Um, I'm hope you are kidding about D21 being a horrible parent, because that would be ridiculous.

Wait... Khuutra used words like these (bolded) in a sentence?!

Awwwww, I knew you had a heart! ;) (Just kidding, don't blow up at me!)

Give her DMC3 just don't be surprised if she falls in love with Dante. Hack and Slash is where the hardocre live.

I think we both know the answer to that.

Honestly, I think I'm pretty awesome on the 360 w/ my six button Street Fighter controller.  On the 3DS, I fumbled around like a noob.  I couldn't even block much of the time.  I think it's because your Sakura was just too intense and kept the pressure on me.  Usually I'm the guy that's relentless when I fight.  You had me on the defensive like a pussy.

Brilliant post TC, I could hardy agree more.

Sadly, most self-proclaimed "core" gamers seem to think the definition of one is playing games with violense and blud and swering and bewbiez in da Haych Dee.

Give them a Donkey Kong Country Returns or a Metroid Prime and they devolve into a helpless infant, I've seen it happen so many times.

People do realize that ESRB ratings are guidelines for parents who may be less informed about what content may be in games they blindly buy their children. They are not law and they are also not applicable to every child.

It is up to the parent to decide what is appropriate for their children and what is not, and to frame that content in a way that the deem correct for THEIR child. Just like a parent could bring their 11 year old into see an R rated movie full of sex, violence and Matt Damon if they felt their child was mature enough to understand reality. And it is certainly not YOUR place to pass judgement

A lot of core gamers today are just "casual" gamers from the wave that happened nearly 20 years ago ...

Cinematic games became popular with CD based home console systems (due to the "massive" amount of storage on these discs) started introducing shallower and easier gameplay and motivating gamers through story advancement. As a result of this gamers who would have previously quit games because they no longer had the obsessive nature of a 10 year old boy continued to play these easier games that were story driven.

Dude, my generation grew up on Mortal Kombat, lol.

OT:

Thread is awesome! I approve of D21's message.

You must have such a great view on top of your mighty high horse!

Hah, ran into this exact same thing the other day.  My brother and I grew up playing games with each other on the NES and then into the SNES before we got old enough to have our lives diverge and continue on mostly independantly (though the 64 era had some good getting together for Kart/Party/Golf/Smash/etc).  He now largely playes shooters on his 360 and I largely play platformers/adventure games/RPGs

The other day he was telling me how he and his friend tried playing DKCR and couldn't even make it past a a level fairly early in the game.  I on the other hand, who has never played a Halo or Call of Duty game, made it through that whole game, with (some mild frustration and) relative ease.

Shooters are also like sports games.  They make you feel like you are good at something you are probably really awful at.