I had planned on doing a blog defending bad games last week, but never got around to it, so maybe that will happen sometime soon, but for now, I’ve got a few other contrarian viewpoints to get to.

Before that, however, I’d like to pour a 40 for Nex. Of all the writers I’ve followed here on Dtoid, Nex was hands down my favorite, and I am unashamed of my completely heterosexual man crush on that unparalleled master of the English language (in reference to video games). I will certainly be checking out his offerings on Wired, but it will, sadly, just not be the same.

First up on the gaming front, I would like to address something I’ve noticed a lot of here, which is calling parents who don’t understand game ratings “retarded.” Now, I’m not going to be a PC crybaby (mouse/keyboard lol) about this and claim that the term shouldn’t be used because it might offend someone, but rather attack the way in which it assumes that parents who don’t understand game ratings are stupid and inattentive.

Think about it from the standpoint of a “hardcore” gamer, as many of us by nature are assumed to be. We know games inside and out, we live them, we love them, we know all we can about them, and that naturally extends to knowing about the rating system (E for FAGS, lolzors). But let’s say someone starts talking to us about baseball. Well, I for one cannot understand the wacky numbers and things that go smack and fly into crowds of people, and I don’t really care to. By extension, many parents could not care less about anything regarding video games, including the rating system. Especially older parents who never understood what exactly was so goddamn engaging about fling a square ball between two lines for hours on end.

Shouldn’t these parents at least take an interest in something their children love doing? Sure, and for all the “stupid parents OMG,” I’m sure there are some who are very good about getting involved. Hell, my grandparents were savvy enough to buy me Castlevania III one Christmas, though to be fair, my grandma was concerned about the game having some violent content. But to expect people to delve into and educate themselves about something they have no interest in at all is, well, it’s like expecting me to give a crap about baseball.

And there’s something else to consider as well, and it’s about time we gamers start owning up to it. It’s the fact that when we’re kids, we’re sneaky. Back in my day (I’m pausing here to chase some youngsters off my lawn) the big deal was Mortal Kombat. Now, I had a Super NES, so we got the censored version anyway, but I remember games getting a lot more scrutiny from my mother post-MK. But do you think I pointed her in the direction to resources that she could use to educate herself on games and age-appropriate entertainment etc? No, I tried like hell to confuse her and used smokescreen tactics to ensure that she stayed the hell out of my game world, and I imagine that many other kids felt/feel the same way. Besides the fact that they don’t want their mommy to know about chainsaw kills in Gears of War or boobies in Conan, video games will undoubtedly become much less cool with additional parental involvement.

Of course, this isn’t true for everybody, but I imagine it’s true for many, so maybe it’s time to be a little more forgiving to those who birthed us.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. I was going to put down the rampant Halo bashers on this site, but long blog is long, and I think it’s time for me to get back to work. Until then, keep on pwnzing.