Birdman Propehies-Guest Blog-Cherise Capobianco’s view of the world

Why hello there future readers… ( hopefully )
I want to first thank Mike for allowing me to invade his blog on TWIG, and use this as my first step in taking over the internet.

So I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d blog about when Mike gave me this opportunity to leave my cave. A little about me, I work in a video game store, and my love for games certainly surpasses my love for Barbie dolls… So the other day I was inspired to write this Blog after an interaction with a lovely woman purchasing MAG for her son. As a responsible customer service representative I thought to let her know that regardless of MAG’s “T” rating, (which was a bit of a shock to me, but I’ll leave that rant for another time), it was purely online play and he’d be interacting with A LOT of real people saying real things and I’ll spare you examples, but let me just tell you the language can get pretty bad.
The ESRB have made it pretty clear that they are not responsible for any of the online interactions of these games and that’s all fine and dandy…
APPARENTLY according to the news the language is the least of her worries.

I am referring to a news article that a lot of people have been talking about lately Fox News Story called SEXBOX. In it they talk about video game systems, and in particular the “sexbox360″ (yea … lets all groan. Thanks FOX) and how safe online play really is. This really really gripes me.
All those children out there blowing the virtual brains out of their opponents, are at major risk from the creepy man in a trench coat on the other side of the screen luring them through their consoles with false promises of candy and “xp”.
I am in NO WAY tolerant of behavior like this, and have ZERO patience when I hear about pedophilia. It unleashes a certain kind of rage within me that I’m sure most of you can agree and empathize with.
That being said I’d like to inform all the worried parents out there that The Xbox 360 has rather robust and modern options for parental controls.
Actually parents will be happy to know that they have tools at their disposal, which are simple and give you complete control so that you don’t have to spend all evening watching little Timmy play Halo and ask him who “PwNURF4c311011″ is or any other online screen name. (sorry Pwn, if you exist…)
Also, these vile beings cannot interact via headset or chat with the innocent children playing the newest COD unless they are added to their friends list. Even if they are, parents could BLOCK and IGNORE them if they feel the need arises.
See! Simple!
I know this little rant had nothing to do with MAG per say but after reading the article I just feel it isn’t fair that the media points fingers at video games for destroying today’s youth. 10 years ago the same things were said about music.

The solution to this problem isn’t to stop making video games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, it just requires a bit of education.

I’m not going to sugar-coat this (like the metaphorical candy I mentioned above) some things will never change. There are always going to be sketch-bags online, anywhere you go. The anonymity of online play means you’ll never really know who’s hiding behind that avatar, even if it’s something cute like a Panda (Pedobear anybody?)

Another thing that will probably never change, is that I am always going to get my butt handed to me online by some 11 year old whose parents just bought him the latest first-person shooter. Ironically I probably sold the game to them in the first place!

Until next time,
Have a happy Cherise-ster!!
(Yes, I just made a holiday up after myself).