So I've decided to buy a gaming console and am contemplating between the XBox and the PS2. I have played on both - played the PS2 at the Sony Metreon in San Francisco and the XBox at the Changi airport in Singapore (Marketing folks - note how free stuff is not really free). XBox had a fantastic gaming experience with some great graphics and fantastic music. PS 2 had great games. Now, I am trying to make a decision on which to buy but as usual, the surfeit of information online is making my decision a tough one.  I visited the Amazon electronics page for a start - funny thing was, when I searched for Play Station 2 and clicked on the result  - the main page for the PS 2 did not have a buy/add to cart button! Wonder what was going on .... anyway, the reviews there seemed to be heavily loaded against the PS2.  I didn't feel I was getting a balanced view.  Did some more searching and finally abandoned my online efforts and decided to just ask some guys who have purchased such consoles for some information.
 
This is why I believe that some form of social networking sites will eventually succeed - I would love to just fire away my questions to somebody in my network that knew about consoles, maybe even offline, with the online networks just helping me in finding that expert somebody. Will be interesting to see how web search evolves to include ideas of expertise location into social networks.  Online Communities is one way of finding the interested people but I would like a "Search" that would get me people that have actively expressed interest in the subject (say by posting a message or replying to a post on a message board) and are in some way linked to me.  I couldn't find anything like that on Orkut, does friendster have anything like this? 

Okay, coming back to consoles, I have a computer at home, so why should I buy a console I asked myself and others. Three big reasons -

1. To make your home PC a gaming PC you need to really understand computer hardware and be able to make (and keep making) the appropriate upgrades and hardware additions. With your game console, you just plug and play.
2. You need to sit in front of the comp, probably on a hard-backed work-style chair in your bedroom, to play a PC game. Does not compare to the charm of sitting on your couch, nawab style, and playing the game on a large screen flat TV in your living room.
3. Cost. Consoles cost from $ 150, not too expensive considering that it will cost an equivalent amount to juice up your comp to match the console gameplay but much more effort.