Let’s see. How can I express my thoughts about this subject in such a way that it succinctly and exactly encapsulates my thoughts? I sometimes feel that at times like this, my gut reaction and first thoughts are probably the most astute and although it’s a phrase repeatedly found here and often uttered by yours truly, it is probably the most direct.

This is fucked up.

Click on any of the links and read a blog about the daily gaming antics of an XBOX 360 owner. Read about how their gaming score (?) is increasing and about the progress they’re making in Oblivion. It is generally quite mundane and banal stuff.

Now before you deride me for sneering at these lowly and tedious bloggers , I want you to pay attention. Did you notice that the gamers are referred to in third person? Have you actually read the content of some of the suspicously regular posts? These blogs are not by the gamers themselves but are being “written” by their XBOXs. It’s not even a bunch of people
writing from their console’s perspective but is actually information sent from the XBOX to the web. It is giving the machines a voice.

Cool huh? Or is it a little worrisome? Uploading this sort of information is not unusual - Xfire has been doing it for some time. But actually presenting these stats in a blog format is quite original. What’s slightly disturbing is that these posts are better written and more articulate than a lot of blogs I sometimes encounter into
as I occasionally drunkenly stumble across the information superhighway. It also shows that it doesn’t take a lot to automate what a lot of us do (and is also much more informative if you’re into that sort of thing).

Okay, so as of yet an XBOX is unlikely to start ranting about topics close to its electronically pulsing heart or commenting on the social implications of the male gamers cross dressing as female avatars but the next stage would be to add a “personality” to the blog set up allowing some to sound like the Heart of Gold’s elevator and others to sound like Marvin the Paranoid Android.

I wonder if I could get my PC to blog in my place too?