This is also essential if we are going to stop the insidious practice of sheep cloning that seems to be going on among performance 3D addicts. It seems that, in every increasing numbers, sheep clones are masquerading as normal, intelligent, value conscious consumers of 3D graphics. These sheep clones are then spending more than they have to on their graphics boards, in hopes of inflating the revenues of a favored graphics company, all the time depleting, unnecessarily, the bank accounts of the normal, intelligent value conscious consumer they have replaced. Some of these sheep clones have even gone as far as to dabble in speculating in the stock of 3D graphics companies, thereby ensuring that PR wins over PO.

If sheep clones are not stopped now, they will eventually overrun the 3D graphics market, replacing the early adopters of technology with mindless followers of PR creeds and hype. For example, they will pre-order products, fearing shortages in board sales, or as a misguided form of chest-thumping. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the history of humanity, no one has ever suffered mental, or physical harm waiting for graphics board supplies to meet demand. Sheep clones will read .plan files as if they were parchments of some netherworld gospel, and preach the sayings therein as gospel. They will feel compelled to rage against one thirty nine dollar game over another even though there is absolutely no reason why they, or anyone else, should care. Most distressingly, sheep clones will feel compelled to put up their own Web sites telling the world that they are the real sheep, and all other sheep are actually the clones. It's a vicious cycle that must be broken, and we must lay blame at the door of PR.

There are biotechnology alternatives, but while PO not PR is something that can be implemented quite easily, I am not quite so sure about DNA testing being a pre-requisite of any purchase that includes a 3D graphics product, be it software, game, or board. Somewhere out there, I hope, there are people who have yet to be possessed by sheep clones. These people understand that they, as consumers, are more powerful than the companies that supply products to them. They have the power to bring prices down, to demand better quality, and to feel as if their opinions matter. Unfortunately, while sheep clones continue to proliferate, and PR sinks to the level of propoganda, I find it hard to believe that it's worth even bothering with the consequences.

Just in case you wanted to know, you can always tell a person who is free from the taint of sheep clone possession. He, or she, doesn't wear the corporate logos and emblems of companies that charge you for the privilege of marketing their goods. He, or she, is quite happy to say that Quake, or Unreal, or any other game for that matter, is just a game. You have fun with it, and then, you move on. He, or she, can move on. He, or she, is more than happy to think that Intel has no other intention than to make you pay more for its chips than it has any right to expect anyone to pay, and that's not a thing we should praise. He, or she, doesn't pay through the noise for what he, or she, can live without. He, or she, is an individual who doesn't protect businesses from the vagaries of the market, as if he, or she, had a vested interest in keeping stock-happy employees of said company in the money.

This isn't capitalism anymore. It's a bunch of gamers who are being manipulated by an industry that feeds on their enthusiasm, feeds on it cynically, and with little regard for their loyalty. If you don't believe me, take a look around the Web. Look at the Web sites devoted to 3D graphics hardware, and hard core gaming. Take a look at the news stories about people standing in line to be at the first midnight showings of The Phantom Menace. If you do that kind of thing because, you are about to see a live concert, that will never ever take place again, or the final of a major sporting event then, I say, it's understandable. But, when it's television, film, computer games, or computer hardware, you are just plain sheep clone material. Wake up, man, you're in the nineties equivalent of the rat race, you just may not know it.