So, I'm in EB the other day buying a copy of Operation Flashpoint. While I'm checking out, a boy about 8 or 9 years old comes up to the counter and says, "What's an Xbox?"

The guy behind the counter and I both look at him incredulously. "What?" says Counter Guy after a long pause.

"What's an Xbox?"

Counter Guy says, "It is Bill Gates' new gaming machine." (A bad answer, IMHO.)

"You mean it plays video games?"

"Uhh, yeah, it plays video games. See?" Counter Guy points over to the big Xbox display, from where the kid came, and the lightbulb finally goes on over the kid's head.

Is this what our youth have come to? They are so blas� about a next-generation console release that they have not even heard of it? I can remember anticipating the Atart 2600 for months in advance, and that was long before cable TV or the Internet. Yeesh.

Of course, I have a rule that you have to beat me in Deathmatch before you can date my daughters, so maybe this bodes well for my peace of mind.

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Of course, I have a rule that you have to beat me in Deathmatch before you can date my daughters, so maybe this bodes well for my peace of mind.

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Good God Supertanker... where would an 8 year old hear about the Xbox? From their Wired subscription maybe? Especially since the advertising deluge hasn't started yet.

Kids don't know or care what's coming out, unless they have older siblings. When it actually comes out kids will hear about it on the schoolyard, then they probably won't care because all the cool kids already have Playstation 2's.

For now, they know about the Playstation 2, you can bank on that, but the Xbox? That's expecting an awful lot of product/world awareness from an 8 year old. I mean, in your story you and that clerk are the one's who seem out of touch. ;>

(I mean, if I wasn't a gamer who reads the Internet and speciality mags, *I* probably wouldn't know what the Xbox is)

Don't you remember, o' "Atari 2600 looker forward to guy", we used to make fun of Intellivision people (even though they had the better system).

-Andrew

Alright, Bub. Don't you come in here and go getting all logical on us! When we want the voice of reason, we'll ask for it...

Still -- these days, it's kinda surprising to me that 8-year-olds aren't, according to you, "product aware." I think they might surprise you. I was pretty conscious of things like that when I was eight. And had I been in an EB many times, I would have been more so.

Bah. I'm with Bub on this one.
I have a 7.5 year old, she's the daughter of a gaming magazine editor, and I'm sure she's never heard of the X-box either. And I don't think it's the 6 months before being 8 that makes the difference.

She *does* know about the GameCube, but that's only because her old man is a Nintendo fanboy who's been showing her screen shots and photos from magazines, in hopes that she'll rally to his side against mom's protests on launch day.
8 is still young, unless, like Bub said, they have older siblings--or older friends. Or dorky parents.

p.s. there is an X-Box on our floor at CGW (belonging to the console mag folks) and jeez that thing is FRICKIN' HUUUGE. Gimme the GameCube lunch box any day.

I agree too. That's expecting a lot of an eight year old. He at least knew it existed and had the gumption to ask about it. That's probably more than most kids. In my EB days, I was often amazed at how much peer pressure mandated which game kids would get. The crappiest wrestling game as a new release was still the hottest seller simply because Billy down the street had it and Joey wanted to kick Billy's ass in that game and needed it to practice.

Same goes for the consoles themselves. Most kids only know what they've played. I'm still surprised by how much advertising doesn't affect the little ones. They're really oblivious to it. That's a VERY good thing IMO. I wish they would stay that way instead of growing up into drooling fanboy adults like ourselves.

--Dave

The Xbox and Gamecube ads haven't really started, have they? I'm sure the Saturday morning toons will be saturated with them before long.

There's junk all over the EB already. You'd think they have Xbox and games in stock with all the PR crap lying around. Hell, it's even in their window display.

It's just starting too. This is the tip of the advertising iceberg. We're about to be a tiny little Titanic split in two by the marketing might of Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. You won't be able to turn around this holiday season without seeing game system advertising of some sort. The ridiculous thing is that there probably won't be any Goddamn systems around to buy after Thanksgiving.

What a waste.

--Dave

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Of course, I have a rule that you have to beat me in Deathmatch before you can date my daughters, so maybe this bodes well for my peace of mind.

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Yeah, the Xbox is definitely large, and the Gamecube is especially tiny (especially by comparison). But like, what the hell do I care? I mean, it's going to sit up there next to my TV along with all the other boxes that are just as big, like my VCR and DVD player.

I think you guys have your expectations too low for kids. I didn't mention that my five-year-old was over checking out the Xbox display, the assortment of JumpStart games ("Ooh! That's a new one, I don't have that one!"), and the Dreamcast games. She already devours the Disney catalog when it shows up, and I shudder to think what she will be like when she is ten.

Actually, I have an idea. When I was a kid, we were always trying to learn more about the latest toy, gadget, whatever. Where were all of you? I remember the FAO Schwartz catalog was particularly prized as an intelligence source in the early 70s (when I was under ten). We were down at the public library watching a pre-release silent film loop of Star Wars and marveling at how cool it was going to be.

I also have watched my nephews grow up, pestering their mothers for subscriptions to Nintendo Power and starting the Christmas console begging in July. Kids now get pummeled with far more marketing and pre-marketing that I ever did, so I expect them to be even more informed.

YMMV, I guess.

I didn't get the FAO Schwartz catalog, but I did get the Present Company catalog. It had pictures of all the latest toys and it had electronics (I think I was 6-- a bit of an early bloomer). Man, that just brought back some fond memories... Sitting around, looking at the catalog, circling stuff and hoping that my parents would notice. I don't think they ever even picked the damn thing up, but I was always wishing!

If I were still a kid, I'd probably be the pain in the ass arguing about processor speeds with the guy behind of the desk (who would be rolling his eyes waiting for my mom to come and pick me up...)

Eapen

Hmm. I don't have kids...and my cats are not
interested in the Xbox OR the GameCube.

They ARE, however, really excited about that
little ring of plastic that comes off the top of a
gallon milk jug. It's a lot easier to develop
games for, too.

My cat goes nuts for those, too. That, and twist-ties. Whenever I get some new gadget that comes with electrical cords, my cat gets all excited and watches me unpack it because he knows I'm gonna unbundle a power cord or something with a twist tie on it, and toss it on the floor for him to amuse himself with for half an hour. Until he manages to bat it all the way over to the fridge and under it, which I'm convinced he does on purpose.

If I moved my fridge, there would be several dozen twist ties and milk carton rings underneath it.

You can also get your cat to do tricks with the milk rings. I used to put a milk ring on a wall light switch and let the cat turn the light off by jumping for it:-)

Since we are on a cat subject, does anyone know why a cat would start falling off high objects? I have a 12 year old cat who has recently started falling off of the computer hutch where she sleeps. There's lots of room, but she consistantly falls into the fake plant which breaks her fall. It may just be old age, but she seems fine otherwise. Do you guys who work for CGW know if Jeff Green falls from his chair very often? I understand he is pretty old:-)

-DavidCPA

We had a new cat that suddenly started losing her balance and falling off things. Within a couple of weeks of adopting her, she got so bad that she couldn't hop down off the couch without ending up in a heap. We took her into the vet, and they said she had liver failure, probably from drinking some radiator fluid (the previous owners had some old cars around), and we had to put her down.

The vet said that the lack of balance was really just from feeling so horrible that she couldn't do much but sleep, sort of like when you have to get up when you have a bad fever and can't move well. With a 12-year-old cat, I would think it was just old age dragging her down a bit.

We have a black cat that only likes to sleep on something light colored, and a white cat that only likes to sleep on something dark colored. What's up with that? It's like anti-camoflage.

"If I moved my fridge, there would be several dozen twist ties and milk carton rings underneath it."

Someday you should move your fridge and put all of them into one big chain and see what happens.

Regarding the 12 year old cat that is losing its balance: Take it to a vet. You could be looking at early signs of internal infections.

Have you ever had your cat's teeth cleaned?

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Have you ever had your cat's teeth cleaned?

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We have a black cat that only likes to sleep on something light colored, and a white cat that only likes to sleep on something dark colored. What's up with that? It's like anti-camoflage.

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"We have a black cat that only likes to sleep on
something light colored, and a white cat that
only likes to sleep on something dark
colored."

I have a calico cat that can, apparently,
*selectively* eject hairs of whatever color will
contrast most with whatever I'm wearing: black
hair onto white sweater, white hair onto black
jacket, and orange hair onto those turquoise
spandex hotpants with silver sequins that I
borrowed from Jeff Green (ps -- I'll get them
back to you by Halloween, promise).

-Sparky

Last time we moved the loveseat in the livingroom there we 2 cat toys and at least a dozen plastic bottlecaps under it. Turns out my girlfriend kept dropping the tops of her 20 oz Coke bottles onto the floor next to the 'puter and the cat would play with it them for a few hours before batting them under the loveseat.

We heaped them into a pile in the middle of the livingroom and watched as they slowly disappeared over the next few days.

"We have a black cat that only likes to sleep on something light colored, and a white cat that only likes to sleep on
something dark colored. What's up with that? It's like anti-camoflage. "
It's FFF (Feline Frustration Factor). They lie down wherever it will result in the most work for you to clean up the signs of hair...

Also, I'm a full-grown guy (no pron jokes, please), and if it wasn't for all of YOU guys writing about the XBox here and in your magazines (you are SO Bill Gates' Bitch), I'd have never heard of it, either. Nintendo people all seem to know about the Gamecube, though. Maybe Nintendo keeps a mailing list, and updates them on new offerings?