VideogameVagabond.com

Can a 45-year-old man maintain a marriage and a videogame habit? Let's find out!

Monthly Archives: August 2010

Cured of Madden fever

I used to wait as breathlessly as anyone for the release of the newest edition of Madden NFL. In fact, I was there from the very first edition on Sega Genesis, and bought the title uninterrupted until Sony introduced the original PlayStation. Even after that, I still loved Madden and bought it most years.

But in the past four years, I’ve grown less and less interested in Madden. Part of that is marriage, part of that is waning interest in football, and part of that is growing too enamored of PC sports management sims that are, simply put, more compelling to me at 43.

I mean, I still love football; I’m a fan of the Vikings and there will always be a place in my heart for, say, Adrian Peterson personalized footballs.

But Madden? Maybe I’ve played it for too long, too many years, but it’s just not compelling anymore. Sorry, EA!

Kindle vs. iPod

Outside of videogames directly, I have some new tech that’s been demanding my time of late.

The first is the Apple iPod nano; I’ve had my 16 GB device for several months now and couldn’t be more thrilled with the way it’s reignited my passion for music. I have pretty much every Glee song on it, as well as loading it up with old CDs, new artists and a lot of Messianic worship music. It’s a joy.

Now, my passion for reading may be getting refueled as well; I preordered an Amazon Kindle 3 and have gone crazy buying books for it of late. The ultra-thin eReader is only $139 and still over two weeks away, and yet I’ve purchased at amazingly low prices at least 35 books for it. Talk about fun!

On a side note, it seems like my interest in videogames is finally waning a bit. I don’t mean I’ll never game again or anything, but as I’ve been writing more, I’ve been prioritizing reading and music over PS3 and Xbox 360. There are only so many hours in a week, and for the first time in a while, videogames are the thing taking a hit.

That’s why I’m writing more about Kindle and iPod than I used to in this space, because it’s all electronic entertainment. Sure, I’ll still share my videogame experiences here regularly, but there’s going to be more variety going forward.

On that note, have you ever wondered why videogames haven’t ventured into even more niche areas? It seems to me there are lots of unexplored sim genres. I mean, I’m sure there are some young girls who could become interested in videogames if they could, say, design women’s dresses in a competitive environment. Something to think about.

More Kindle 3 thoughts

The more I compare Kindle 3 WiFi to the competition, the more I’m convinced I pre-ordered the right device. Nook has half the memory of a K3, and I’m not thrilled with the eBook selection at Barnes and Noble. Sure, it could improve in time, but with the recent work that Barnes and Noble is “on the market” and there are few buyers interested, that makes me nervous about the company’s stability. While the Nook has some interesting features, it has yet to live up to the promise.

Then there’s Border’s Kobo, the worst of the bunch; it barely offers 1GB in memory, only one-quarter of the memory found in a K3, and it’s blue d-pad is downright ugly. Border’s selection is also worse than Barnes and Noble, and the Kobo looks more like discount laminate flooring than an eReader.

And Sony? They’re not even tied in with a book source, really. Plus I dislike their screens.

So in the end, I’m glad I chose to pre-order a K3; now the trick will be to get a second one in time for my wife’s birthday, as Amazon is already sold out and creating a backorder list. Yikes!

My Kindle 3 is preordered

Once Amazon announced the Kindle 3, I knew the time had come for me to commit to getting one; but I wanted to wait a bit. Then they sold out of the initial supply, so I finally decided I didn’t want to wait too long and end up not getting one till 2011. So I preordered.

Now I’ll just need to budget for it. At $139, it’s not an unreasonable price and I can budget for it. Then I’ll need to work on saving up for one for my wife. I think it’d make a nice birthday gift, and simplify her book-buying. But I’ll let her try mine first to see if it’s something she’d like well enough to use.

We’ll see. At least Kindle is a whole lot more interesting than talking about a life insurance lead, though that’s fun, too, if you’re in sales.