The Den Opens

Welcome, this is my first post, so rather then waste your time with greetings, I'll stick with what gaming has taught me a good old "Yo".

So what is gaming?

"Gaming - Noun : 2. the playing of games, esp. those developed to teach something or to help solve a problem, as in a military or business situation." - Dictionary.com

"2 a: the playing of games that simulate actual conditions (as of business or war) especially for training or testing purposes b: the playing of video games" - Merriam Webster Dictionary

Of course, a dictionary isn't always right...oh and these ones are completely wrong; At least that's what anti-gaming advocates like the media disaster that is Jack Thompson would say.


Oh, I'm not here to bash him, sure he's not the sharpest crayon in the box, it's been done so often it's just not even fun anymore. Poor guy, needs to retire, and relax...maybe pick up World of Goo and play some puzzles.

Might of made him a little smarter learning how to solve complex problems, and then he might of successfully gotten rid of these nasty devices of time destruction that cause insanity, murder, rape and other horrors.

Oh...wait. What am I saying. Video games can't teach you anything! The Dictionaries Lie! Jack Thompson was right! GTA Made me Do it!

Of course, violence and video games has never been successfully linked. Sad, but true. You've got a better chance of being killed by some Caucasian teen who was abused by his broke, dead-beat parents then you do of a well-off boy playing Manhunt virtually slaughtering people in the most horrific ways possible.

Of course, I'm not advocating parents hand their children Manhunt and say "have fun!", that would be incredibly stupid. A ten year old child isn't developed and capable of grasping the shear horror of the actions. Just like you won't take little Billy or Jane down to watch Scarface before they are emotionally ready. Yet, parents refuse to do this. They constantly refuse to monitor little Billy or Jane letting them blindly venture into the world of gaming when many games are clearly labeled as "18+".

So what do we do? Well we could complain to the parents, like most gamers do. "It's your kid, your responsibility, don't be a bad parent!", but that doesn't work. What ends up happening is the kid grows up messed up, has a kid, becomes another bad parent, nothing changes and we're back to step number one. How about blaming the industry? How -DARE- they sell Dead Space to my fifteen year old daughter! Sorry, nope again... the gaming industry is wonderful producing games for us, but it's controlled by the same sleazy dirt bags that make up companies like AIG, and CitiBank, with the single goal : Profit.

I've got an easier solution, sure it'll sound hard...and we've got plenty of folks who won't agree with me, thinking I'm the reincarnation of Lord Xeenu (Go read up on Scamatgoly err I mean Scientology). Want to hear it?

... I bet you won't like it. Take responsbility.

Own up to your mistakes, and the mistakes of others. Every day strive to be better. Every day, play a game that challenges your mind. Every day, meditate for fifteen minutes. Every day, be a better person. Every day, grow, learn, explore.

So why not for now pick up World of Goo, and have some time to relax. Let your kids play for a bit too, might help them become engineers later on, physicists, chemists, or mathematicians.

Thanks for reading, thought I'd leave a footnote for those who had fun. I'll be back with more. I'll release tips on how to lead a happier life (I don't claim it'll be better...just that you'll smile more often), reviews on games you should pick up to expand your brain...and of course explain why life is meant for gaming...and gaming is meant for life.