I opened my copy of FFXII, but only got about 10 hours before I didn't have time either.

I'm a Sony fanboy as well. I've followed them almost religiously for a long time. However, I cannot possibly fathom how the ps3 is better than the Wii in cost-effectiveness. And the Wii360 duo is way better than blowing your money on a single ps3. Now, if I had three ps3's, maybe then I could enjoy them...

What's different about buying a Wii now and falling off in a matter of months or a year when it's hype evaporates versus buying a PlayStation 3 now before the mass games are released and not gaming with it right away and then it taking over?

There is no difference.

I never really said that you should buy a PlayStation 3 right now either. I just said that it's better than the alternatives. It's been better since it was a proposal, long before it was available.

There's no point buying a Wii (nor 360) now just because it's market exists (only because of an early release date and lower quality product) versus waiting for the PlayStation 3's market to develop.

I don't really think the whole "Wii hype" will be evaporating any time soon either. Nintendo has managed to attract the attention of many 3rd party developers including Take Two Interactive (the current developers of the coveted GTA series). With good developer support one can expect a variety of innovative and entertaining titles.

I think Onewing has managed to sum things up very elegantly

Edit:
Fixed

The thing that worries me about the Wii is its gimmicky nature. Yes, we've seen some cool and creative games come out since its release, like Wario Ware and such, but... how long can it go on, really? How much can you really do with the Wiimote before the control scheme just becomes strained and inappropriate? How many games can you really cook up where waving a stick around is going to be a relevant and interesting part of the gameplay?

If - or maybe 'when' - this happens, we'll all just go back to using a gamepad instead... and at that point, the Wii will have lost the very thing that made it unique. Will this happen, and if it does, will it actually have that great an impact? I don't know. But one should keep it in mind.

As for the PS3, right now it's mostly just an overpriced Blu-Ray player. Before the market kicks off (and let it be said that even when it does there's no guarantee it will surpass the already flourishing Wii/Xbox360 market), I just don't see it worth spending five hundred and ninety-nine US dollars on.

To disclaim my thoughts: this is just my opinion. Yes, the Wiimote is gimmicky but at the same time, feels pretty natural in the hand. I don't need a manual on how to use it, I pretty much pick it up and start playing. To me, that's what a gamepad essentially is. True, the "new way to play games" is pretty much the Wii's angle, but I never considered it that way. I still consider it pick the controller and start playing, like any other console. The thing about the Wii is it is limited on the hardware and promotes thinking out-of-the-box, which I think is a good thing. I don't play games for outstanding performance, I play them for fun.

Once again, my opinion.

[edit]
The masses seemed to be fooled into thinking performance > fun.

Is it really?

Gotta stop and ask yourself if there is anything you can do on the PS3 that you can't already on the PS2? The answer is no. I'm just being realistic; you'll be playing the exact same games on the PS3, just a little prettier and with slightly improved physics. Look at the 360's roster and tell me what we're playing now.

I think people are being horribly myopic about the whole power thing. Certainly it hasn't impacted the handheld sector where developers are making incredibly entertaining games with limited resources.

Wrong-o. The controller is how you interact with the game, which means that it is functionally more important than any processor, graphics chipset, or networking ability. A good developer designs their game around the control setup, not the other way around. Putting it into a 'real world' scenario, would you prefer to venture to a foreign country with a translator equipped with a 500 word database, or one with 10,000?

The answer is actually yes. The six-axis controller is new and the much faster processor and graphics processor will allow many more objects to be drawn making the scene more realistic. The video of GTA IV looks amazing... The city actually looks like a city packed with cars!

It will also allow for a lot more content and game-play. Things like how GTA has minigames everywhere. More capacity and speed allows there to be more and more of these which makes the game feel more real. You should be able to steal a taxi cab and pretend to be a cabi and drive fares, for example. There are thousands of things that are done in a city and I hope that there is much more to do in GTA IV.

They aren't the exact same. The are much improved. As far as PS3 games, they will be much more detailed and the physics can be much improved as well.

Again with the "you don't need power to have fun" argument. No, you don't. Then again, it helps a lot. What do you think has been driving computer hardware to the capacities and speeds they are at? Sure, server hardware is an influence on processor speeds and memory capacity, but processor speed, memory capacity, and graphics processing are largely being driven by the gaming industry. We can't get hardware that's fast enough or with high enough capacity. Power, meaning speed and capacity, is the most desired.

The game controller does need to be considered for game-play, but it shouldn't dictate the game. The controller is definitely not more important than the processor, graphics chipset, networking, or memory.

Okay, now imagine you have one translator than requires you to write down everything you say (an analogy for doing extra work to communicate the same information) because they can only read/write your language or a translator that can read/write and speak your language.

I beg to differ. No one who has never played a video game and sees the sixaxis/dualshock controler would bother trying out the kind of hard core games that is available on PS3/360. It's just too complicated. As you say games are often based on earlier games but this is a trap for the game industry as this fails to bring in new players. Games nowadays like C&C3 etc more or less require that you've player countless of similar games before. With a less conservative controller people people have different ideas of what it's used for. Simpler is one thing.

Personally, I cannot think of anything more unintersting.

You honestly think / believe that the PCVideo Gaming Industry is responsible for driving the hardware market?

Come to the OLG and look at the demands for data storage, processing power, network capacity etc. etc. I would say huge organizations both create the need and fund the development for complex solutions to age old problems. And as far as graphics processing goes, given the explosion of computer generated imagery in movies/advertising/tv the ability to capture more complexity and detail would stil be in demand. As an example, the OLG has just purchased several FireGL V7350 1GB PCI-Express card at a whopping $1,999 a card. These cards are going to be used to drive some 30 ft Screen in Toronto.

I would say that if anything much of the current hardware is passed/watered down from what the big organizations used a few years ago. Kinda like how some other consumer products were developed by the Military and whatnot.

Edit:
Corrected some statements

What exactly were you trying to say there? If you're trying to say that the Six-Axis/Dual-Shock design is poor then you're completely wrong. It's the best game controller I have ever used and that includes the Wiimote (I'm sure there are millions that would agree, whether or not they are on Allegro.cc). I don't feel comfortable with the Wiimote. I've played literally hundreds or thousands of hours with the Dual-Shock controller design and I still love it. It's the best controller design to date.

Actually,...

What's better: buying the hype product now or buying, or waiting a few months to buy, the best/dominant product for the next 7 years?

Speak for yourself, I'm sure there are also millions out there who have used both and say the Wiimote feels just fine. I know I for one feel this way.

The argument that you have to expend more energy using the Wiimote is not exactly true either. Last night I got home from Sutherlands around 1:00am completely exhausted. I flopped down on the couch and started playing some Twilight Princess using only the minimalist amount of effort to flick my wrists and nothing else. I would guess that the same amount of effort would be exerted using the six-axis controller.

As for players who are somewhat handicapped / slower, one can turn around argue the exact same thing for the PS3. In the example you mention (Boxing) players have the option of setting handicaps and such to help balance things out for inexperienced/slower players.