Fallout 3, Fable 2, Resistance 2, Little Big Planet, Dead Space, and of course, Gears of War 2. All coming out so close to each other. What's a person to do? I have a feeling my wallet will be a little lighter after all is said and done.

I started off with Fallout 3 - given that I was a huge fan of the past versions. So far so good.

I've made several rants about the moderation system at GS in the past. Basically, I argued that moderators needed to loosen up and give the forumites the beneift of the doubt. For a while, it almost seemed like the forums were turning into some kind of authoritarian arena. Seemingly innocent infractions punished with excessive/over-the-top actions. No warnings, no attempt to reason or understand the poster, just power tripping beat downs.

However, recently I've noticed a change in philosophy. One that is very welcome. The forumites now seem to be getting the benefit of the doubt. I've had a couple of moderations over the last several months for questionable posts. Some probably crossed the line, some probably didn't. However, in none of those cases was my intention to troll the forums or create strife. Most of them were either a joke taken the wrong way or a heated comment during a debate. To their credit, the mods knew that as well. The post was deleted, a warning was given, and the day continued. No beat down. No suspension. No penalty. Simply good moderating.

I've always felt that the mods should be there to keep order. Prevent the forums from falling into chaos and curbing untoward behavior. It's generally pretty easy to spot a disruptive poster as they make their intentions obvious. Spamming the forums with garbage to disrupt and annoy users, spewing forth hate speech or blatantly disturbing images/rhetoric, etc. That's the stuff that moderators were made to clean up and regulate. An unregulated forum can quickly become an unpleasant place to be and I thank the mods for preventing that. Likewise, an overregulated forum can be just as unpleasant. So, I give my thanks to the mods for walking that fine line and showing me that they do respect the forum users. Thanks. It's noticed and appreciated.

I'm a little late to the party, but I won't let Teuf down. Now I just have to figure out some interesting traits.

1. I'm a hardcore runner. I used to be able to run a mile (1600m) in under 4 min 40 sec and can still run a 10 K in under 40 minutes. Love to run, but we'll see how long my knees last.

2. I was an engineering major in college. Don't do it now though.

3. My favorite RPG of all time was Ultima IV - mainly because it was my first great rpg.

4. I've visited 35 of the 50 US states.

5. I tackled the former prime minister of canada's son during a flag football game. Nothing dirty, just a friendly college match. Pretty sure this was true - it was Mulroney's son.

Violence in the media certainly seems to be a hot topic in the US. With the recent release of the Byron Review in the UK, it seems the same problems plague Europe as well. Many facets of the media have been blamed in the past for the perceived increase in violence - TV, film, art, etc. It's no surprise that an interactive form of entertainment such as video games are now being blamed and targetted as well. Some of the recent articles by the press seem to incite a hysteria about gaming - as if it is corrupting our youth into violent commandos intent on shooting up the world.

Now I'm not foolish. I certainly acknowledge that violent games, shows, films, etc. will certainly have some influence on susceptible individuals. There is truth to the densisitization and glorification of violence games can cause. I'm not going to stand in front of all the scientific and behavorial evidence, stick my head in the sand, and ignore it. However, I also have different thoughts on how this should be handled. Detractors of video games insist that violent games must be either censored or outright banned. I completely disagree.

The world, itself, is a violent place. As much as we want to shield our children and loved ones from the image of violence, it is a reality. Rather than have us stick our heads in the sand and pretend we live in utopia - as those detractors would have you do - I advocate a little more responsible approach. Parents need to be parents. Plain and simple. While there are many factors in determining a person's value system and judgement, parents play the primary and most influential role. More so than videogames. More so than the TV. More so than film and books. Many of these supposed experts are quick to point out the detrimental role of video games, but why don't they - in all of their knowledge - point out the bigger issue. Parenting. Adults in our society need to step up to the plate and do their job. Parenting is a full time occupation. It requires an incredible investment of time, energy, emotion, and discipline.

Most of us aren't going to play a game of Ghost Recon or Halo, and then decide to shoot up the world. We find it ridiculous that such associations would even be suggested. Why? Because we can tell right from wrong. Because we were raised by caring parents. People that took the time to know what we were doing. People that kept tabs on us. People that weren't afraid to tell us "no" when we did something wrong.

Todays parents are failing in those tasks. Many of them don't have the time and sadly the desire to be a positive influence in their child's life. These adults have busy work lives, and with a changing society, often both parents work. This translates into less supervision and less time with their children. Is it no surprise that children of today are having more issues? They're being raised by the internet rather than their parents. That does leave them more suscpetible to outside influence. However, the solution is not to ban every video game other than mickey mouse and the happy house, but rather get the parents more involved. Games have ratings on them. Every game I've bought in the last several years has a big E, T, or M on it. Any parent with half a brain can easily determine whether a game is too mature for their child just based on that. It's not that hard to keep tabs on what your kids are playing - if you're willing to put the time in. The government should not take the role of the parent and regulate what kids can and can't play. That's the parents role - and the child would be better served if the parents played that role. Why don't these so called experts see that? Are they too busy scapegoating games to make that connection?

Let's face it. This forum needs to die. It's been sputtering on life support for quite some time. Please give it some dignity and pull the plug. Whatever greater purupose it served has long since been buried under a seething pile of arbitrary rules and red tape.

It's a shame, too, because it wasn't always this way. Years ago, System Wars was the talk of the internet. A fun forum where people could duke it out over which console was the best. A ridiculous argument, but nonetheless, entertaining. People take their gaming seriously. For whatever reason, many people personally identify with a specific brand or company and are willing to come to blows to defend its reputation. Rather than have these inane arguments spill over into ever forum on the site, gamespot elected to create a forum where fanboys could have at each other. A brilliant idea. If you wanted to have a civilized discussion on gaming, Gamespot had its standard gaming forums. But if you wanted to talk trash, bash a system, or just go for laughs, there was system wars.

Gamespot seemed to love it at first. There were even badges and awards for the most prolific and fanatical posters in System Wars. The system warrior or the flaming award were two of the more popular and coveted badges available. 30 page flame wars were not uncommon. It was the one forum on GS, not for the faint of heart. The mods were there to keep it from getting entirely out of hand, but basically stayed on the sidelines for most things. Legends were made. Even its own vocabularly started to develop - animal names to describe the various fanboys - sheep, lemmings, cows. Funny ownage and pwnage patterns developed. Gang ownage, individual ownage, group ownage, etc. Every post seemed to end with TCHBO, TLHBO, TSHBO or the THHBO. System Wars served its purpose -> let all the crazies fight it out there to save the other forums from such discussion. Funny, silly, ridiculous, but always entertaining.

Fast forward to today and things have changed -> not for the better. System Wars has gone from a battleground to the most regulated forum on the net. Mods are no longer content to let things go, but instead police the forum to death. System wars has become a minefield where any unwary forumite may soon have their account moderated or outright banned. Prior to posting, one must read through seemingly hundreds of arbitrary rules and obey rules of conduct that even the most strict schools would not employ. In a forum where the purpose was to bash other sytems and argue about console dominance, it's now illegal to insult other systems. It was system WARS for goodness sake, not the United Nations forum on gaming! It was the one haven for raving fanboys to have at each other. Now it should be renamed - General Games Discussion for those with no backbone.

All of this leads to my last point. Which is -? what is the point of system wars? If you can't fight it out, if you can't argue about silly things like console dominance, then why have it? All of these rules and moderations have turned it into a general games discussion forum. Guess what? Gamespot already has one of those. Thus, gamespot needs to put system wars out of its misery. If you're not going to do it right, don't do it at all. Now it's just a trap. A place where people get moderated and banned for actions that should be allowed there. Just end it. It has no point anymore.