I'm not sure if you're aware that the average age of hardcore gamers is 29, with men making up about 60% of the playing audience.

hardcore gamers. yes. they ahve been playing video games, like myself (age 34) since Pong and Pac Man and shit.

I am one of the gamers.

I'm not sure about America, but here in Europe? Kids aren't pampered by their parents that much.

ha ha exactly-- and on that note i read this shit this morning on the paper-- here's a related newsweek article

http://www.newsweek.com/id/133103

about "helicopter moms" ha ha ha ha.

for the record, not having grown up in amerikkka, we played all day on the street. fútbol was the sport of men and there were no moms to be seen, except when they called everyone for afternoon snacks-- my aunt made strawberry shakes that kids would line up outside her door for.

here, kids have fucking "play dates" arranged by their parents for fucks sakes. and the "soccer moms" are looking at their little chickens all day. what the fuck. so very wrong.

yes. very very wrong.

it is the culture of fear taht pervades everything in america. fear of diseasem fear of injuries, and accidents, and the unknown and predators and all that shit, even though child predation has gone down markedly since the early 80's.

keep the masses of lemmings scared and you have them under control. keep them spending money and you have them at your whim.

keep their children brain dead and retarted from staring at a TV for hours a day and you can do what you want with them, like sending 100 thousand reservists, weekend warriors, off to fight a war for the rich bastards that own the oil companies.

If my little siblings are violent because of video games, it's because they get really frustrated when they're not doing well.

I relate to that too, but I'm much better about it.

And that said - I'm not a violent person, but it's so much fun gunning down the special forces in Half-Life. Because fuck the US Government.