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November 20, 2006
Bad planning and apathy
I'd say that the chaos surrounding the release of the PS3 was one that could have and should have been prevented with a little planning. Stanley Crouch says, "From one end of the country to the other, adults sleep in the street
for nights on end as though they are homeless in order to have choice
places in line when PlayStations go on sale. That alone gives us more
than an indication of how great a problem we find ourselves facing." He was talking about why young black men are worthless, but the quote serves here.
Beatings and violence surrounding the release of a new console system or many other highly anticipated consumer items are not new. However, this is the most expensive and most highly anticipated console release in years, if not ever. Is it really a surprise when people get trampled, beaten and shot for these things? This happened 25 years ago for Cabbage Patch Kids, and I daresay that these PS3's are a hell of a lot better than those ugly troll babies.
Sony of America should have seen it coming and, at the very least, given guidelines for retailers for how to actually distribute their software. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony were sued over this, to tell you the truth. IANAL, but I would think that they had enough reason to believe that these incidents would take place and that they should have taken a measure of responsibility. It would not have been hard to hire a guy to come up with some guidelines and have strict control over their distribution; it's SONY. Storeowners, who are at the front lines of consumerism, could easily have come up with a ticketing system or some such thing to make it much harder for people to have such easy marks. Security could have been beefed up in certain mall locations. A staggered distribution system. Anything to make it safer to buy these things.
Don't get me wrong; I don't absolve the purveyors of violence of their guilt by any stretch. Not at all. This is your basic, violent profiteering. These people are worthy of nothing but contempt, and I don't care what kind of socio-economic background they have (although, the overmarketing of materialism as the ultimate destiny of the successful to black men should be considered here, see the article by Stanley Crouch).
I suppose I have the consumers, or rather, out-of-control consumerism, to add to the list of those responsible. A sensible person would wait a few weeks or months before actually buying one; they could rent in the meantime. It's not like there are a ton of games available for it. Furthermore, even though it's seventh generation, it's version 1.0 hardware. Better versions will be released, as well as better games. Is a video game console even worth camping out all night for, ever? Risking one's life? Because what with the things you hear these days, I find it hard to believe that no one anticipated that these things would take place. You know it's pathetic when even I say that these consoles aren't worth that much.
As for me, you won't see me buying up one of these systems until around 2008, or later. It took years to get a PS2; and I skipped the original Playstation. Consoles are simply not worth it to me, especially when I have so many other things to worry about.
Posted by JonasParker at November 20, 2006 3:21 PM
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