Find the rest of our PlayStation2 coverage right here.

A lot of home theater hobbyists are already fuming about the PS2. No, not because the PS2 was a horrendously under-powered launch (which is was), that the majority of the initial games are mediocre (which they are), or that Sony has shown bad faith with consumers by bringing its marketing cynicism (i.e., let's hype it even though we know we can't deliver) to a new low (which it has). No, some of these aficionados of big screen HDTV-ready monitors, speakers that cost more than laptop computers, and receivers with enough wattage to run a small town seem to be just plain offended by the PS2s mere existence. I hear some of them complaining online already about the cheapness of the PS2 as a DVD player and its obvious inferiority to their $800 rig. It's a “toy,” they sniff. Worse, some say, mass distributing a low-end DVD player in this way to the great unwashed only threatens to dilute the hobby. It will flood the home theater world with know-nothings who lack the rarified sensibilities of the true home theater lover. Heavens, it might even invite DVD makers to include extra interactive or gaming material on disks that only play on PS2s. But worst of all, and this is the true nightmare of all aficionados, when everyone has a DVD player, we won't feel special anymore.

Which is exactly why the DVD functionality of the PS2 is in my mind the one brilliant move Sony made in this otherwise unimpressive launch. Anything that pokes at consumer connoisseurship in any of its silly forms is okay by me. Like PC gamers who snub consoles altogether, DVD snobs dissing the PS2 seems to me a pointless, close-minded exercise in self-puffery. One of the paradoxes of our consumer culture is that we are addicted to acquiring stuff – any stuff – but we want desperately to look as if we are pursuing some higher ideals when we do so. Collecting is the most obvious rationalization for consumer gluttony. We don't buy zillions of beanie babies or sports cards or whatever because we're following a fad or mindlessly acquisitive. No, we do it because we're “collecting,” we're serving some higher purpose, some more cultivated and discriminating value than simple consumption. It's an investment, you see.