Why must they always blame video games?!!

[Sentenal]

Yeah, but I suppose they don't get blamed because they arn't near mainstream enough.

[Legend of the Past]

Hell, I'm surprised H-games haven't been blamed for date-rape yet.  I suppose it'll happen soon enough though.

Heh. Sometimes I envy those Japanese: They're pretty preverted from the get-go that porn is almost part of the society.

[Silvercry]

Hell, I'm surprised H-games haven't been blamed for date-rape yet.  I suppose it'll happen soon enough though.

Heh. Sometimes I envy those Japanese: They're pretty preverted from the get-go that porn is almost part of the society.

Ah, the Japanese.  You just can't stay mad at them.

[Legend of the Past]

Hell, I'm surprised H-games haven't been blamed for date-rape yet.  I suppose it'll happen soon enough though.

Heh. Sometimes I envy those Japanese: They're pretty preverted from the get-go that porn is almost part of the society.

Ah, the Japanese.  You just can't stay mad at them.

No, you cannot. For all their libido, they've made Chrono so they're still a great bunch of guys.

Of course, they've made FF X-2, so, yeah. Double-edged sword.

[Mystik3eb]

Let's go egg Jack Thompson's car.

[Maelstrom]

I believe a parents law should override that of the governments. Actually, that is totally stupid, but maybe the parents should take full responibility of the kid before puberty. That means giving the mother welfare and allowing them to skip work. This would probably encourage more mothers to give birth, and consequently, destroy the economy...ok that was a bad plan.

If kids are already in school (circa age 5½), then obviously you don't need a parent home during school hours.

I don't even think you necessary need the government to subsidize families in that way as much as you need to allow parents more flexibility in their work hours.  A working-class parent can't take a job that works less than 40 hours (there are typically part-time jobs for 25-30 hours, but there are rarely any benefits, and there's no hope for promotion in them, so they are barely worth the effort) and salaries are often so shoddy that they have to take on a part time job as well anyway (*especially* if they are single parents, and the combination of long work-hours and just one guardian makes parenting impossible).  Even "professionals" get squeezed in their own way; because they are "exempt," they can't demand a 40-hour job (for proportionally less pay).  They get assigned whatever tasks the company dishes out, and that's usually a 50-60 hour a week gig (sometimes less, sometimes more).  Part time jobs for professionals give some hope, but advancement is even harder for them, and the benefits/pay are less than proportionally less.  Also, many workers have little or no control of *when* they do their work, and they often have to work at times that are much less convenient for them (usually resulting in unnecessary expenses or hardships).

It is actually a good idea to make our country more family friendly (despite all the restrictions put in place to "protect children," the economics are extremely biased against them; that's why parents are averaging fewer than 2 kids nowadays), but it doesn't necessary mean that the government has to foot the bill for *all* the changes.  (Why is our population still growing then?  People are living longer, and we are taking in a number of immigrants.)

[Burning Zeppelin]

Oh yeah, school...
Australias population would actually FALL if it weren't for immigrants.
Familys, familys...what about this party, Family First...oh wait, they want to kill the homosexuals...
Anyway, the Japanese probably have the most hardcore censoring. I mean, your playing this rock-paper-scissors game, and they strip when you get it right, and damnit, the camera JUST misses "it". Ok, I'm going to stop now...

[Lord J Esq]

A big part of the problem is that there is a conflict of responsibility. The government and parents both have different ideas of who should be raising the kids, or who should be responsible for which aspect of child rearing. In theory, they both want the parents to do the job, but in practice, it seems increaingly clear that both are more happy with the government doing it, which is absurd, because governments do not operate at a layer of abstraction, nor have they the resources, to properly raise children.

Another big issue is that we have a culture, that in general, has no regard for personal responsibility. People try to take the easy or litiguous way out of things, blaming their misfortunes on others. Sadly, the government seems to be quite willing to help take the blame away from the people who do stupid and irresponsible things.

*sigh*

We need more natural selection.

Now that's the sort of discussion that'd be a perfect inspiration for a new thread at Zeal Palace. How many of humanity's weaknesses could be destroyed in a single generation if it weren't for bad parents raising bad kids in bad societies? I have seen enough of the world to know that we can't trust most parents to raise their own children particularly well, but neither do I have enough confidence in democratic nations in general and the United States in particular to believe that our government could supplant the family unit. Your sigh may be a self-satisfying show, but if we're going to take the issue seriously, some good ideas are in order.

[Burning Zeppelin]

Maybe Zeality should FINALLY make Zeal Palace open for viewing for all, then we could watch the mights of the super powers talking about parenting. Silvercry, so far is the only parent I know, so it would be interesting to see what he says.

[Theicedragon]

I am also a parent.  But the biggest problem I have is that they don't blame anything else when a child does something like this.  They didn't bring up what books he read, what music he listened to, or what movies he likes to watch.  Sole attention goes straight to the video games.  I could see it now...they blame drugs on video games...or how about kids getting pregnant and having vabies on "Leisure Suit Larry"  LOL!!  I'm surprised that the government hasn't blamed 9/11 on "Ace Combat"  Yeah, thats where the terrorist learned how to fly planes.

[Burning Zeppelin]

Thats because video games are interactive and therefore the theory is is that it literally trains kids to kill or steal of fuck or whatever. Unlike a game, movie/book/songs are open to interpretation and...sorry, I can't explain this (no wonder I'm not in Zeal Palace ) but I guess if a game goes "kill your parents" then it should be to blame.

[CyberSarkany]

A big problem is most people don't know video games at all. They just know stuff from the media like "Person killed several people and played Counter Strike" or something equal. Most Media just show games in a bad way, but that doesn't mean they are bad. If my parents say something about how video games do suck and that they make me even more stupid(if that's is even possible), they have never actually tried to understand what video games are all about. Video Games are a good way to relax, to have fun, to meet different people outside from your range or just to waste time.
Always blame the stuff you don't know, if it's a foreigners, homosexual or a video game. Sadly that's how most peoples view work...

Zeal Palace: How about making it readable for everyone and only members of this group are allowed to post(I actually prefer reading discussions in english than discussing myself, maybe because of my lack of skill)

[Lord J Esq]

Zeal Palace: How about making it readable for everyone and only members of this group are allowed to post(I actually prefer reading discussions in english than discussing myself, maybe because of my lack of skill)

That's the plan. I've advised ZeaLitY to hold off making it public, though, because I've had a very busy ten days and, together with this forum redesign, I haven't had time to water the seeds of discussion there. There's not much going on at the moment.

[Daniel Krispin]

I am also a parent.  But the biggest problem I have is that they don't blame anything else when a child does something like this.  They didn't bring up what books he read, what music he listened to, or what movies he likes to watch.  Sole attention goes straight to the video games.  I could see it now...they blame drugs on video games...or how about kids getting pregnant and having vabies on "Leisure Suit Larry"  LOL!!  I'm surprised that the government hasn't blamed 9/11 on "Ace Combat"  Yeah, thats where the terrorist learned how to fly planes.

Actually, that last one I blame on Tom Clancy. Well, if nothing else, it's ironic conicidence. In Debt of Honor there is a war between the US and Japan (which, considering it's Tom Clancy, the US obviously wins); a disgruntled Japanese pilot flies his 747 into the capitol building, killing the president, at the very end. It's doubful that inspiration was gleaned, but it's still ironic that a book foreshadowed that all.

[Mystik3eb]

Question: What is this "Zeal Palace" everyone keeps talking about?[/offtopic]