This weekend I bought Beth her birthday gift (also using up residual owed gifts from Valentine's Day and Christmas). She got a Wii. I wasn't too subtle about it. I let her know that we needed to go shopping for her birthday gift. She asked me what she was getting. I told her a Wii and we went to pick one up the next day.
While we were shopping for the Wii, I noticed that the Wii - just like other gaming systems - is marketed like crack. Two hundred dollars for a gaming system truly isn't bad, but they should have given it to us for free. Why, do you ask?
The actual Wii gaming system is just a gateway drug. You get the game box and one freakin' controller. Beth can have fun playing by herself. If we want another freakin' controller, it's another fifty bucks. On top of that, we now have the right (or the ability) to spend fifty dollars on every additional damn game for the system. So to have the Wii, Wii Fit, Mario Karts (seriously, why by anything Nintendo if you don't get Mario Karts), and an extra controller, we're out four hundred bucks (plus tax).
Yeah it's fun and I'm sure we'll get enjoyment out of it, but it's crack marketing. They're getting us hooked for two hundred bucks and then watching the cash roll in as we continue to add accessories and games. The scary thing is that in a mere two days, I have realized that I am powerless to stop it. Bastards.
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