The old infomercials of the 1950s raved about how product X could slice, dice, chop, juice, and if need be, pick up your dry cleaning and bathe your dog too. Back then, baby boomers reveled in the victory of war, and wanted to live the life of affordable luxury, which was roughly translated into convenience. The more that could be done with less was the standard of modern living.
Today, we demand our technologies to simply be capable of so much more. A cell phone cant merely take calls; it requires a web browser, video player, GPS tracking and a music player. And if said cell phone doesnt have a digital camera, it might as well be used as a doorstop. The electronics we use today are either convenient or obsolete. And unlike the puritan 1950s, it isnt luxury that dictates the efficiency of our devices, its time, or lack thereof.
Now, somewhere between the 1950s and today, home video game systems boomed in popularity and accessibility. And for a good 15 years, your video game system was good for playing video games and nothing else. Insert game, turn on, play game, shut off: a fairly simple concept.
Then the Sony Playstation came.
The genesis of the...