Have you ever noticed how older people and non-gamers will tell you to stop playing your games because they are a "waste of time" or "rot your brain." I just amazes me how people who know little or nothing about video games make such an unfounded assessment. An even worse example is when paticularly religious parents bannish the very presense of video games, especially Role-Playing Games, from their household out of some unwarranted fear of their connection with Satan, witchcraft, demons, or the evils of society. I've seen these type of individuals before and the utter disappointment their children endure when they are denied access to that avenue of imaginative escape from their constrictive lifestyles. Believe it or not this kind of thinking saddens me. I just wish I could take every kid that is under that kind of oppression and show him the promised land. Misconceptions about video games seem to froth in the adult (especially those over 30) world and it's about time I step on my soapbox and allay those fears and show how video games might actually do some good in the world.

An adult once said to a friend of mine, "For every hour you play those games you lose 1 IQ Point" When I heard that, I doubled over in laughter, imagining the numerical value of my IQ in relation to the years I've spent playing games. I assume it would range between that of a bacteria or a virus but then again the value would be so vastly far into the negative I don't think there is any comparison point here. Where do these people get this stuff? You know, it's funny, the same year I was tested and enrolled for the "Gifted Program" in Elementary School, I got an NES. The same year I achived what they enigmatically dubbed, "Principal's List," four times in a row (and NO I wasn't a "nerd"), I got Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros. 3, MegaMan III, and various others, playing them endlessly. If anything, throughout life, video games have been a source of knowledge and mental stimulation that perhaps made me smarter.