Yesterday, in reference to the Xbox One, I said sarcastically, "It's too bad I can't preorder the thing, just to prove what a dumbshit I am." Shortly afterwards, I checked my email. Take a guess what was in there, from Microsoft. No really, guess.

I guess I outdid myself there. But really, no one would actually preorder this thing, right? After the RROD fiasco, no one would be this dumb!

Yahoo News: Xbox One Pre-Orders Top Amazon Sales Charts

Oh. I see. I have a feeling I'll be linking back to this blog when I say "Gamers are dumb as shit" in future installments.

Moving on. My thoughts on the Microsoft conference...

I think I heard Kinect mentioned one time during the entire show. The show centered almost entirely on the games, rather than the technology, which is interesting, considering a new console is debuting. What's more, most of the games shown were for gamers, not the casual crowd. Perhaps there's been a recognition that consoles are for serious gamers. Even if you can convince a casual gamer to buy a black box that cost as much as a tablet, you're not going to make much money off them. They're not going to buy loads of games and subscriptions. Motion control is not going to replace traditional controllers, and I said as much in 2010. Kinect can be used to enhance certain games, but it will not become the focus for traditional gamers.

Of the games demoed, a number of them featured "open world" gameplay. I'm of a mixed opinion on this. First, the term is way overused. Lots of games are described as open world, like Dark Souls, when they are not. That you can travel back and forth through levels does not make a game open world. Secondly, open world is not necessarily a good thing. It has a way of diluting gameplay, because no matter how large your development team, it is simply not possible to create an open world experience as refined as a focused, linear game.

That's all. I'll be back tomorrow or whenever I feel like it with more thoughts on Xbox One.

...

Following are my unedited notes on the 2013 MicrosoftE3 conference...

Five minutes in, and the show hasn't started. I'm watching it after the fact. Why the hell didn't GameSpot edit this crap out? SEVEN MINUTES into it, and the damn thing finally starts.

Something from Konami. Metal Gear Solid is open world. In all honesty, it does look kinda cool; reminds me of Far Cry, you know, from 2004. Lol, I love the little "© Seiko Watch Corporation" that pops up when he looks at his watch. Snake is voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, which seems appropriate.

Xbox Live Gold members get two free game downloads per month. I get Assassin's Creed II and Halo 3 for free. This would have been nice back in November when I bought Assassin's Creed II and got my 1,000/1,000 in it.

"It's never been available on any console until now." What, is World Warcraft coming to 360? No, this is World of Tanks. I like tanks.

All right, Dark Souls II. This is one of a few games I actually care about. No information; just a trailer.

Ryse might be cool. I like stuff involving Rome. The gameplay seems to be heavily quicktime based, however.

Oh shit, Forza has got a real McLaren on stage. I thought that reveal was in the trailer footage; nope it's real.

I guess Minecraft is on Xbox One.

I can create and share gameplay videos. Possibly cool.

They're showing off Smartglass. I've been using the Windows Phone 7 version of Smartglass for quite a while now. It's a good idea, allowing tablets or phones to integrate into the game in non-critical ways.

One hour and ten minutes into the show, Kinect is mentioned for the first time.

The Battlefield demo took an eternity to load. Guys are fighting on a sinking aircraft carrier. It looks way better than when this happened in Army of Two.

There's going to be a new Halo. I haven't played Reach yet, so I'm sure I'll get to it eventually. And a game called Titanfall, with mechs.