geekzapoppin

As someone who used to do shows with Justin McElroy in college, I can confirm the man's participation in Musical Theatre. It's okay, Justin. We all spontaneously break into song from time-to-time.

--Brian Kidd

I'm a Teen Programmer at the busiest library in the state of KY. We've been having gaming programs of one kind or another for the past two years or so. About six months ago, I was able to secure the funds to purchase gaming equipment and laptops for an after-school Teen Space that I run every Monday and Wednesday in one of our meeting rooms. It gives kids, many of whom can't afford their own systems, a chance to have fun and socialize. It also gets them into the library. The hardest thing to do is to convince teens that the library is not only beneficial to them, but that we want them here. Since beginning the Teen Space, the attendance at my evening programs has almost doubled. The may initially come for the games, but they often leave with books, music, movies, etc. This isn't a case of wasting taxpayer dollars on frivolous things; it's a case of libraries evolving in order to survive and also finding ways to attract a section of the community that has been traditionally ignored.

For those of you with disposable income and the means to furnish your home with the latest and greatest games/consoles: congratulations. Enjoy your stuff. For the rest, there's the Library. Yay, us!

Just how expensive do you think a hard drive and HDMI jack are? Seriously, a 120GB HDD is dirt cheap, especially when bought in bulk like MS will be doing. I can see this as a real possibility.

The ultimate irony. Activision began as a bunch of rebel game designers who left Atari when they felt they were not being given a fair shake. They were then sued by Atari for making cartridges that worked with the VCS but weren't made by Atari itself. Their win in court ushered in the era of third-party development. Well, that and the great video game crash of 1983, but that wasn't their fault. Back in the day, Activision games were the shiznit.

There was a VCD add-on for the CD-i and the PSX could also play them. You could also consider the remote/dongle for the Xbox an add-on. The fact is, most people don't use their gaming machines for anything other than gaming.

Me, I have a chipped Xbox, so I use it for watching videos but I'm in the minority.

It's all going to come down to studio support and affordability to the common consumer. The prices on DVD players came down fast enough that it sold like hotcakes. Also it was a huge leap forward from VHS and even LD. Neither hi-def format offers a substantial technological or quality advantage over standard DVD. Not to the everyman, at least. I can tell the difference between a hi-def image and a standard-def image, but my wife can't tell much of a difference. Add that to the fact that HDTVs still have a relatively low adoption rate and you come to the logical assumption that neither format will succeed for some time, at least not in a major way. Say hello to the LD of the 21st Century!