I haven't played games regularly since SNES, but my kids are all over PS3 games.

My experience as a fuddy-duddy Dad who picks up a controller every now and then is I can't even get past the training levels...so there is a base level of
skill that needs to be there that I don't have (or have the patience to acquire). This is true on Assassins Creed, MW2, and a few others that go bang and splat.

I think the gameplay has to be easy enough that a 1st timer with a reasonable amount of patience could pick it up. If you have been playing for 10 years,
that will probably make it seem facile. I know my kids can get through a game in a weekend if I let them....but I'm sure I couldn't get through those same games
in 2 months (assuming I stay employed, married and otherwise continue as a productive member of society)

I like the idea for 2 reasons

One - it shuts them down or at least limits the effectiveness/scale of the botnets. As far as how to fix it - my company shunts both internal and external users to a DMZ where you can fix things if you have out of date virus protection (internal) or seem infected (after host-checking business partners). ISPs should be able to do a similar thing and provide
limited / protected connectivity with a big flashing homepage saying ' You are infected'

The real reason I like it is if there were some penalty (no/reduced access) people would take more serious care of security. If everyone ran firewall, passwords and Antivirus...the ability of the botnets to propagate would be greatly reduced. Right now...no one is telling infected users and incenting them to change behavior.

As the parent of teens and pre-teens, I've wrestled with some of this myself.

Like most of the /. crowd, I'm savy enough to do some web research and figure out what the games are about. I've drawn our line at 'crime-theme' games like GTA and Mafia, but we have several versions of COD and I've played Halo with them at an internet cafe... my high-schooler clearly has the cash and unsupervised time to walk into a store and buy a game without my knowing and could pick up a 'forbidden' game.

I'd rather know that there is some level of firewall, similar to the movies, that would prevent easy access to games without my supervision. For parents who are working too many hours, or don't have the free time / web research to makes those calls...this would be even more valuable.

The fines should be minimal however - so that finding a 16 year old with a mustache to play gotcha with retailers would not be a profit center for lawyers.

It is very simple really - the constitution says we have a 'limited government' versus the unlimited regal powers of a king.

Every increase in centralized power is a reduction in our freedom. I am nauseated at the government takeover , via incomprehensible multi-thousand page bills that no one can accurately predict the effects of, of healthcare, finance, the Internet and other fundamental aspects of our society.

I have at least a dozen commercial providers for internet access and I can vote with my pocketbook, or take them to court, if I don't like how they treat me.

If the I don't like how the government handles something my recourse is???

We have handed a huge chunk of our lives to bureaucrats who have no experience, and no incentive to listen to us. why does that make you feel good? Why do you want them to have more authority?

Trauma care, radar, night vision, Jeeps, submarines, swiss army knives and roads. Oh Yeah - Flying Death Lasers http://www.popsci.com/node/19965

"Tests aren't failures as long as you learn from them. ..." But if each iteration of test/ education costs something like 10% of your GNP...you can't afford to fail often. N Korea is bankrupt in every sense of the word...

I do a lot of my reading while I travel and while I have not bought any porn on my Kindle, I like the idea that I can read a Michael Savage, or Michael Moore book without advertising my politics. As a guy, there are books I automatically pass over in a book store because a pink cover markets them to women, and it would not do to have 'Skinny Bitches' fall out of my briefcase in a meeting. With an e-book, that shaming factor goes away. To me, the privacy and compact size make them worthwhile.