June 03, 2009

Choices all Spoilt

The day I walk in to a supermarket to buy a can of cheese, and see 100 different cans of cheese, different flavours, different sizes, different shapes, different colours, I'll run out screaming or more probably just buy a Dairy Milk chocolate bar (which are, thankfully, still in production) and act like nothing ever happened.

Whatever happened to those original packets of foodstuffs? The only Lays chips that I liked were the very first ones, with no sub-title. Just that memorable tag line, "You can't eat just one." If I go to a store today, chances are that version of Lays doesn't exist anymore. Instead its replaced with all sorts of flavours- 'American', 'Tomato', 'Spicy Tango' and a whole bunch more, more noticeably a horrible 'Chaat' flavour.

7UP recently joined the bandwagon with a disastrous 'Nimbooz' drink, supposedly lime juice. I for one, hate it.
Hate it not because it tastes like Cow piss, not because the shop owner looks at me in great surprise, when I ask for the "Original 7UP drink", but because I have to make a choice, and that too a stupid one.

Which gets me to my real point - I don't like making choices. I can make decisions when it matters, but don't ask me if I prefer Appy Fizz or Grappy Fizz. The answer will usually be the original - Appy.

What made me think of this was when playing the video game Spider-man: Web Of Shadows. That game has 4 different endings, based on the choices you make through out the game. I like to play games completely- to the fullest. Games like GTA: Vice City Assassins Creed - I've left no stone unturned, finished the game 100%. But when it comes to games with choices, I just have to play the whole game more than once.. In the case of Fallout 3, which is said to have 500 different endings, I don't know what I'll do. Just take the best choice and just not play the game? Yes! Buy a C instead of cheese? Yes!

But then, I just don't see it stopping anytime soon. As long the big companies are greedy for money, they'll just keep rolling out new flavours. I won't be surprised, if 500 years down the line, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans is a reality.