Pushing Buttons – No Use Crying Over Split Coffee…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock Im sure you’ve heard all about this ‘Hot Coffee‘ business.

We all know the bad rap that videogames get in the mainstream media. Claims that this whole ‘Hot Coffee’ mess simply stir up even more. In gaming culture its very easy to take the exact opposite argument as most of the politians, but that gets us nowhere. Lets look at it from a grayer stand point.

Videogames sometimes contain mature content that should not be seen without parental consent or permission. This is a fact. The problem is that videogames are still ‘juvinille’ in the eyes of the mainstream media (and by extension most of America). The mindset goes something like this; Videogames are to be played by children as they are games… created exclusively for children. The fact that there are violent videogames in existance is grossly offensive to people of this mindset. It would be akin to putting nicotine in Blue Razz (Z’s added for effect) Bubblicious.

All games aren’t for children… just like all movies aren’t for children. There NEEDS to be an enforced policy on what gets sold to those underage. I don’t know about you… but I had a hell of a time getting into a Rated-R movie when I was under 17 and without an adult. There were ways around it, like anything… but it was still at least mildly difficult to get it. I think it’s still to easy for those who shouldn’t be getting their hands on violent content to get it. We’re making steps towards this… as I know I’ve been to various larger stores out there and they actually made me pull out my ID to buy an M rated game. That being said… its the exception not the rule… that needs to change.

When it comes down to it though, the responsibility falls squarely on the parents to know what their kids are doing. Lets look at the huge task it is to get this whole “Hot Coffee” thing to work. If you’re getting it to work on your computer or your PS2… you’ve probably already SEEN some of the footage from the game. It’s difficult to access, and takes at least some technical know how. Parents need to be able to KNOW what their kids are doing on the computer. Just like parents KNEW to look under the bed of young boys for the ‘girlie magazines’… parents need to learn how to ‘look under the bed’ of technology.Instead of making Rockstar reprintthe game… they should make an effort to teach parents exactly how their kids are unlocking this content (if they even are).

If we stop simply firing at each other from across the battles lines of this debate and actually try and figure out a solution to this problem… we can all just drink the coffee and stay up all night playing Smash Bros.