Let’s start with bashing the irresponsible parents, because that’s what I do best. What I find humorous about these “concerned parents” are a few things. First, some of these people aren’t even parents, they are just activists that think everyone should (WARNING: Stereotyping ahead, please reduce speed!) follow their ideals of a peaceful and happy, marijuana-smoking life. Well, something to that extent. Second(-ly), these parents that are concerned about their children being affected probably shouldn’t worry, since they are probably already so deep in worries about that last defective Barney doll forever scarring their child. Finally, why does the government and/or the gaming company need to baby-sit their children for them? Shouldn’t these parents be watching what they play? Just leave the gamers at peace with the current rating system.

    Well, despite my rant in the above paragraph, there are some companies and games to blame. Most recently, there is the “BMX XXX” title that has put Activision to shame. Also to blame are titles like “Soldier Of Fortune.” Now, I’m not blaming them because they try to express their freedom, I blame them because of their rashness. “BMX XXX” doesn’t even look remotely good, and although I have not played it myself, it’s just plain ridiculous that Activision would do this to the gaming community. “Soldier of Fortune” is also full of gratuitous violence that was simply unnecessary. I may look like a hypocrite, but there is a method to my madness. As games like these are eaten up by Congressman and lawyers, gamers lose ground on their fight to show that we are not social outcasts that will come to school gun a-blazin’ because we played Quake 3 all weekend. Sadly, coaster games like these will litter the shelves until they become unprofitable. Fortunately, games like “BMX XXX” and “Soldier of Fortune” didn’t sell that entirely well.

    All seriousness aside, there are some people out there, on the “light” side, mocking these activist groups. MAVAV.org (Mother’s Against Videogame Addiction and Violence) fooled everyone a few months back. In fact, it was part of a project for school one student created in order to test the reaction. Simply put, the experiment was not surprising, as the author received thousands of e-mails, mostly complaining. Everywhere on the Internet you can find information about the MRGG (Movement to Remove Games from Gamers – yes, I made it up).

    I hope you pulled some insightful and hopefully light-hearted ideas from this issue. I know it’s on the minds of many gamers, especially the younger ones. I don’t condone playing games that aren’t in your age range; so don’t send your mom my e-mail because I have a lot of nice spamming companies that will do my bidding. All in all, the war goes on… young versus old… new versus traditional… just remember what side you are on…