered you "Goldeneye," "Perfect Dark" and "Conker" among others, simply because you were trying to make a quick buck.

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Yes, and Rare has done so much for XBOX. :

Anyways, what do you guys think? Maybe I'm overreacting.

Obviously, that person is not a fanboy.

But yeah, I don't play Xbox, but I don't bash it. It's still a great system, and I have nothing against it.

It appears that the author made the whole article in jest. My friend emailed him and this is what he replied:

Thanks for reading. The column was largely meant in jest; I had hoped the tone of the column would convey that. The comment that "girls don't play video games" was purely sarcastic, and I thought obviously so, as a tool to further that tone. Given the large number of emails I have gotten, it would appear that it was not so obvious. In any case, I'm well aware girls play video games; I know a lot of them, and play with my girlfriend all the time. She tends to beat the shit out of me at puzzle games and Mario Kart: DD!! I would, however, argue that girls as whole (like a demographic trend) tend to lean towards RPGs, platformers, and Nintendo style games, as opposed to FPS and 2D fighting games in the vein of King of Fighters. I'm not saying that no girls play these types of games, I just mean in general as a demographic trend.

The purpose of the column wasn't to strictly bash Nintendo, but point to out
some of the strategic mistakes it has made in the past few years in a semi light hearted way (hence the letter format). I still love Nintendo, and I believe that the DS and the Revolution (at least the DS from what we know) is a step in the right direction. The jokes about the DS were purely jokes; I'm well aware that it will be quite awesome. I have one reserved with Mario 64 and Metroid.

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It's hard to tell online though when someone is joking. I guess maybe he'll be more careful from now on.

well.. He has a couple good points.... but that RAreware point was aweful.
Sorry... Rare did NOTHING for Microsoft in what... 2 years.... seriously.... they did NOTHING.

At the same time..... Nintendo did make some strategic mistakes.... but you need to give them credit in which they accomplished. Look at the good games that Nintendo has.. there are a TON.

He needs to understand times have changed (as well)...... 3rd parties have a different attitude.... and they are not loyal anymore.... except for a couple of them.

The girl gamer point.... I don't really care about that... everyone knows there are girl gamers.

I just think this article stinks IMO. Not because its against Nintendo.... BUT it doesn't hit upon some facts.

The DS is looking awesome with great titles, and decent price tags. The Platinum and black Gamecubes look rather cool... in fact, I love my platinum cube. Just because it is square shaped.... that makes it kiddy : ALSO, he should look and see... "oh, Nintendo has actually been making money this whole time... while Microsoft was losing money on their systems.... reallly bad after the 1st price drop."
Nintendo is starting to regain some of their old alliances with Namco, Squaresoft, EA, and other key developers.

HE has some valid points... but at the same time, he is not looking at what ground Nintendo has gained since the N64.

†B†V† :hat

"except that girls don't play video games"

Basically every girl I know loves to play video games and not like stupid fn Barbie games. I really don't get where this notion that girls dont play games come from. Even if he was being sarcastic he wouldn't say it for no good reason. I think developers need to realise this and stop making such obviously guy oriented games ala "the guy game"....Maybe if they actually knew a damn thing about the gaming world they would.....

His writing sounds very tired and boring. Blah, blah, blah, the Xbox is huge, the GC is kiddie yada, yada, yada. Come up with some original wit there buddy...yawn...

I'm really surprised this guy is actually a columnist. As x2 pointed out he seems to have a very poor writing style. His column seemed to be neither a critique nor parody of anything, as it was devoid of any humor and lacked any kind of insight. It was just a stupid column that restated many things that have been said before, with now new twists of any kind. Just the same old tripe.

I agree with what everyone said.

Now, I just wish I knew a girl that played video games, preferably one that's between the range of hot to supermodel, and also one that's not a pain in the...

I'd say it's asinine for sure.