Cable or gaming - LucianoJJ's Blog

LucianoJJ's Blog

Cable or gaming

Posted on January 8, 2011 at 01:53 PM.

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2011 is all about the budget. Whether you are in Washington, some state capitol, or just trying to balance your own checkbook, you know the Great Recession has forced some difficult choices. One choice various media outlets has begun to highlight is �cable cutting.� Bills from cable/satellite companies have become bloated. People question the need to pay for entertainment. Most packages force us to pay for channels we don�t want, in exchange for the premium of keeping the channels we are accustomed to. �A la carte� plans have been suggested, but the cable companies brush those suggestions aside. The result has been a steady migration to finding TV shows and movies online. For those who consider cutting their service, the sports fan often has the toughest choice.

There are online options. You can subscribe to a package through a league website. Other channels have websites allowing you to pay a monthly fee to view selected games. There is even pay-per-view available, allowing the digital download of some games. Some networks offer free streams of content with far more commercials than we see on regular TV. Some free streaming programs offer next to no commercials at all. There are alternatives. The chance some would choose to dump cable reminded one communications exec of when people began discontinuing landlines in favor of strictly cell phones.

My personal tipping point for ending satellite service was when Speed was dropped from the sports package. I was not willing to upgrade and agree to another price increase. Whether you have a family, a practical wife, or you are a student with limited resources, you can recognize when enough is enough. Speed Channel was the first major shift in my viewing habits. Racing once was a boring obsession of my stepfathers. The annual trip to Daytona kept him out of town on my mother�s birthday. NASCAR was boring. All those left turns were as boring as golf coverage on TV. Speed�s coverage of various types of racing changed my perception. Before long, I was hooked on WRC, F1, Australian V8 Supercars, DTM, and World Superbike. Gradually, though, Speed began to drop their coverage of some of those circuits, and reality TV began to be a bigger part of their schedule.

Where is the link to video games in this babble about budgets, cable TV, and Speed? One Saturday afternoon, roaming through a local mall, I found a copy of Codemasters� Colin McRae 2 in a bargain bin at Babbage�s. At $20 it was cheap enough. The night before I had been watching the WRC on Speed. Here was a chance to experience that thrill vicariously through a video game. I was hooked. This was the period when EA made a game for virtually every sport no matter how big, no matter how international, no matter how minor. Superbike, Rugby, Arena Football, Cricket. DirecTV led me to gaming, gaming took me away from whatever the networks were churning out. I was no longer the member of a target demographic audience offered up to advertisers. I was a gamer. Instead of being ticked off about a favorite show being cancelled, I was mad about a gameplay bug. Both are frivolous, childish, and tedious. But any form of entertainment is, if you look closely.

The Great Recession leaves us on the edge of some great paradigm shift of entertainment. Do you cancel your cable? Do you continue to pay $60 a pop for console games? Do you test the waters of 3D Gaming? Do you buy a racing wheel? Do you purchase a motion control device? Do you embrace games for tablets and smart phones that are as primitive as PC games were a generation ago? Do you view Angry Birds as the Pac Man of the 21st Century or a console killing waste of time?

Killer apps have gradually replaced software, web sites, and search engines. Will they replace game consoles? Cable TV and satellite? Television and cable networks? The first choice you must make is if you can do without sports, reality TV, and reruns to afford to buy the next version of MLB: The Show 11. What do you pick? I

Comments

# 1 Pacman83 @ Jan 8

Thinkin' the same...i think i'll go ahead and cut my bill in half next month and hold off on cable. Between my consoles, computer, & TV apps i have ESPN, Netflix, Amazon, etc. I can go months w/o cable....especially after football season. Although on both sides the extras can get costly, things like Rockband, DJ Hero, and other games with DLC's (vs.) things like extra packages and PPV..but either choice is great, not bad either way.

# 2 videlsports @ Jan 10

Gotta have both.. I have xbox Live, and internet, and also comcast (basic) and dish network, I love my entertainment. I have a choice when I'm home from work and so does my family.. When I see my little girls watching Yo Gabba, Gabba, or my wife watching greys anatomy and Glee, I'm a happy camper because they are having fun.. I watch sports, and comodies, and I game when I want to.. LOL. Can't choose the answer.. extra overtime @ work LOL.

# 3 Uncle Stumpy @ Jan 10

I've gotten rid of my cable. All I watched was sports, and usually halfway through the game I'd be playing the sport on console instead of watching the game. Unfortunately my gaming is offline right now which is a little frustrating but that should chance in the next few months I'm hoping

# 4 shadthedad @ Jan 10

I've been preaching this forever. Cable/satellite costs well over 2000 a year and the only way you can justify the cost is if you need to watch every sporting event live. We haven't had cable in over 3 years and I've saved boat load. Also, I'm still viewing the BCS championship game on ESPN via xbox live. A no brainer.