My five year old cousin, Ricky, is growing up in a much superior technological age than I did.

When I was his age, Nintendo baseball games consisted of two commands: A = Swing, B = Bunt. It was fun, considering I knew of nothing else.

Today, however, Ricky plays his video game baseball on Nintendo Wii by swinging his remote and emulating a real-life batter.

Advantage: Ricky.

If I sat Ricky down to play RBI Baseball for NES today, aside from being put to sleep, he’d think there was something wrong with the game—or with me, for suggesting we play this prehistoric system.

Advantage: Natural Selection.

Putting nostalgia aside, there’s no objective measurement that would rank Nintendo games better or equal to their present day PS3/Wii counterparts. Dorm rooms aren’t replacing Madden tournaments with Tecmo Bowl anytime soon.

Nintendo served its purpose. Its purpose has long passed.

The console remained on top of the gaming industry for about five years before being pressed by newer, better alternatives.

By the time Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo burst onto the scene, Nintendo had run its course.

Today, the world’s “most popular sport”, soccer, is Nintendo—albeit with a head start much greater than five years. Soccer has held a stranglehold on the sporting landscape in nearly every culture besides the US since the beginning of time.

Given that the US has alternatives on every channel, it is no surprise that soccer has failed to catch on here. Devoid of any competition, soccer thrives.

But when matched against football or basketball, which fundamentally demonstrates the evolution of soccer, there is no objective way of determining that a soccer game provides the same inherent entertainment.

The World Cup has received good ratings here, but that is a product of America’s sense of nationalism and status as a global melting pot rather than any deep-rooted love of soccer.

Better yet, if a soccer fan wanted to entertain a non-partisan non-sports fan, would he or she ever think to show them a soccer game? Especially if there were alternatives within grasp?

The answer is no.

Soccer games do not present an individual narrative in the same fashion that other sports do.

Whereas on any given night a great boxing match or baseball game (two sports that—while two of my favorites—can also be painstakingly boring at times) can tell a story that has never been told before, soccer’s disposition prevents Game A from differing much from Game B.

Narratives are too often found in storylines away from the field—If USA doesn’t win, they are out. The crowds hate each other etc.—as opposed to something derived from the context of the actual game.

As time passes, soccer will lose one of its off-the-field narratives: its status as the world’s most popular sport.

Little by little, basketball is inching its way closer.

Younger athletes around the world are playing basketball at rates higher than ever before. For countries that love soccer, this is not surprising.

Basketball is an improved version of soccer meant for species with opposable thumbs.

Nintendo wasn’t as special once Playstation came around.

The NBA Draft, once a stomping ground for college seniors only, is now packed with foreign players.

Every year that elite foreign athletes consider basketball—a sport that is as easily accessible, and more inherently fun and conducive to the talents of an elite athlete—a viable opportunity, the player pool from which soccer draws from will inevitably shrink.

(Boxing has suffered a similar fate in the United States. 30 years ago, Brandon Jacobs and Allen Iverson would be the heavyweight and welterweight champions of the world, respectively. Today, boxing isn’t drawing American athletes of that caliber unless their last name is Mayweather. Getting punched in the face isn't as fun as football and basketball.)

As a result, soccer’s worldwide game play will undoubtedly suffer—if it doesn’t, this would actually be a greater indictment on the sport.

Sports are at their best when the world’s best athletes are competing against one another at the highest level. (See: America's disinterest in MLS) Soccer will be a tough sell two or three generations from now, when the best athletes of every foreign country are playing in the NBA.

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I typed this on a relatively new laptop equipped with Microsoft Office 2007.

It would take a very stubborn individual to advocate for pen and paper in this day and age.