Why can't the video games be made out of paper?

(tags finance, game, book, Wii)

I was reading over my Get Rich Slowly feed and the blogger J.D. had a interesting article about the Amazon Kindle ebook vs Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscription vs Wii Virtual Console game service ("Brief Thoughts on Modern Entertainment"). First off, a blog about Personal Finance would seem to be the last place I would hear about comics and video games, but people have their vices I suppose.

Basically J.D. was thumbs down on newly digitized media that has old-world equivalents. Books and comics just aren't as appealing and as sturdy when e-ified. But J.D. gave a pass on the Wii Virtual Console. This struck me as a double standard, really. Just substitute video games in those sentences:

• I can read a ___ in the bathtub.
• If I drop a ___ — which I sometimes do — it’s not going to break.
• My ___ don’t run out of power.
• When I’m finished with my ____, I can loan them to friends. Or sell them.

Since we assume that video games must be powered by electricity and must be housed in delicate electronics, our standards of worth changes. But entertainment is entertainment.

Through the comments on this blog I learned that the Wii Virtual Console is also a per-console purchase system, like the Xbox Live. And sometime during November I learned that one Wii cannot hold all offered Virtual Console games. With restrictions like these and hardware that I dearly paid for breaking left and right, I am slowly questioning my gaming hobby purchases.

Questioning, yes, but not stopping. Ha.