Let me start off by saying that I have been gaming for as long as I can remember...I grew up with video games and most of my earliest memories revolve around a video game system of some sort. My first system was an Atari, followed shortly by an Amiga, and later a Commodore 64 and 8088. So I am by no means new to gaming.

Lately I have been under the assumption that I have been honing my skills and becoming quite good at video games. I am usually top 5 on the scoreboard at the of my Bad Company 2 matches, I usually end in the top if not winning my matches in Unreal Tournament, I was amazed at how beautiful Final Fantasy 13 was and how I had to to hardly work at it. Valkyria Profile was a breeze. Modern Warfare 1 on hardcore, if I don't win the match, I'm the highest score on my team. So on and so forth.

I logged onto Steam the other day and noticed a huge sale on id games. I looked through the list, and low and behold, there was one of my childhood favorite games: Commander Keen. It was one of my first video games, next to Monster Mash and Jazz Jackrabbit. So I bought the Commander Keen collection for 4.99usd because I had lost my 3 1/2 in floppies of it.

I was so excited, I nearly started to laugh aloud with glee when I noticed it came packaged with DosBox and ran amazingly well on my dual core laptop. I then started to play the game, and my excitement was immediately washed away. I felt like a total n00b. I sat there and said to myself, "How did I beat this game when I was 5, and I can't even get past the first 5 levels when I'm 20 years old?"

So I formed a hypothesis: video games are getting easier. I tested it. I went and broke out an old computer and loaded all of my early favorites on it: Doom, Quake, Jedi Knight, Hexen, Heretic, Duke Nukem 3d, Shadow Warrior, Wing Commander 3, and Baldur's Gate. I was amazed at how difficult these game had become since I was a kid. My question was then, am I just getting worse at games or are games getting easier? As I remember, these games were not difficult, with exception of Baldur's Gate now that I understand D&D. So why can I not get through the early levels without having to restart 3 and 4 times?

I thought that maybe it was just older games, I wasn't used to the way the mechanics worked. So I loaded up Battlefield 2 and Quake 3 and Red Alert 2 for the first time in years. Let's just say, being good at Bad Company 2 means nothing in Battlefield 2.

As you can see I had a real reality check, so my question is: Are the Final Fantasy 13's and Modern Warfare 2's and Hawx's and Splinter Cell Convictions in our lives meant to easier? Are the developers just not given the time to make a proper grueling game without ridiculous AI respawns and nearly invincible yet less than skillful enemies? Or is it that the everyday gamer is getting worse and the developers have to cater to these people and are slacking off on their responsibilities to we avid gamers? Or might it be that we avid gamers are becoming complacent and are willing to deal with the cake walk that has now become the grueling difficulty on most video games? What is the cause of our skills dwindling, and is there anyway to fix it in the future? (don't say multiplayer games, playing with a bunch of casual gamers who have no skills and pwn'ng they epically will not make you a better gamer)

This is my first blog, so forgive me if it feels off.

Has anyone noticed that people are blaming their childrens' violent out bursts and rage on video games. I have myself see people complaining endlessly about how their children are so violent and angry at the world, and these people blamed it all on video games.

Of course, as an avid gamer and not one to let video games be slandered, spoke up. I asked these people: what kind video games are your children playing? The answers were the normal GTA4, Gears of War 1&2, MGS4, GOW, Halo 3, and COD. The next question out of my mouth was of course: how old are your children? The answers were astounding to me, and each one of the children were under 14 years of age.

A 14 year old playing these games, that doesn't really mean anything because I played these kinds of games when I was younger, but a child who is 10 playing these games. I asked the parents if they baught the games for their children, and in ever single case, they did.

I had to step back and collect myself as my jaw had just hit the floor. I said: you baught your 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 year old kid games with this kind of content. You baught your kids games that were all rated M for Mature, games that were recommend for kids who were 17 years old or older? I got various answer ranging from: are you telling me how to raise my child when you have none? to, they have a rating on them?

It amazes me that parents are so inept in this world. They blame the video game companies for releasing smut to their children and blame them for the consequences when the parents themselves are the ones to blame. How many parents are going to allow their 10-14 yo children to watch an R or NC-17 rated movie? Not many I would think, so why would they allow their children to play games with the same rating.

I know its not because of stupidity. I think it is because of laziness: its easier to give little Johnny or Jane what their begging for in the store than to actually check it out. I know that it takes all of 10 seconds for someone to step up and be a parent. When the Godfather came out, I wanted it, I asked my dad for it, he said no because he looked at the ESRB rating. When i turned 17, I baught it. This is how it is supposed to work. Mind you, he didn't look at the rating for age, he looked to see what was in the game, he didn't agree with the strong language.

So it takes no effort really, the game companies tell the parents what their kids are asking for. It took my dad 10 seconds to protect me from something he thought was not fit for my consumption. Parents need to educate themselves on these things. Just as movies are rated, video games are as well. Don't blame the video game companies for something your child is doing based on a video game that you baught them. And you can't say it isn't your fault, because no retailer will sell the video game to a minor without checking their ID.

Parents need to step up and be parents, its not that hard. Don't blame video game companies for the actions of your children. You guys are the ones who allowed them to have the games, step up and take responsibility.