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Gaming: A Throwaway Hobby?

Posted by Nadia Oxford

The human race has some pretty appalling habits, this we know. But if I were to flog one of society's particularly vile traits, it would be our tendency to declare, “not my problem” as we chuck refuse into the dumpster.

It's not that I'm down on trash cans. Trash cans work hard and keep our cities clean. But as a recent message board post Europe-Nintendo illustrates, when we sort our refuse we have some issues differentiating between old coffee grounds and perfectly good toys and food that will let a child, y'know, not be sad or hungry for a little while.

There are certain legalities when it comes to disposal of retail products. A restaurant claims it can't do anything useful with its food at the end of the day because food poisoning risks might bite them in court some day. Likewise, returned toys might contain a dislodged part that will poke some kid in the eye. But there's something decidedly sad about throwing out dozens, maybe hundreds, of video games.

Hey, I wallow in my excess as much as anyone in the first world. I enjoy an evening with video games, and I make no apology for that. But I also know how bloody fortunate I am to have that opportunity. How many kids out there would love to have a Gamecube? We're not talking about the proverbial starving kid in Africa, we're talking about the kid down the street. Is there any viable excuse for not doing something useful with those dics?

A city-funded daycare? A community centre? A battered women's shelter, where displaced, frightened children might benefit from a distraction? Some days I feel guilty about being one of the human race.

To diffuse the uppity attitude I've exhibited here, I will admit that I once worked at a job that shared a trash compactor with an EB Games. An employee chucked a bunch of unsold talking Yoda dolls in there and pushed the button. That poor nest of Yodas died screaming, presumably about The Force, but the pearls of wisdom couldn't be heard over the grinding of the compactor's gears. It was very sad, but it was also very funny.

Related Links:

No Alternate Soundtrack: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
When Does a Console Pay For Itself?
Nintendo Just Might Hate You

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+ DEL.ICIO.US

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Posted Jan 26 2009, 10:55 PM

Filed under: gamecube, retail, nadia oxford, nintendo-europe

Comments

Roto13 said:

The cafeteria in my place of former employment threw away a bunch of sammiches that were several days before their expiry date because they were going to be closed for a week. I was all like "Hells naw" and put 'em in a bag and gave them to random homeless people. I'm kinda banking on that getting me into heaven.

I'd probably steal throw-away games, too, but maybe for less holy purposes.

January 26, 2009 11:27 PM

Joe Keiser said:

Aw geez. This reminds me of the time--was it three years ago--where EB was doing its final clearance on PS1 games before the whole remainder of the stock was marked for "field destroy." I spent two weeks going to every story in the metro area, in an effort to save from the chipper any disc that didn't say Madden on it. This was actually not that many discs, but I did salvage a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics. They were just going to throw it away!

January 27, 2009 9:33 AM

John Constantine said:

For anyone who lives in a city or decently sized town, the best thing you can do is pile your goodies into a box and write free on the side in giant letters. Guaranteed, your wares will find a good home. My father was going to throw a perfectly good PS1 in the trash last year and all I could think was, "What the hell are you doing!" I put it in the lobby of my apartment building, went out for a cup of coffee, and it was gone by the time I got back. So either one of the kids in my building is enjoying some FFIX right now or someone made $5 at the pawn shop around the corner. Either way, good deal.

Ah, Joe, I had almost forgotten the great PS1 cull of 2005. You ended up with FF Tactics. I ended up with Blaster Master: Blasting Again. Maybe some games are trash worthy...

January 27, 2009 12:25 PM

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.