you know what

i hate people, mostly older, more conservative, who just dont get gaming, they dont take it seriously or they take it too seriously. Games can be art - they can portray a message through a variety of techniques. What's so bad about it, then, are people like Micheal Atkinson, who have this notion that games are for children. The average age of the Australian gamer is over 30. (lol, gamers are pervs for pushing for an 18+ game rating.) 

Many games have been watered down to meet Australian game classification requirements, just because they are confronting. But you walk into pretty much any art gallery and get 'art' that is pretty much badly disguised porn, but because it is painted, it's okay. 

But aside from just Australia, all over the world, people are convinced games are children's toys and aren't serious - I've played a few games that use insane amounts of symbolism, and looking at the big picture, were deep tales about human nature. (but I have also played way to many games lacking this, such as Toy Story, and many cheap tie-in games.) For instance, though it might not seem much like it, take The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Look at what it says about people? The easy nature of people that leads to corruption and power abuse? The other species within the tLoZ series are also pretty telling of people, such as the kokkiri who never grow up, symbolising the innocence of children playing in the forest whilst some of the more serious thing s in the world are taking place right outside the forest... but they don't care, they never go outside the forest (except Saria(?), she doesn't count, she's a sage)

But what really pisses me off: People who just don't get games. "Oh, games are too childish for me." "Oh, games are for children." "We need to keep games clean, for the children." "Games lead to reduced memory-span." (it was on the 7:30 report tonight, mar 19 09, ftr.)  "Children exposed to games such as GTA will go on murderous rampages." "The people who caused the high-school massacres around Northern Europe were influenced greatly by games." "Games kill the mind." "Games aren't for real men." "Games are for guys, not girls." "I'm Micheal Atkinson, I play Wii Sports with my grandchildren occasionally so I'm as much a gamer as any of you, and I'm old and conservative and I think games are for children, so FUCK over 70% of Australian gamers." "Games are an art form, sure! I saw it on a TV show once." (They interviewed people about the status of games as an art form, and most people, none of whom were gamers, responded with this.) "Computer games means video games." "Games are all violent sh'mups that cause children to go on violent rampages"  and my favorite, "Games are all excessively violent sh'mups and FPS clones, MMO's such as WoW and RuneScape that waste all monies and are the domain of dateless geeky teenagers and a few girls too, and old-school pixel based games." (Such as, most people who design things based on games will look at Space Invaders (Smiggle), Mario, Pacman and Tetris.)  

WHAT THE FUCK?!?

None of the above is true. NONE AT ALL.

People who just don't get games shouldn't be allowed to control what happens in relation to games. People like Micheal Atkinson. 

Sure there are violent games, but there are good games too, as well as violent films, books, music and art.

Would it kill game designers and studios to hire writers anymore? 

Few games are well written, unfortunately - some are very, however such as the series' Legend of Zelda and Halo, which were expertly written. The plot in the Halo series? EPIC.