The Gamer's Eye of Judgement

September 13, 1985 was the Japanese release date of a red overalls plumber known as Mario, and his brother Luigi running through 8 worlds of pipes, goombas, koopa troopers, hammer bros., and other obstacles rescuing Princess Toadstool from the evil King Koopa.  It was a very simple game, but who would have guessed 25 years later and he's still remembered through his big debut on the NES....DESPITE the fact that the arcade game "Mario Bros.", released in 1983, was technically his first portraying to his "Mario" name. With Donkey Kong he was only known as "Jumpman" but was his actual debut, despite being a carpenter and not fighting off koopas.  Though I do understand that being Super Mario Bros. was probably everyone's first experience with Mario and it can be considered a pretty big deal, I still feel a bit confused but I guess I can't complain. Super Mario Bros. the greatest adventure yet, after all these years? Or did he create something better along the way? Mario 64? Super Mario World? Super Mario Galaxy?

According to Yahoo! Halo: Reach, with it's $200 million release is actually creating a huge dent in the gaming industry as a whole! The game is SO popular, that future big titles like CoD: Black Ops and Medal of Honor are in fear of bad sales due to the extended popularity of Halo: Reach. There's fear that with the amazing multiplayer that the game has for players, it'll keep everyone entertained for a long long while, moreso than with Modern Warfare 2. Of course they're not talking just with FPS games, but other's like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and Tron: Evolution are in fear of bad sales as well, when normally they would get high and decent sales themselves. But let's be honest, would you hook yourself to Halo: Reach for such a long time, you don't even bother to pick up any other games for awhile? Do you fear your favorite games may drop in popularity (online-wise) to the point of almost being deserted due to this game?

Ah, Pedobear...once just an innocent internet meme that everyone loved and poked fun of for many years...that is, until the west coast decided to take into action and declare this lovable bear as a threat to children across the world as a "mascot for pedophiles". San Diago, CA, and Tulsa, OK are just 2 cities who've encountered a person cosplaying as Pedobear for a convention.  One of which was an actual sex offender and got arrested, while the other was just doing it for fun and was mistaken to be possibly the same guy. Now everyone is in panic, word is spreading amongst newspapers and TV all shouting to protect your children from someone who may randomly cosplay as Pedobear to go after your children, offering free candy and possibly "touching" your children...Is America starting to get a little TOO paranoid with "new fads" that are made for fun and joking around? Do we need to teach them more about the internet so they can better understand the difference between a joking situation, and a serious one? Maybe American's are just too overly stressed out with all the deals with terrorism, low economy, and other negative events going on in the world that indirectly relate to them.