Camping for geeks

Last week nerds by the thousands nationwide dedicated days of their lives to the Playstation 3, the newest and most powerful video game system to hit the market. According to the multitude of news stories that accompanied the occasion these brave geeks suffered cold weather and muggers and ridicule from friends and family all for the chance Friday to spend upwards of $600 on what is essentially the latest evolution of Pong.
Apparently at this level of evolution there is a lot more cleavage and wanton destruction than there was in the old days. If Ms.Pac Man were created today she'd have silicone implants and carry an Uzi.
The release two days later of Nintendo's Wii, the next-generation game system voted most likely to inspire sophomoric jokes, did not receive quite as much attention. When I stopped by a Best Buy store in Woodbury on Saturday, the day before the Wii was unveiled to the public, only a couple of people were camped out. Although one of them was dressed as the Super Mario Bros. character Luigi, so that ratcheted the dork factor up quite a bit.
My own history with video game consoles goes back to Christmas of 1983, when my brother and I received as gifts both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the competing Sega Master System. We continued to own systems from both companies through several subsequent generations, and when I got to college in 1993 I started to add more computer gaming to the mix. On at least two occasions I played online games with my friends for more than 12 consecutive hours, a fact women almost never find impressive when I bring it up in bars.
I once paid to take part in a video game competition. That's when I realized there were many people either more dedicated to gaming than I was or less dedicated to spending time outside. That was pretty much the end of my dreams of becoming a professional gamer.
What I'm trying to say is I've got some experience with this whole video gaming thing. I still own a Dreamcast, Sega's last attempt at making a game console before the company decided it could no longer keep up with Nintendo in the ridiculous-name department, and the just-replaced Playstation 2. I haven't turned either one on in more than a month, but they're there and both have logged their share of use.
I understand the appeal of the new systems. The Playstation 3 can produce graphics that border on photorealistic, and Nintendo's system has an innovative controller and a name that provides the opportunity for endless jokes about playing with your Wii.
Still, I have trouble understanding people willing to camp outside an electronics store to buy either system on the day it's released. The list of products I'm willing to camp out for begins and ends with Knight Rider DVD box sets.
Then again, many of the people who camped out for first-day Playstations turned around and sold them on ebay for $2,000 or more. I saw a couple that had bids above $30,000 on launch day and on Monday night Playstations were still going for more than $2,000 each and Wiis for more than $1,000. You can buy a whole lot of David Hasseloff posters for that kind of money.
These days, of course, people find reasons to be down on video games. Video games get blamed for everything from kids being out of shape to teenagers shooting up their schools. For the record, I don't believe Grand Theft Auto is responsible for Columbine any more than Lolita was responsible for deviant behavior, Ozzy Osbourne was responsible for devil worship, or Martha Stewart's television show is responsible for a growth in insider trading among housewives.
I'll admit I'm intrigued by this next generation of video gaming, including Microsoft's XBox 360, which has been available for a year already and has a name that isn't remotely funny. There may come a time when I'll buy one or the other of them. But I can guarantee you if I do there will not be tents involved.