Now wait just a minute, Dan. You're description of the "Playstation-generation" sounds a lot like "guilt by association."

I'm a Gen-Xer, a working professional, father, and gamer. No, I wasn't odd enough to stand out in the rain last week for a PS3, but that doesn't mean that I can enjoy a balanced life. As for denegrating our troops, the work that I do supports our men and women in uniform every day, and I take pride in that.

However, it seems that the generations which criticize us are the ones who can't make the distinction between reality and games. You want to levy responsibility on us to correct the mistakes that previous generations made.

Do you think that the drug trade in Baltimore, or the collapse of the family is something which has just come about?? Your generation, Dan, is just as much to blame for the current situation as ours, if not more so, for turning a blind eye to it for so long.

And you wonder why we'll stand out in the rain to escape reality for just a little while?

AMEN to your Sunday column. These young people certainly haven't learned the difference between, 'I want it'/'I need it.'

I wonder if they'd stand/sleep,sit in line to wait for Baby Jesus to be born?

Margaret

Let's look at this issue of Playstation 3 fandom a little more deeply, shall we?

Advertising on TV to younger and younger children - with ever increasing savvy, intensity, focus, and relentlessness - has become an industry "best practice" for sellers of products to kids. If you're going to berate someone for believing that happiness can come from a material possession, why not save some of your rancor for everyone who helped convince him or her that life works that way? I'm a gen X-er, and I realize that my internal view of the world has been shaped by everyone looking to make a dime off of me. You quote a guy saying "It's no wonder we have a generation of kids who are lazy, obese, and out of touch with reality." Maybe the Bible had it right, if we train up a child in the way they should go, when they are old, they AREN'T departing from it.

I'm with you on this one, Dan. I used to work with a 28 year old who was not only obsessed with video games, but also with Harry Potter and Spiderman.

I gathered from some of his conversations that he was probably from a dysfunctional family, so perhaps a little bit of escapism would have been understandable, but this guy was totally off the deep end.

I'm going to leave generational theory and name-calling aside for the nonce if that's alright with everyone.

The fact is that in this day and age the names, Mario and Link and Samus mean as much to those of us that grew up with them as the names Elvis and Pete Townsend and Gene Simmons meant to those before us. Couple that type of name draw with the serious marketing dollars that Sony and its ilk have put into the console launches and you end up with the unwashed masses teeming with desire - filled with the belief that by owning whatever piece of tech is being peddled will suddenly fulfill their deepest needs (much like beer ads, but with more polygons).

Regardless of all of that however, I'm not going to argue with the point that those standing in line should have found something else to do. If nothing else, the anemic PS3 launch line-up and supply chain problems most certainly did not deserve to be met with slavish devotion - rather, it deserved nothing more than derision and scorn.

Regards.

-josh