Conservatives are often painted as the out-of-touch meddlers in culture today. We boycott, we ban, we scold, we stand athwart history. We get laughed at by the left, but we fight anyway.
Hip, moderate, urbane folks tell us this is all wrong. Instead of criticizing culture, standing apart from it, and trying to reject its influences, we’re told we need to be in it, engage with it, and stand up for what we believe in from within.
Today’s politicized action by the US Patent and Trademark Office, canceling the trademark of the Washington Redskins, shows that actually, that restraint is what is all wrong. No matter how popular something is, no matter how much the general public at large is fine with it, concerted political activism can and will work.
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So, there’s a lot of hype about the Playstation 4 right now. It’s premature to get too hyped up about it though, for a few reasons:
First, Sony (RIAA and MPAA member) has a much worse track record than Microsoft does about skinning the sheep when it comes to the customers. Note that even as one hand Monday was waving the used games bloody shirt, the other hand was announcing mandatory Playstation Plus. Sony did a masterful job Monday playing to the press and the social media, but you know who else did that? Barack Obama, and we know how much of the hype he lived up to.
Second, I’m old enough to remember when Sony fanboys were outraged about Xbox 360’s paid Live account requirements, and how Playstation 3 was allegedly better because you got the full feature set built-in with a free PSN account. Well, sometime along the way, PS3 got the same paid account bonuses Xbox 360 had. Funny that. So what happens if Sony changes their mind again, this time about used games, a year or two down the line?
Third, this is a five year war. Let’s say nothing changes from now. What happens if Microsoft wins the exclusives war because of the used games feature? EA didn’t cancel online passes out of the goodness of their hearts, folks.
Fourth, I’m also old enough to remember how I was told the last generation was supposed to be a war between Microsoft and Sony, when Nintendo’s innovation won the day. Well, now Sony and Microsoft are all about motion controls, while Nintendo’s shipping a tablet and possibly going online with Pokemon. Too early to declare winners or losers. Again, this is a five year war.
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