From: Keith "Draft" Cyphers
Subject: PS2 Games all Suck???!!!

???!!!

What? Are you absolutely insane? Look, you may not like Tekken much, but the other 99.9 percent of the universe views it as the single greatest 3D fighter ever created (all around, it's probably SFA 3.) So, even though you may not consider TTT a killer app, most do, and I guarantee it will sell a hell of a lot of Playstation 2's come launch day.

Your Good Friend,

Keith "Draft" Cyphers

BTW- I'm not some crazy anti-Sega person either. I plan on buying a DC as soon as finances aren't so tight. It's just, well, damn, have you seen the pictures of TTT? Have you played it in the arcades? It's bliss I tell you, pure 3D bliss.

I didn’t know there were crazy anti-Sega people. I mean...its SEGA. Land of Sonic. Speaking of, not being a fighting game kinda girl, pickings on the Dreamcast have been awful slim so far.

And I only have one word to say about the Playstation 2.

Abe.

Subject: See, now that's just asking for it.

Sweet merciful christ. I sincerely hope that Sen. Lieberman and his merry band don't catch wind of this one.

Consider that the entire gaming press is arguing that it's a parent's responsibility to restrict their kids' access to violent material, as opposed to governments banning "violent" media outright. It's a good argument, and it's the one I agree with. But now you get this guy bragging (in one of the most widely read online gaming magazines, no less) about how he has his 3-year-old son playing Quake II. Doesn't this completely undermine the gaming industry's position?

3 years old? Hell, developmental psychologists are still divided on whether kids should be watching TV at that age. But teaching them to play PC games designed for people aged 18 and up? Radpipe's just asking for it.

Grey

I don't advocate a blanket restriction on games with violent material. I do think parents need to watch their kids closely to see how they react to them, and how they behave after having played them. Show me a homicidal kid who blames computer games for who he is, and I'll show you a kid who had problems long before he started playing the games. But I guess it's far easier to use blanket restrictions. But whatever the case, ignorant parents just don't care. Their kids will play whatever they feel like.

Yeah I've thought a lot about this issue, but I didn't want to get into it in my column. I just wanted to talk about the joys of playing with your kids, and this "next generation gamer" thingy.

And, for the record, my Zachary is a loving, caring, little boy. He has no trouble at all separating the gaming world from his own :)

Take care

--Rad