With apologies to guitar god Slash, I have an obsession confession to make. You see, as a self-professed geek, I deal with the occasional fit of desire for a new device or gadget. This by itself can be all the persuasion required by many individuals to translate their indulgence in to a purchase. However, my circumstances are complicated by a streak of frugality that would embarrass most people. I'm told that many years ago when I had attained a constant level of income through my paper route such that I could afford to purchase Christmas presents for my family members, I planned out presents for everyone to limit my expenditures to no more than $10. If I recall correctly, a pack of bubblegum was involved for one of my lucky siblings.
In other words, I rarely cave in to my obsessions. My approach has always been to deny myself the latest gadget or gizmo when the urge strikes. If, after a sufficient quantity of time has passed, the urge continues to surface and cannot be ignored, I begin to entertain the idea of the purchase and determine whether or not it makes fiscal and functional sense. Is it affordable? Will it do something for me from an entertainment or usefulness standpoint that can be easily justified? Are those reasons sufficiently persuasive that they can sway the keeper of the bank accounts?
In the past, purchases such as my TiVo, Xbox, and Compaq notebook computer have passed this test. The TiVo was an easy sell as the lure of easy television recording, season passes, and fast commercial skipping justify its existence to all but those who never watch television. The Xbox was justified from the standpoint that it doubled as a DVD player (something we didn't own 5.5 years ago). The Compaq notebook was an incredible deal and was targeted to satisfy the needs of my better half.
As you may or may not have noticed, I recently added a new sidebar entitled "Wishful Thinking." No, it's not a vain attempt at flattering myself in to believing some random surfer would give a rip about my Amazon.com wishlist. It's a current listing of those things that are occupying the section of my brain susceptible to obsessions. Topping the charts at the moment is an Xbox 360, the desire for which is fueled in no small part by the recent release of Guitar Hero II. Contributing to this unhealthy mental state are games such as Gears of War, Dead Rising, and Crackdown. Combined with the marvel that is Xbox Live, the pending promise of IPTV support, and the need to see more HD content on my HDTV and you can tell why this obsession continues to rear its ugly head almost 18 months after it first surfaced.
Conspiring to work against me in fulfilling this desire is nothing more than the very essence of who I am: logic. Honestly, I got burned with my early adoption of the Xbox. I had problems with my DVD drive from the get-go. It was shipped back to Microsoft less than two months after it was purchased for repairs. Six months after that, it started acting up again and degraded over time to the point where it will not play a game anymore (hooray for software based methods of getting around this nuisance). The reliability of the Xbox 360's hardware has been well documented from the start. Microsoft's upgraded warranty for the 360 speaks volumes to that fact as well (although I commend them for doing it anyway). There's no way I'm going down that route again with another console.
Questionable hardware, a $400 price tag (the $300 Core system is NOT an option), and the expected Fall release of a cooler running, less energy consuming, and potentially more reliable 65nm processor Xbox 360 (and the expected price drop to accompany it) conspires to make me wait even longer.
This is one of the tougher obessions I've fought off over the years and it's recently become stronger than it has been in the past (for whatever reason). I've all but given up on PC gaming as I can't afford to continue to upgrade my PC every couple years in order to get the most out of the latest and greatest. This frustrates me, but I've come to accept and even embrace the fact that console gaming targets my market segment for this very specific reason. If Microsoft can introduce the 65nm Xbox 360 this fall along with this generation's first official price drop to coincidence with the Halo 3 release timeframe, I doubt I'll be able to resist the temptation any longer.