ESRB ratings are a good thing.

I went to my usual PSP site to read that Jack Thompson had wirtten to Take 2 to gloat about Manhunt 2 receiving a Mature rating. That's just childish. However, I do think that a Mature rating is appropriate.

While I believe that monitoring childrens enterteinment input is up to the parent, providing and accurate ESRB rating is the responsibility of the industry. Lets face it, we do need SOME help. Not in raising our kids, but rather in having all the information necessary to make a fair judgement call.

Personally, I don't believe that this will hinder the sell of the game much. Certain games appeal to certain demographics. Manhunt can and will be bought primarilly by the generation that stayed up late on a school night perfecting the art of getting 100+ men on Super Mario Bros. The only thing that would stop us (individually of course) from buying the game would probably be a lack of money or personal convictions.

Finally, I want to make sure it is understood that I don't mean to condemn parents. I know that it's so much tougher to be a kid these days, so parenting is that much more of a sensative journey. But as long as we can say we did all we could to protect our kids (and if we did, we can say it) our conscience is cleared. Doing all we can for our kids - protecting them at all costs - can only result in a respectful and selfless citizen.

'Til next time.

What About the Parents?

Every morning, when I arrive to work, I take a little time to myself in an effort to prepare myself for the day's events/tasks before me. I drink my coffee and visit my favorite web sites which are a hand full of web comics and PSP sites. This morning, I read a couple of articles - both from a PSP site - that I felt compeled to address.
First off is a homebrew developer who is will known in the PSP scene. He has decided to leave said scene because of trust issues. This is a quote I extracted from a Quick Jump: PSP Updates:

"I'm tired of the continual pressure and idiocy of the PSP scene - long gone are the fun days of pioneering amongst like minds, in a mutually supportive and gentlemanly environment,"...

I for one benefited greatly from his contrabutions to the scene. But I can't help but feel that the pressure felt is caused largely by those who take from the scene, but never give anything back. Piracy is ugly (why am I on this?) and I certainly have done my fair share of plundering. Though it may not be affecting big corporation as much as we are led to believe, it does seem to put a strain on the little guys who are in it for the fun.

Now, on to the Conservative war against Video Games. Here is another tid-bit I got from the same site concerning a UK teen on teen killing.

What has become of our society when we have this spate of children killing children? It means understanding and acting on that age-old maxim that it takes a village to raise a child. It means retailers stopping the sale of alcohol to young teenagers.
It means music companies, media companies, games manufacturers, not just thinking, What is my social responsibility as a company in terms of the projects I support and the charities I back, good and important as they are , but asking, What is the effect of the music I produce, the games I market and the programmes I broadcast?

I have a better question. Where are the parents? Why are you conservatives (and I am a conservative as well) so eager to put the blame on everything except where it belongs? I was not raised by a village. I was raised by my mother and father who are still married to this day. They were active in my life, showing concern and intrest in everything I did. They were not afraid to spank me or tell me "no." This kind of action; this kind of full frontal resistance against the enterteinment industry will do nothing more than justify parents in their decision not to take cahrge in their own households. Yes, enterteinment has become pretty raunchy over the years (parts of itn anyway), but I don't expect the enterteinment industry to raise my children. I will do that by making sure I make an honest effort to know what my kids are up to, making sure they know where I stand, and enforcing my dictatorship rule over my house with a firm hand, fairness, and love.

I'm at work now and I've spent way too much time composing this blog, so I must skip the spell check yet again. 'Til next time.

LOL @ Religion

I read a post on a particular forum that just made me laugh. It kinda pointed to man's desperate attempt to exclude God from anything he (or she) can.

I love anime. The animation is top notch. The story is usually pretty deep (or I'm just an easy audience). The characters a developed well. It's all good. I often look for anime art and sometimes the quest takes me to places on the internet that I'd rather not be. This particular forum I'm actually a member of. It is a great source of anime. They don't have loads and loads of the stuff, but it is quality. Much of it is ecchi (lewd, shameless) and hentai (explicit sexual content). There's not much I can use there. Any who, it was there that I read this comment.

Apparently it was a comment about a certain hentai movie. I'm paraphrasing - the member stated that the cartoon wasn't really all that good, the parts that made fun of religion made him laugh out loud, so it was okay (i'm assuming that ment it was acceptable).

Think about that. The movie wasn't really any good, but because it poked fun at religion, it was fine. Go see this movie purely because it pokes fun at religion. Wow. To me, that's like saying the video footage of the jews standing naked in the sowers was a hard thing to watch, but it was okay because you could see bare boob. Of course I'm going to the extreme with that comment.

Any way, I haven't seen the movie the member spoke of. Perhaps the fun it pokes is rather funny. I know I'm not o big fan of religion either. I prefer to think of it more as a lifestyle. Live what you believe and people will be less inclined to call you a hypocrate.

Just though that was kinda funny. 'Til next time.

Wish I hadn't said that.

Have you ever said something that didn't seem so bad to you at the time, but years later you'd look back and wonder what you were thinking?

Years ago, while in the military, I was talking to a friend of mine, - we'll call him Jake - and a good mutual friend - whom we'll call Bob - came up in conversation. Jake informs me that Bob's family had met with trajedy. Now at this time, I was a brand new Christian, full of zeal and - as you will soon find out - lacking wisdom and love to the point that it would register zero on a meeter. When I heard the news, I suggested that it was Bob's past sins that brought the fate upon his family. Yes, that was the worst thing to ever say about a good friend, especially when you claim to be Christian.

Though I doubt Jake even remembers the conversation, the fact that I said that about Bob fills me with such shame. It's been bugging me for a few weeks now. And by my own reasoning, my family should have met the same fate many times over due to my own sins.

This is just another example of how a Christian ought not to act. I state time and time again in my blogs that I'm not perfect by any means. Those very things that Christian shouldn't do to others I've done at some point in my life. It's all very humbling, which I'm certain I need to expierence.