I'm not sure why there should not be an expectation of skepticism. I'd like to see an example of something that's universally liked by everyone.
I'm skeptical of this service, but not because of lag. I always make the assumption that they somehow solved the lag issue. My concern is the games themselves. When OnLive was first announced many people seemed to predict that this would be the end of game consoles. Why? What kind of games will be available on this service? PC games? I know that there are plenty of console/PC ports, but there are some games that are on consoles that are not on PCs. Most of the are on the Wii, and most of them have the name Mario somewhere in the title.
The mutlitouch on the iPhone is nice and all, but it makes drawing a little awkward. I know that there are people can draw well enough on a iPhone to make covers of magazines, but I've never been I to finger painting. I would hope that there would still be some cheap stylus based tablets coming soon. Or that the Wacom would seriously lower the price on the Cintiq.
Every since I've read about OnLive I've wanted to know why this is big deal. I've wanted to know what is it that their little box can do that is SO impossible to do on an existing game console. What is it that will make Nintendo, Sony, and MS suddenly stop innovating?
People get caught up on the latency issue, and as far as I know if OnLive licks is that will be a bigger deal than the gaming aspect. But latency aside, what does OnLive offer that can't be don't by the Big 3? Is it a cheaper console? I imagine that with the low hardware requirement for OnLive that the Wii could run a similar program with just an update. How OnLive anyone compete that? MS and Sony can't.
Then there's the matter of games. The Big 3 have them, OnLive needs them. In fact what on live is likely to have are PC games, which are cool in there on right, but according to the "popular believe" PC gaming is dead, or dying or whatever. Apparently everyone is in to consoles these days. If OnLive is to succeed does that mead everyone will drop their consoles and start playing PC games en mass? I would like to see that, honestly being a PC gamer myself.
If the Big 3 somehow loses to OnLive the they deserve to lose. That means that they did nothing to activly compete. But I don't that that they won't stop competing.
"Ninety percent of baseball is half mental." -- Yogi Berra