My 8 and 12 year old can't because I am a parent that actually cares, I won't even play a violent game when they are up because I care. Yes, they can tell the difference between reality and fiction. But there are two things here: 1 - Video games are different then watching games. Studies have been done, and duplicated to show that young males who play violent video games cause damage to parts of their brains that help them control their emotions, learn and problem-solve. If I find the study I will send edit and attach. But the important part of the study is it is verifiable with young males. The interesting thing is that non-realistic violent games don't cause the same issue and that young males who just watch and don't play do not have the same results. 2 - Saying " Did you raise mouthbreathers that cannot distinguish between reality and fiction?" is like saying "Yah my 6,7 or 8 year old can watch hardcore porn because they can distinguish between reality and fiction because they know that this is just actors acting out fantasies and not reality. Alcohol, tobacco, driving, certain movies and games all have age limits and ratings for reasons. If you have ever seen kids in elementary school not only bullying other kids but acting out "call of duty" and calling to kill their victim then you will realize that these games are not for young kids. You will realize this if it was your own 9 year old son being bullied. You would not make comments about this when the two bullies admit during a meeting with the principal and councilors that they would regularly play both Call of Duty and Halo and pretending that all the "baddies" were the kids they were picking on and they would see how many kills on their class mates they could get. It would really hit you especially if you knew them right from 5 years old and knew that they used to be good caring kids.

That would be great if it no longer requires gold, and thanks for the information!

Interesting, as with us the WII gets more usage than the XBox.

So I have a 12 and 8 year old. They got a paper route and saved bday money and bought themselves a used WII, for which I paid to get a dance pad and extra controller for them, and got rock band 2 for and XMas present for the Mrs. The WII offers them great non-bloody violent games to play (they love zelda and mario) however they use the WII for Netflix just as much as game time. The WII offers Netflix with out having to pay for "Xbox gold". We also have the XBox 360 and Kinect. With the Xbox they love the Lego starwars and the kinect games. However I have to keep them out of the other games that I have had donated to me like Gears, Halo and Dead Space (luckily I can leave them on the shelves and they know not to touch them). We do limit their screen time, and sometimes we tell them that they have to play an active game (dance dance, kinect adventures, Dance Revolutions, or even fruit ninja). Kids really get into the games and they can work up a sweat. OK I can work up a sweat with them too... The difficult part is when your kids feel left out and not understanding when their 11 years old buddies are all talking about playing the latest Grand Theft Auto and Call of duty game. My kids know why they are not allowed to play them, and they completely understand it, but it does make them a bit of an outsider and harder to fit in. The WII I find is more intuitive, especially with Netflix, and has less chance of having inappropriate games. The Xbox's kinect is a blast, but again I have to pay the XBox gold tax to do certain things...

Like the Intellivision. It was a controller that you either hated, or you loved. No matter your view you need to admit that many controllers today owe a lot to it. Look at the XBox controller, it either has a direction thumb pad or mini stick for directional control with your left thumb. Looking at the three major game systems way back in the day, Atari, Coleco and Intellivision, the Intellivision was the only one that was not a joy stick. It was a disc that was used the same way as modern thumb pads. The numerous buttons allowed for more interactive and intimate game play. Using the thumb pad for moving and the key pad for shooting enabled gamers to move in one direction, yet shoot in a completly different direction. The interchangable sleeves also allowed the game pad to be customized for looks and ease of finding buttons. You don't need to remember buttun 6 is for selecting X, because there was a picture of that item right on the controller. This is a predecessor for all those "configurable" gaming keyboards for games like Doom, Quake etc. And as for Wireless, Intellivision 3 which was never released was designed to have up to four wireless controllers.