Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. I do not trust my man servant. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I'm back from the usual refreshing weekend, and ready to lay out yet another spectacular column. However, I feel the obligation to tell everyone to see the movie "The Sixth Sense." It's easily one of the best films I've seen in a long, long time, and I fear that it may not do as well as it deserves to do since it doesn't feature Bruce Willis kicking the ghosts' asses.

Go see it, you won't be disappointed. Now, on with the show.

I was going to think up some clever response to this question. I figured since Andrew joked that my nick name was "The Squirreler" I should have a little fun with the whole thing. And then I realized that this letter was from a man announcing that he has a rash on his balls, thus negating any compulsion I may have had to dignify this letter with a response.

I think the person who came up with the hot idea to censor UmJammer Lammy should be bent over a railing, have his pants pulled down to his ankles, and then have an entire jumbo pack of Crayolas shoved up his ass one at a time by a man with particularly large fingers. In other words, I'm not a particularly big fan of the alterations.

However, I do see where Andrew was and is coming from with his opinion. As games continue to feature more mature themes and elements to appeal to those of us who have grown up on them, the younger crowd who is just now getting into gaming is being alienated. We were all little kids playing these games at one point or another. Personally, had the only games on the market been those in the same vein as what's out there today rather than, say, Mario Brothers, I doubt I would have ever received my NES in the first place. What an entirely different life I would be leading right now.

Actually, I'd probably be dead, floating face first in a swimming pool after my attempts to become a pimp had gone drastically awry.

Like it or not, we live in a predominantly Christian country, and seeing a cute, lovable sheep going to hell isn't something most parents would want their children to see. Sony is trying to appeal to a younger crowd, which has long been Nintendo's territory, and letting Lammy go to hell doesn't coincide with that goal. There's logic behind it, I just think that censorship sucks, being the usual liberal college student.

For the most part I agree. However, there's one facet you're forgetting. Being able to save whenever you feel like it removes a certain degree of tension that would otherwise be felt. If you can just save right in front of a boss's lair, losing won't really be that big of a deal to you. Alternatively, if you could only save way back at the beginning of the dungeon, you're really going to want that victory.

Personally, I'd like to see more games using such a save format as you mention, but there is a reasoning behind save points, at least in RPGs. Save points in games like Tomb Raider are just assinine, and I won't even bother trying to defend their presence.

Oh, the irony, eh? To be honest, I think being offended by UmJammer Lammy because of a short visitation to hell is about as normal and understandable as finding Disney's Tarzan to be "perverted." People like that spend time and effort looking to be offended, and they should all be put to sleep. Not only that, if a parent can't take 5 minutes to explain something as trivial as a hell reference in a video game to their child, she shouldn't have had children in the first place, because she is obviously an unfit parent and a moron.

However, in all fairness, you can't really compare the censorship of a Final Fantasy game to that of Lammy. Lammy is meant to be a fun little rhythm game that anyone can enjoy, whereas Square is trying to attract a slightly older audience with the FF series, especially the newer installments. That's basically like saying it would be okay to have Mickey Mouse blurt out "I'm American, honey, our names don't mean shit" because Butch said it in Pulp Fiction. Damn, I really stretched for that analogy.

I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to meet my daily opinionation quota, but I think that just about takes care of that.

It's always good to hear a suggestion to improve the fledgling Community section. Mister Rat, except for the fact that AOL would sue our pansy asses to hell and back 6 times, that's a swell idea!

Seriously, though, I see what you're getting at, but the message boards accomplish basically what you're speaking of. Just hit "reload" a lot. Not only that, were it legal, that would require some hardcore programming skills that are far beyond our league. Cracking a commercial product to suit your own ends is not only incredibly difficult, it's highly illegal.

I'm not trying to jump down your throat or anything here, because we do appreciate hearing suggestions. Unfortunately, what you propose is a bit unfeasible.

To answer this question, I went straight to the horse's mouth. Here's what Allan had to say:

"You are gravely mistaken. Upon seeing my stunning visage, the camera man asked me out on a date. Never one to turn away a free meal, I agreed and we had a lovely time together. Eventually we began to see each other on a regular basis, and a romance bloomed. In the confusion, I forgot to get a photograph taken, and was unable to post a picture of myself in Double Agent.

Eventually, the photographer proposed to me. I slapped him like a bitch and spit in his face for his sickening display of tenacity. I should have more time on my hands to get that picture taken now."

Okay, so I made all that shit up. Seriously, if you really want to see a picture of him, just bug him personally. I'm not going to directly link his email address since I want anyone who's going to bug him to have to put at least a little effort into it.

You know, that's kind of a sobering thought. 10 years from now, I'm going to be 29, and if gaming hasn't undergone some changes for the better, and hasn't attained the coveted designation of "mainstream," I wonder if I'll still love them as much as I do now. I'd have to disagree with you about being a child's hobby, as gaming has continued to mature as it ages, but other than that, you've proposed an interesting subject.

Closing Comments

I admit it, discussing the future of gaming interests me. Where are games headed? Are the same genres going to continue to exist just as they are for all eternity? That seems pretty unlikely. That being the case, the gaming scene will have to undergo some changes as time rolls on. We're not getting any younger, so developers and publishers are going to have to appeal to an increasingly mature audience. On the other hand, newer gamers, generally children, are joining the flocks every day.

Additionally, this newer crowd is getting hooked on different, more advanced games than the older crowd did. Doesn't this inevitably mean that these newcomers are going to have different gaming tastes as they grow older, different tastes then those of us who grew up on Pac Man or Super Mario Brothers? Gaming is going to have to change. Anything that remains static is eventually left in the dust, as the general rules of technology show. So my question for you readers is this: Where do you expect gaming to be 10 years from now? Will Sony and Nintendo realize their dream of a standardized gaming format? Or will we be on a newer, more powerful generation of hardware, even beyond that of the Dolphin and the PS2? And, more importantly, what will the games be like? We all know that the games we play today are far beyond anything we played 10 years ago, and the same will no doubt hold true 10 years from now.

Or, perhaps, gaming will have lost its steam. It's not entirely impossible. It happened once already, from '82 through '84. It was just fortunate that Nintendo came along and got things rolling again. What's to say it won't happen again? There's some food for thought.

-Drew Cosner