Randomly Blogging about whatever the hell we want, from the strange to wacky, popular to obscure we will continue seeking out the stories that we're interested in. Writing about our lives and families, situations and events. We don't care to motivate, persuade or inform we just enjoy blogging. Our only rule is we NEVER blog about work. We do hope you enjoy reading or irreverent and occasionally entertaining blog and hope you return often and leave a comment (our girl loves comments).
May 24, 2007 - 1130 pm I found myself standing in line with 300 disheveled gamers awaiting the midnight release of the highly anticipated Halo 3 by Bungie. I was there to obtain a coveted copy of the game for my 14 yr old son who was soundly asleep at home. As I stood there choking on the second hand smoke of all the young gamers surrounding me, I was awkwardly aware I was the oldest person there. They were a motley group of long haired, slouching cross sample of America's youth...Was this America's future? As I inched forward toward our shared goal, I thought about how I had been playing video games before they had even been born. Shoot! I was the O.G. (original gamer)! I had cut my teeth on Pong and the early version of the Atari console. I remembered long hours of Missile Command and fighting aliens with the primitive graphics of Zaxxon. The anticipation of trying to get Frogger across the street and over the logs to the other side of the river seems like yesterday. I loved gaming and was only to happy to get a Super Nintendo entertainment system for my daughter...It was a good excuse! Because I got to play too. As a toddler, my son used to just watch us play, he didn't want to play. He was content to just sit and watch...I didn't know but he was learning. Each year the graphics would get better. We graduated to Sony Playstation and I became an expert at Gran Turismo Racing.Play Station 2, Xbox, Xbox 360. Over the years I've found myself playing less and less. Slow reflexes and games so complicated I can't get through the Online directory have relegated me to watching my son play more often then not. Games can be very addictive and I have had to be very strict as to how much my kids play. Education and school are their main focus and I have had to control the privilege of playing, limiting them to only weekends. Leveraging game play into better grades was probably the best thing I could have done for them.
According to Microsoft, first-day sales of Halo 3 reached $170 million, making it the highest grossing entertainment product within 24 hours of release ever. The performance beat the previous record setter, predecessor Halo 2, which earned $125 million within 24-hours after its launch. Halo 3 has beaten other records as well. More than 1.7 million copies of Halo 3 were pre-ordered in the U.S., making it the fastest pre-selling game in U.S. history. The game also drew over a million Xbox Live members to play online in the first 20-hours, making it the biggest day for Xbox Live gaming in history.
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