Today I am working from home like I have for most of the semester because I am on sabbatical and finally have some time to spend some dedicated research time (theoretically anyway), but today I am sitting at the desk in my home office rather than lounging around reading, sitting in the game room playing games, or keyboarding furiously with my laptop perched on my lap and a cup of coffee sitting precariously on the arm of the chaise. And why, you may ask, am I so much less comfortable today than any other day?
Three words.
Out. For. Delivery.
That’s right, I’m waiting (im)patiently for my XBox One and I can hear and see the UPS truck as it pulls up in front of the house from this particular vantage point. It’s the console that I have been waiting for since I pushed the pre-order button 5 months ago. And this time I am waiting in the “comfort” of my own home.
Last Thursday evening found me sitting on the cold ass concrete floor at a local big box store with 17 people ahead of me waiting for one of the 18 Playstation 4’s that the store manager had told us were available in the store (they didn’t take pre-orders). We were a community of early adopters, but many of us for different reasons. The EMT in front of me had just gotten off of a 12 hour shift and was waiting to buy one as an early Christmas present for her husband (that woman is a saint), there were several mothers and grandmothers waiting to buy one for sons and grandsons, several college aged boys, and one young couple who were waiting together with their love to keep them warm. But oddly, I was the only 40-something year old woman waiting to pick one up for herself. Sitting in that line gave me a chance to think…while other folks were talking about what games they were picking up and what they/their husbands/sons/grandsons were anxious to play I realized something.
There was nothing on the PS4 that I was anxious to play that wasn’t available on one of the systems that I already had at home. Hell, until earlier that week I wasn’t even interested in getting a PS4 at all and then I got caught up in the hype. Everywhere I looked I was being told that “Greatness” Awaited.
How the fuck was I going to miss out on that? What kind of fool would I be to let greatness pass me by??? Isn’t that what we all want? To be great? So I took my fledgling greatness out in the middle of the night and sat with 20 odd other fledgling great people (there were a couple of hopefuls who came in late and hoped that someone’s credit card would be declined and they’d get one. Didn’t happen.) We were all caught up in the Sony media hype. If the folks in that line didn’t want the greatness for themselves they wanted it for their husbands, children, or grandchildren. Greatness awaited up not 50 feet away and by God we would have it that night, and have it we did. All $399 (plus optional second controller and games) worth of it.
I got my box of greatness home, popped open a soda, and plugged that puppy in. After a fairly quick update I was up and running. The new UI (User Interface) is slick and shiny. The primary menu at the top of the screen is easy to navigate, but the menu image boxes below are a bit of a clusterfuck. I decided to hop into the Playstation Store to see what looked good. There was a weird delay and then the ominous message that there was an error. After hours of sitting on cold concrete and watching Monsters University with a bunch of now Great Strangers and whining teenagers, who didn’t get the PS4 they wanted due to someone else’s economic embarrassment, I was sitting in front of a Console of Greatness that would only let me watch Netflix, Hulu Plus, or other people playing games via Twitch.tv (salt in the wound, my friends). Score!
When I was finally able to get into the Playstation store the next day the download speeds were so horrendously bad (I guess that there were a lot of other great people who had envisioned going all digital as well) that I opted for the indie game Contrast instead of downloading a AAA title at 30+ GB and waiting another whole day to play something on this machine. Even my small-ish Indie game download timed out a few times or lost connection to the PSN server so I finally headed out to but a disc based copy of Assassin’s Creed 4. So much for the greatness.
I’m not actually surprised that I was a bit disappointed in my initial PS4 experience because my desire for Greatness was a bit lackluster from the beginning. Now my desire for the XBox One…that’s a different story. I sit in my office, staring out of the window and listening for the distinct rattle of the UPS truck, waiting for the Greatness that will soon by placed lovingly in my hands by the hero in brown. And when I open the box radiant beams will burst forth and angels will sing. Set up will go smoothly, the update download will go quickly and without a hitch. I am prepared this time with a brand spanking new copy of Dead Rising 3 sitting on my media center. It will be an awesome gaming experience. All will be right in the gaming world and my life will be forever changed. Right?
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