I took delivery of the new Microsoft Xbox 360 Slim yesterday. I wouldn’t normally upgrade my gear for the sake of it, but I was having so much trouble with my old Xbox connecting wirelessly to the Xbox Live service that I was hoping that this new iteration would solve my problems. It turns out I was right and it is good to get everything working properly again. Safe to say, my old Xbox is on eBay at the moment.
Do I like the new design? It’s OK, I guess. It’s very shiny, which is good. It’s also very small and I am used to the Microsoft design ethos of everything being chunky and workmanlike – whereas this new design has a more aesthetic approach to its stylings. It’s also a lot quiter and doesn’t sound like a jet engine taking off whenever you fire up a game.
Having the kids, I don’t play many games mainly because of the adult content in them. When you are a childless, you tend to blot out all the bad language and inappropriateness of computer games and TV programmes because you have no need to filter: afterall you are an adult, right? But now that Verity is speaking and is like a sponge, I’m very careful about what they see and hear: even with videogames. So my gaming has taken a second step and happens after bedtime – unless it is racing game. Verity likes to watch me racing the cars – she likes cars a lot.
But now I am surprised how much swearing and blood is in modern computer games – and I am also surprised I never really took notice before. What annoys me is that there could be a switch in these games that bleeps out the swear words and removes the blood. In Germany (so I’ve heard), it is illegal to show blood in computer games and so all blood is re-coloured as green. You also can show Nazi insignia either, so it makes WWII-based games a little problematic over there.
It is heartening when Verity asks me to “play the hedgehog game” and I get to fire up the Sega classic “Sonic the Hedgehog” for her to watch. It also reminds how computer games used to be: for all the family, inclusive and relatively harmless. Why does everything have to be so “adult” now. Even the rating of my ice hockey game is rated at 15 – so anyone under fifteen years cannot play ice hockey on the Xbox because there’s a rating for “violence”. Slamming people into the walls of the arena is regarded as too warping for little Johnny and so you shan’t enjoy the joys of whopping the virtual puck into the back of the net.
That evidence of the incredible disparity between computer game content and their actual rating. I remember once standing in Woolworths (remember them) and a teenager was being served in front of me. He was buying a copy of the latest “The Sims” game (or update or whatever) and he was asked for his age and then told he couldn’t buy the game because he wasn’t old enough. Now this kid must have been fourteen or pushing fifteen and as far as I know there’s no objectionable content in “The Sims” games – so I felt really sorry for the kid. We never had anything like that back in the days of the ZX Spectrum.
But again, video games do not make children violent. It’s parents who let their kids play video games for 14 hours a day that turn them into unempathetic automatons. If you let any child obsess about any hobby like that, you are going to end up with a troubled child. Moderation is the key!
Meanwhile, I’ve finished the first draft of “Melvin” – the story has a beginning, a middle of sorts and an end – but I need to work on it a bit. There’s something needed in the middle of the story – not padding – something extra, an extra dimension. The beginning and endings are good – but the middle, ah, the middle, the middle, the middle. I know what it needs, but I just need to do it.

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