[MplsTom]

In 15 years, our kids will be getting together with their friends and playing Madden Tournaments while their kids are playing Virtual 3-D Football 501 shaking their heads at their grown up parents.

This is our hobby. It was part of our youth...part of our fabric. It doesn't hold the special place for most of the youth that it does for us. For a few kids of competitors it is a great game and a great way to spend time with dad but for the rest it is a "what is that thing?"

The vendors have served this niche rather well. However, the attempts to mainstream it would take a lot of money and a strategic marketing effort. It would take official licenses, tv advertising and exposure, etc...all of that to compete against a product that can be played instantly at many levels where guys jump, move multiple directions, have realistic faces, and they can hang and bang with their friends. They don't have to prepare teams with the exception of changing a few values or names on screen. It fits our microwave culture.

Our hobby is just that...our hobby. Change can come a few at a time and we can argue over standards, weights, figures, bases, etc. But it really is just us arguing amongst ourselves. 150 members is awesome but it does not a groundswell make.