Gearheads of War

There was the Age of Steam, the Industrial Revolution, and all sorts of eras defined by technological advances at the time. I think people will look back to our current time as the Digital Age. Any of you reading this are probably like, "Duh, tyrus." lol.

That aside, think about how things were a few years ago to now. Suns commented on it in a past post in which he felt digital distribution is going to become more common in the gaming industry. But we're not seeing that with just games. We're seeing that with books, movies, and all sorts of media. Wi-fi is all over the place. It's actually pretty cool.

Dad felt that in ten years, libraries as we know it will disappear. Sure, there'll still be libraries and book stores, but there's going to be a shift. Watch. Notice how a lot of Barnes and Nobles have a coffee shop in them? Plus, e-books are becoming more common. You see the Kindle with Amazon. Once we have a reader that has the clout and versatility like the ipod with MP3s, e-books are going to take off. I don't think books will ever truly disappear, there's something tangible and nostalgic about them. But eventually, they will become more scarce. Whether that happens in another 10 or 20 years is to be seen. But I'm confident it'll happen.

I'm amazed with Digital Distribution in games. Think about when the 360 first came out to now. You can get 360 titles and download them directly to your hard drive. Does that amaze anyone but myself? lol. It just blows my mind. And after seeing the Arcade titles take off, we're seeing a whole other venue for gaming that can bring you quality titles at affordable prices.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand, the new PSP is going rely solely on digital distribution. In the past, I would have said that's asinine to have that as your sole means of providing games, but now, I'm not entirely sure. I don't know numbers, but Steam seems incredibly successful.

And do I even need to talk about Movies? Netflix has really taken off. I'd say at any given time, one of my buddies is watching a movie via Netflix on their 360. That's just cool. And think about their model... why pay late fees? Give me a set number of rentals and charge me my dough. Late fees just suck. Blockbuster has a similar service, but I wonder how long it will be before they crumble. But it's kind of like the book thing... who knows how long it will last.

Technology is a funny thing. If you read any science fiction from the 40s to 60s, people thought we'd have a colony on the moon by the 90s or 2000. But we don't. lol.

That's a more elaborate discussion for another day. But that's how technology is... it's a funny, fickle beast that goes its own way. What we're seeing in terms of digital technology is driven by consumers so I think that's why we've witnessed its exponential growth in the past few years.

Long story short, I think it's a great time to be a gamer. There are toys abound!