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Gamers
of the World Unite
It’s
hard to believe, that in the year 2002, places on Earth condone
things without knowledge of the subject. It’s hard to believe
people and societies are still wrongly accused of crimes.
It’s hard to believe there is still poverty and suffering.
But it's even more strenuous to think of the selfish people
that don’t recognize these problems.
Coming home from work and plopping yourself down in front
of the PC is something everybody takes for granted. Freely
going to a movie rental, surfing the web, and even playing
a Gameboy are small parts of our lives. But what if all that
was taken away? What would we do? Can some of us handle it?
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Over
the summer three gamers were arrested and hauled out an Internet
café. What for, you wonder, no it was not for something like
murder, robbery, rape or even jaywalking. They were charged
with what we do everyday they were in possession and were
playing games. How can this be? What kind of world is it when
you are punished for having fun? All of this started when
a parliament member of Greece, was caught on camera with a
modified game console, the modifications turned it into a
portable slot machine. Once arrested Greece made a major error
in slapping a law against all games, this included, PC games,
all games and game consoles, games on cell phones, personal
digital assistants (PDA), and even Gameboys. After that event
the lives of the gamers of Greece would never be the same.
A week later, after thousands of petitions, many protests
and countless letters, a court overturned the law and it was
changed to be more specific. Our fellow gamers in Greece are
now playing again on all major systems, but could this happen
in our country?
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No
matter where you are the threat is there, big and small. Last
April in St. Louis, Missouri, a law was passed stating you
must be accompanied by an adult, over eighteen years of age,
to purchase or rent M-rated video games. While this seems
intelligent how far are the people in charge going to take
this? Being that the majority of the world leaders is older
than forty, a generation cap is occurring, they don’t take
the time to research what they are banning, or restricting.
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What
happened in Greece was simply wrong, but we showed we aren’t
just a bunch of “computer nerds.” We are a major portion of
the population, and it's about time we show the world we have
more than mice and keyboards. We need to teach non-gamers
what we do and why we love to do it. We aren’t malicious people
hell bent on violence like they claim most of us are. We are
a society that needs to be recognized. While critics argue
we are just kids (or adults acting like them) we have everything
a normal society needs. We are governed by a set of unspoken
laws, spawn killing, cheating, we all understand this is not
a proper thing to do, and tend not to. We have social junctures,
Quakecon, for example. We even have “meetings” discussing
our future like the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). And
while we lack social interaction we have what no other society
has, freedom without prejudice. Whether you're Black, White,
Green, Olive, or a Purple-People-Eater once you join a game
you are just another marine, and accepted world wide. Our
society is unique in its simplicity, but we can’t get too
caught up in it.
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AvP
2 brought a lot of us together, though it has flaws; many
people have flocked on servers and left their world behind.
Not only were there movies, but research on the creatures
have taken the realm of Aliens and Predators to a new place.
You can search the web and find numerous sites about the cultures
and history of each species. While it’s old, people are still
being brought in, due to movie rumors and of course AvP 3.
While playing we can’t forget to step back and recognize problems
of the real world. While looking for our independence we need
to be sympathetic to those that don’t understand or don’t
have it as good. Our utopia is threatened everyday by people
that don’t understand and its sure as hell about time we respond
by voicing our opinions, helping those in need, and living
life to the fullest.
By AuthorX
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