The Wii is a pretty amazing piece of technology. Not only has it brought casual gamers of all ages together, but it did it in a way which disillusioned many hardcore gamers frustrated by the lack of many features we have come to expect from the current crop of video game consoles. For lack of a better analogy, the Wii is a lot like sex -- the more people you have to play with, the better, and, well, playing by yourself just feels...wrong.

Toss in the fact that online play is about as much fun as smacking your shins with a splintered 2x4, due to the lack of voice chat and the inability to create a friends list which spans all games, and you'll begin to see where I am coming from. Nintendo reasons that it doesn't support these features in order to make the system more family friendly, but its competitors have managed to provide these features while giving parents the ability to limit the use of voice chat. These factors have turned me off of the Wii even as it sits there taunting me with its pulsating blue light.

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The final push over the edge into overrated for me comes from the lack of quality control, which has led to a slew of gimmicky games worth less than the plastic case they come in. Even Nintendo Fanboys admit that the lack of Nintendo's Seal of Quality has lead to an abundance of crap for the Wii. Unfortunately, other than Guitar Hero, games for the Wii without Mario or Luigi have, as a whole, been a disappointment. For every Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers, there are hundreds of games which could barely pass for a lame web game.

Sure, playing the Wii is fun and it has even inspired three kids to get off their couch and lose weight. However, the novelty of swinging around a Wii 'mote to play a game wears off about the time your last party guest heads home. As a gamer who owns a Wii, I can't help but notice that the Wii seems to get the majority of its use when I haul it to a friend's or to my grandparents for Christmas. As a whole, the Wii is lacking in games, online support and single player fun, leading me to the conclusion that it is overrated.

During my lifetime video games have transformed from simple games mastered with a single joystick to a graphically intense activity for men and women of all ages, bordering national past-time status. It should come as no surprise that during this rise popularity and growth an organization would emerge to catalog competitions and showcase battles of epic proportion waged solely with controllers and trash talk. Major League Gaming (MLG) started in 2003 and has grown into the main purveyor of video game exhibitions, offering fame and fortune to those with enough hand-eye coordination and swagger to brave an arena filled with competitors named, "FaTaLitY" and "godsmurfrmc".

Amateurs can compete in "GameBattles," which are essentially the farm leagues of Major League Gaming, for the chance to be called up and compete for over $100,000 in prizes at national competitions. Some of the famous players in the MLG also net lucrative sponsorships for their aptitude at destroying opponents in HD on demand. Can it get any better? I know I'm not alone when I say that I would love to make playing video games my main job, especially at a six-figure level, but for most of us it isn't realistic. The leaders of the MLG circuit can rip us newbs to shreds as easily as you or I can make a PB & J sandwich.

Before you decide to quite school or resign from your job you need to remember that it is called Major League Gaming. I'd be willing to bet that the number of gamers who can turn pro and make a living off of gaming is lower than the 3% of college athletes who play professional sports. MLG focuses on shoot'em up games, but there is also a very competitive arena for rhythm video game stars who kick out killer jams in Guitar Hero. Recently Chris Chike, a 17-year-old from Minnesota, attained the highest rating on Guitar Hero leaderboards and a place in the Guinness World Records book for his gaming skills. Chike also became the spokesperson for Ant Commandos, a video game hardware company, letting him cash in on his gaming prowess.