Ps2's are programmed to break???

[DJZen]

Well, first of all, yes, it does depend on who owns it. More specifically it depends on how that person treats it. Did you know that the PS2 was NOT built to play DVDs? One every so often is fine, but it strains the hell out of the hardware if you do it repeatedly. If you ever hear a scraping sound, hit eject IMMEDIATELY. PS2 has a known issue of being unable to focus the laser. As a result, the machine will attempt to move it closer and closer to the disc to the point where it actually damages the surface.

Hmm, well seeing as the games are DVDs, that's kind of an oxymoron.

If you're talking about movies, thats crap too, seeing as the games are taking more of the system's power than the movies are, and when playing FMVs are doing the exact same thing. I've had mine for years and I watch movies on it more than I play games, and it works better than my brother's which is about a year newer and has never had a movie played in it because my mom believes that stupid rumor.

You can believe that if you want, but it's like saying a CD player wasn't made to play CDs

I'm talking about the disc READING hardware, and it's more like saying the PS1 wasn't meant to play VCDs. It wasn't, but it can do it. However, that doesn't mean you SHOULD do it. I've also had mine for years and never had any problem with it at all. However, I'm not about to discount the many, many reports I've heard about DREs etc.

[MecaKane]

Hmm, well seeing as the games are DVDs, that's kind of an oxymoron.

If you're talking about movies, thats crap too, seeing as the games are taking more of the system's power than the movies are, and when playing FMVs are doing the exact same thing. I've had mine for years and I watch movies on it more than I play games, and it works better than my brother's which is about a year newer and has never had a movie played in it because my mom believes that stupid rumor.

You can believe that if you want, but it's like saying a CD player wasn't made to play CDs

DVD movies are being constantly read by the PS2 for the entire two hours they're playing. Games load up the info they need for that area or whatever, and then are much less active. That's what those loading screens are for.
And thinking PS2 FMVs are in DVD video format is ludacris, considering a game with 30 minutes of fmvs would have an entire quarter of the disk used up right from the start. Yah, all the FMVs on your PC games are in .mpeg format, too!

[Mirage]

I got my first PS2 about 4 years ago, but i accidentially dropped it about 6 months later and the laser diode probably got disaligned. I got a new one for free, and it's still working perfectly. I've never had any problems with the PStwo i bought for my siblings.
I would assume the reason old Nintendo systems last longer is that the storage medium is much more robust, no movable parts, and well protected by a dust-proof plastic cover. My Gamecube got read errors about 6 months after I bought it.

-edit-
Forgot some stuff.
There are often more problems with the first generation of new consoles, that's why I'm going to wait some months with getting a PS3.