What does it mean to be a gamer? Is it a wide collection of games? A wide selection of consoles? of just having fun? Or is it brand loyalty?

For me gaming is all of those things. Its having as many titles as YOU love as possibles. Its about having FUN with the titles YOU love. What about consoles? Well theres another aspect of gaming i left out: Finance. Alas as much fun as having all the consoles sound, being a gamer usually means being on a budget, so in reality we usually stick with one console per generation. Thats the problem.

Once a gamer "chooses" a console, pretty much he has chosen a "side". Yes not neccessarily, but generally speaking. What tends to happen from here on out, is said gamer starts to become proud of the titles released on the console of choice, in order to 'justify' his purchase. Now, usually one follows a system's games from previous generations. For example, i chose the Playstation 3 because Capcom had shown LOADS of support to the Playstation brand last generation. So i figured Capcom would be "good" to me and follow suit this generation. Not so. Lost Planet didnt come out right away on PS3, Monster Hunter went to the DS. Now i feel a bit betrayed by Capcom this generation. Whats a gamer to do? On one hand Capcom has to make money. On the other i want their games on my console of choice, because Capcom's own history showed me that they would support the Playstation brand. What a conundrum.

See the problem i see, is that this generation is blatantly all about the money. Last generation we "always knew but didn't see it outright".  But this generation, developers seem to not care about their image. All they seem to care about is money, and thats fine, just don't let me "see" it on your face so clearly, keep it in the background, like before, because i' m warning you, once gamers see you as a corrupt "money grubbing" corporation, your reputation will be tarnished, and so your sales will suffer.

This is especially in regards to Square-Enix with their recent announcement of Final Fantasy 13 coming to the 360. Now i honestly don't care if it is on that platform. What i am awestruck and upset about is Square-Enix denied any reports of FF13 being multi-platform, and at the last minute, revealed the the turth: They took a huge bribe, and were not ashamed of it, but i tell you now, Square has tarnished their name, big time, and i feel that it will hurt them in the end. /rant