I miss the days of the arcade. When the opponents you played against were ones you usually knew by name. When the latest and greatest games weren't the ones at home on your NES or Genesis, but were the cool ones at the mall, or at the 7-11 down the street. When you could wear your prowess with Kano or Guile on your sleeve and people in the arcade would recognize that.

But then the arcades waned, and stumbled, and died away, to leave only a shell of gaming's former glory, with only the online universe and itsidiosyncrasies to take its place. And now we get to deal with gamers (and others) who feel like the world owes them everything simply because they want it.

Why is it that there is this weird a profound sense of entitlement that seems to take over throughout the tech-driven universe? Everyone seems to feel that they exist, therefore they deserve everything and anything from anyone at any time. They feel like they can get anything for free, and they deserve it.

"Oh, Microsoft cancelled my account after I hacked something, which is against their rules. I should sue them." "Oh, Nintendo isn't allowing me to do something that they don't support and didn't intend their system to be used for. I deserve to now be monetarily compensated." "Oh, World of Warcraft is charging for things that I can't afford. It's not fair. They should pay ME to play their game." All this going back to the classic "Oh, I was an idiot and spilled coffee on myself because I was driving while drinking it. I deserve 8 million dollars."

Is the world just nuts? Has everyone just lost their ability to reason? Their use of common sense?

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of it. But I think I know what some of the problem is.

I remember back to the days before the US Arcade scene disappeared into the realms of consoles. I remember playing Tekken, and consistently stomping people with Eddy, and then Hwoarang, and later with Steve and Marduk in Tekken 4. I remember cocky, punk teenagers walking up and bragging to their friends how they were going to smoke me. And I remember their stunned silence after they werethoroughlytrounced a few times over.

There may have been swearing, but it was never at me. After all, when there's a physical proximity of less than two feet between you and the person you want to yell at, it makes you really reconsider whether the idea is worth it. And usually, it's not, and you just walk away, and let yourself cool off instead of doing something stupid over a video game.

But now, we have the online realm. Little punk 13-year olds living off their mommy's dime can swear up a storm at you, insulting everything from your mother to your race to your humanity, and the most that they get is either told to pipe down, or you can mute them. But to me personally, you know what I think they need? You know what would help them more than all the stupid parenting books and whatever else is being used to raise them?

A swift kick in the butt.

I was raised to be respectful to others, and it annoys me more than anything that there are people who don't have the same ideals when it comes to that. If you don't agree with me, fine. I don't mind that. But keep it to yourself. I'm not an idiot because I'm different than you. So grow up a little, realize that the world doesn't revolve around you, and treat people with even a shred of decency.

But even as I say this, I realize that the people to whom this would do the most good for are those who willfully ignore it, and so these words fall on deaf ears. Alas, all I can do is stick to my guns and not let it bother me too much.

Oi. I miss the days of the arcade.