A few weeks ago, I visited my parent’s house to enjoy some dinner and see how they were settling in their new place in the swanky part of Alpharetta, Georgia. I had a good time and I suggest all you reader(s) of BHM to cherish the time you spend with your family.

Anyways, on my way out the door, I was saying my goodbye and I noticed on the ground a very peculiar mushroom. Interestingly, I had a desire to eat it until I realized the gravity of the situation that I present to you in a professional, bulleted-point fashion:

1) It would be gross.
2) It may be poisonous.
3) 2 decades of Nintendo indoctrination has affected my subconcious in ways that I wasn’t aware of.

After I fought off the impulse to eat it and grow to gigantor-size, I luckily had my camera there to document my find.

On my way back home sitting in traffic, I daydreamed “What If…” scenarios on eating the mushroom and jumping my way back home on the tops of the vehicles that sat before me on I-85.

Wow, this is a weird and nasty one. But I thought the story behind it was pretty funny.

Over at Kotaku, Brian Crecente posted a story about a somewhat forced DS multiplayer experience with a stranger. They played a few rounds of Tetris. Basically he was kind of weirded out by the whole thing:

“The whole thing felt a little unsavory, forced. It was like a bath house hook-up but instead of man sex there was Tetris. A podmate at work blurted out Tetris Gloryhole after hearing my story, and then laughed so hard his face turned a deep red.”

So, today’s Neologism is “Tetris Gloryhole”. Crecente was even kind enough to give me the definition and usage.

“Tetris Gloryhole: The act of forcing a total stranger to play a DS Lite game with you in public.

Usage: I was minding my own business playing Club House when some gimf Tetris Gloriyholed me into playing Metroid Prime Hunter.”

Link

Earlier I did a writeup on my thoughts of the Bully debate. My main point was that while a video games ratings system should be enforced, mass censorship will only breed ignorance. Case in point: Here is a video of a recent Bully protest at a Best Buy. I like how Joystiq summed it up.

The group seems to have its heart in the right place — one member talks of witnessing youth violence in DC — but talk calling Rockstar “worse than terrorists” seems a little overblown to us. The group also seems to be under the mistaken impression that games are rated by the FCC and that selling violent games to children is illegal. But hey, who needs facts when you have catchy chants?

I know this is a couple of weeks late, but I want to talk about the recent Bully debate. Bully is a video game coming out in a couple of weeks by Rockstar, makers of the infamous Grand Theft Auto series. Bully promises to be an open ended school sim game, where you can abuse and protect fellow classmates with the sociological premise that school is a macrocosm of what life is really like. Already this has garnered a lot of hatred and contention from video game violence abolitionists, especially one Jack Thompson. People have gone so far as to even call it a “Columbine-sim“. I think there are only three possible positions to take as a solution to this problem:

1. Censor and cease distribution of all violent video games, in the hope that it will improve our society and not allow children to become de-sensitized to violence. Several attempts to legislate this have already been turned down, as it is in clear violation of our first amendment.

2. Allow violence or sex in video games provided parents monitor and teach their kids what is reality and what is not, while a ratings system is enforced to prevent illicit material being sold to minors.

3. Allow any and all violence or sex in games with no sales restrictions or ratings differentiations for parents to understand.

I personally, think 1 and 3 are ridiculous. The only way to solve this problem is by doing two things: Actually enforce the ESRB ratings systems, and parents governing their children’s video game habits. You cannot legislate any amount of common sense on people. Any social problem must be solved personally, of your own accord. I hear this same argument over and over again, but have seen so many stupid parents, and so many stores that do not adhere to the ESRB, that I believe it bears reiteration. This problem will not be solved unless people want it to be. Also, I am very tired of the proposed levels of censorship in this media. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fighting for my rights to play some of these stupid murder-sims, I am just upset that we still have not learned our lesson on censorship and artistic restriction.

I was thinking about how dangerous censorship can really be. Children need to understand the difference between reality and fiction. The more we censor things, the more ignorant people will become, and it is the ignorance that we should be fighting. It is the ignorance that causes people to do stupid things that hurt people. And the more ignorant people become, the more censorship will be there to try and prevent it, until it becomes a horrible cycle of self destruction. So, here’s an idea: Think!