Supporting the Unsuccessful

You know, I was just thinking as I watched my brother mash the hell out of the X button during a session of Resident Evil 4 on the PLAYSTATION 3 REVOLUTIONARY HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM THAT ALSO SOMETIMES RUNS PLAYSTATION 2 GAMES DEPENDING UPON YOUR HARDWARE that my favorite videogame console purchases have often become obsolete in terms of commercial success. Really, the only exception would be the NINTENDO REVOLUTIONARY ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM back in 1989, but that was probably because no one had ever heard of a Master System, and even if you had, no one wanted to play one when you had Mario jumping around in Supremely Awesome Fun Land.

Take a look at my history:

1994: I was given a Sega Genesis packed in with the game Columns (which actually happens to be a pretty good game, but a poor substitute for Sonic). I loved the system. However, Genesis was not as popular as the SNES and apparently tanked in Japan.

1999: A year after Zelda was released, my parents got my brothers and I a Nintendo 64, which, as most of us know and have beaten the dead horse to a pulp by now, was not as successful as the Playstation. I loved the N64 anyway. Crash Bandicoot, while admittedly filled with 'tude, was not appealing.

2001: After seeing screenshots and videos for Super Smash Brothers Melee, I went out and bought one of the first shipments of Gamecubes. Yes, all of them. Okay, just a single Cube. And surprisingly, no matter how bad a reputation that little black cube gets and has gotten (goddamn it!), I still play it more than any system I've ever owned. Gamecubes, though, did not sell as well as the competition.

So now, I own a PLAYSTATION 3. It's not getting very good press and isn't selling as well as it should. How about that? And yet, despite my sarcasm above about how revolutionary it is, I prefer it to the Wii and Xbox 360, just like I've preferred the least commercially successful consoles more than their counterparts in years past. I can't really say why. Maybe it's a subconscious thing, where I have to support the underdog -- almost exactly like people who only listen to Indie music even though it sucks (sorry, Ben Meckley (search engines are great, aren't they?), but yes, it does suck. Well, most of it. But those morning rides to Wildernet while listening to the same mix over and over again became torturous after the third or fourth time. Heck, any music would, I guess.).

Just thought I should put that information out there. I'm hoping I just have good taste and the masses who make certain products popular, uh, don't.