The Old Man, The Children & The Playground

Once upon a time in a world much like our own there existed a place of financial mediocrity. The people who inhabited the cities, and their dwellings barely scraped by on their meager monetary income. For entertainment they'd seek out the simplest, and most affordable of pleasures. Often times they'd get lost in books filled with tales of fantasy, luxury, and things beyond their reach or understanding. They dreamed of the finer things, better places, and better times. For the most part their ideals, and their focus was very much like a dream, and even with the simplest of pleasures at hand they were able to create an entirely different coexisting world of their own in which their own trouble burdened world did not really matter. Generation after generation this ideology, and simple scraping by on meager financial earnings was passed down, but to a greater degree. New fads, and new ideas were born from the wood works often times offering the newer, and older generations something they had never experienced before. It wasn't until an old entrepreneur happened by though that their world of social entertainment was changed for the better, or perhaps the worst ...

One day in this world which was not unlike our own there lived an old man with an idea. His idea stemmed from a childhood that was void of fun. Unlike the rest of the world around him he lived in the countryside, and did not have access to the simple luxuries that the city folk did. He lived a life of poverty, and loneliness throughout his life. During his childhood, and even into his elder years he dreamed of having the fun, and carefree outlook that the city folk did. Day in, and day out the old man thought of ways to get rich, or at least financially mediocre so that he could have said fun. In his brainstorming the man came up with a plan. He pulled together the thought of his own loneliness, and the city folk's need for social interactivity, and decided that building a children's playground in each city location would be the ideal way to go about it. He drew up plans for these amazing playgrounds filled with wondrous child-like attractions, and along with them the ideas of how it would change the city communities into an even more socially friendly place.

After working his artistic, and poetic magic with his plans the old man took them to the cities in hopes that he could get the mayors to jump on board with his ideas, and help make them a reality for his get rich quick scheme. To his surprise the communities loved the ideas. They literally threw their money at the old man begging him to go through with the playground constructions so that their kids would have a proper place to play instead of having to depend solely on their own imagination. With more than enough money in hand, and a work crew willing to support his efforts the old man followed through with his playgrounds, and made some of the most wonderful places to play that you could ever imagine.

One such playground had a center castle that looked like it was ripped from a tale of a certain vampire. It was based at the center of the park, and had multiple child accessible layers in which the kids could play in, and live out the adventures that they had read about in their books. Along with the ominous, but fun-filled vampire castle came an obstacle course that was centered around a certain story about a fabled creature called the Bandicoot. It had docks to jump across, floating lily pads in a small pond which would support a child's weight, and box-like pinatas filled with peach shaped candies that the children could collect. The park, having been paid for by the people was free to play on, and free to enjoy. They loved it, and begged the old man to continue adding things to it.

Not being one to turn down money the now rich, and well off old man took to the drawing board, and began thinking up new attractions that would keep the people funding his playgrounds, and playing on them. As time went by, and more things were added the people of the cities began to become anxious, and expectant of greater things. Thus the old man continued to work hard to provide said things. During a transition phase in the old man's construction period other like-minded business men, and women jumped at the opportunity to pitch even greater playground ideas, and eventually stole the old man's influence. To compete against his new rivals the old man began devising more plans for bigger, and bolder amusement parks. Everything the man had created before had ended up paling in comparison to these new plans, and new productions, so he had to come up with something the city folk wouldn't refuse. As before the people regained faith in the now business oriented company, and threw their money the old man's way. Content with the even more voluminous income the old man devised more, and more plans to become even richer.

The playgrounds that were once free along with the grander new amusement parks were also free for a time eventually became pay-to-play experiences. For a seasonal fee the city folk's children could play to their heart's content at the playgrounds, and themed amusement parks. The people, despite feeling wronged paid to continue playing so that their children could have the same experiences they had growing up on the lesser, but still noteworthy playgrounds. As time went on though things began to fall apart for the old man. The playgrounds, and amusement parks fell into disrepair. There were accidents on the amusement park rides, and in the fun houses. There were even signs of obscene gang related graffiti showing up on the once prominent structures. Needless to say the city folk became angered that their invested money was being so carelessly spent. They protested the man's growing efforts, or lack thereof, and even kept their children from playing on the playgrounds, and in the amusement parks.

What was once a fun idea to the city folk, and the children of the city folk became a thorn in the side of society. Not only did the playgrounds, and parks fall in disrepair but people of  lesser values, and morals began to overtake the places. The social deviants that now called the places home loitered, vandalized, and stole from the once grand locales. Even in all of this chaos the old man did not see a problem, nor did he care to. He was simply glad that he had achieved his goal of becoming financially sound. Unfortunately for the financially mediocre city dwellers their income had become even less, because they had invested so freely in the money milking projects. All of their time, money, and efforts to make something long lasting for their children, and their children's children was ultimately forfeit. Meanwhile the old man took his money, bought a private island, filled it with all the entertainment luxuries imaginable, and lived a prosperous fun-filled life ... until he eventually died alone of extremely old age feeling guilty for what he had done.

The Moral of the Story ...

The old man, for those of you who could not figure out the parody, was in fact Sony. Like the old man Sony had taken an initially innocent, and innovative idea, and used it later on in their company's life cycle to turn a profit while forsaking those who would invest in their products. As with the old man their vision was initially grand, and rewarding for the paying customer, but soon turned focus to various money making schemes. Instead of offering the people what they paid for Sony, much like the old man wanted more for less. Both Sony, and the old man let their creations fall into disrepair, and mismanagement without a care for what they had allowed to happen. While this resulted in the old man/Sony being financially sound, and prosperous it ultimately led up to the realization that money isn't everything. The old man's ending of loneliness, and guilt reflects this. Often times in life, or the passing thereof we are left alone with nothing, but our thoughts, and how we treated others. We begin to realize how wrong we were in doing what we did. This is known as death bed remorse. We want to make things right, but in our passing we realize we can't, and feel guilty for it. I'd like think that it won't reach this point for Sony, and their Playstation brand, but with their current lack of caring they may very well find themselves guilty, and hopelessly remorseful one day.