Government Gaming Regulations in China

Hey, this is Josh Keaton and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You're tuned in

to Steve Megatron on Altered Geek Unlimited.

Hello and welcome to... Altered geek, I'm your

host Steve Megatron and joining me on this adventure

into geekdom is TFG1 Mike. It's a me, Mikeo.

It's a me, Mario. So, yes, it's not been that

long since the last episode. Unlike previously.

Is this thing still on? So, yes, it is still

on. So today's episode, we're going to be talking

about limitations and not just on this particular

article I'm referencing because I think it's.

Yeah, I'll get into that in a minute. The article

is parents praise China's new online gaming rules

for kids. The gist of it is the kids, they're

limiting the amount of time kids can spend online

gaming two, three hours a week. And the new rules

are part of a campaign to ensure children do

not spend too much time on entertainment that

can be considered unhealthy. Coming from a different

vantage point. One could say I grew up playing

some video games and had computer time and had

you know television time entertainment time and

I had about an hour per day. Which. Is basically

what they're trying to do here except they're

saying that like trying to ultra regulate people

with this very strict. You know, for how long

people under 18 are allowed to play video games,

which again, I'll get into that in a second,

but it says one hour per day from 8 to 9 p .m.

on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and official

holidays. The rule took effect on September 1st.

All players are now required to register using

their real names and game companies are strictly

forbidden from offering any services to unregistered

players. I, coming from the vantage point of

playing video games as a kid, not quite as often

as people that hit gaming consoles, but enough.

I don't know, I feel like that's a parent's job

to kind of regulate, not the government's. Like,

it's no business of the government to tell me

what I can and cannot do as far as my entertainment

is concerned. Like I feel like that's a personal

choice and I feel like if they're under 18 the

parents should Be making the conscious decision.

Yeah, if they can get their work done at school

and they're you know productive in their life

then yeah, who cares but as far as Trying to

regulate, you know between this hour and this

hour you were only interplayed these days You

can only play this game. You have to register

your real name, which honestly is kind of creepy

if you're underage I don't Register my real name

anywhere either It's always like a pseudonym

of some sort, but it's just I don't know that's

just super creepy but You do realize this is

China, right? Yeah. I mean they're they're also

the same ones that have the the the whole social

Credit system where basically they they grade

you based on you know who they deem Okay in their

political eyes and if you associate with person

A B or C that are on their no -no list Then they

they ban you off transportation. They they make

your life, you know torturous and Yeah, I I don't

know like I feel like into some degree like our

government's starting to go this direction too,

which is a little scary but And it's been doing

this for decades. It's just that they've just

more recently you know you have to do this because

we say so you have to do this because we say

so it's just getting old uh i don't know it's

it's and this is kind of like their their their

main mindset on this is to cut the number of

new games to reduce gaming addiction the thing

about it is It's not really an addiction the

thing is is people are playing the crap out of

video games now because we glorify it by watching

people play video games on Twitch or YouTube

or other platforms and then the fact that people

want to be internet famous to play video games

like everyone else and When that's all you kind

of teach people Of course, they're gonna play

a lot of games because if you're not good, nobody's

gonna watch you So like I feel like this is counterintuitive

like if they're really trying to curb the whole

gaming quote -unquote addiction because honestly

like I I dumped my my console Because I played

too much like I realized I had this problem of

playing too much And so I dumped the console.

Now, do I still play games? Yes, occasionally.

But I have other hobbies that I fill my time

with now because I'm not playing as many video

games. Do I play Star Trek online? Yes. Do I

play, you know, have I played Battlefield? Yes.

Have I played Command and Conquer, you know,

or old, you know, Windows and DOS games and old

console games on my computer? Yeah, like, but

I don't feel like it envelops my time like it

used to. And I think it's just striking that

balance, like not. over regulating, I think that

it's just, you know, each person needs to find

that personal balance, not have the government

step in and say, well, these companies are not

allowed to be issued game license approvals.

And, you know, these these companies are now

granted, there's a lot of trash games out there

that are just made for the sake of making them.

But it's it's still the other reason that China's

got problems with it. is because of what the

moral standards are in their video games. It's

the same thing that it was in the 80s here in

the U .S. All of these senators and congressmen

and whatever going after violent video games

and things like that and whatever. And I get

it. I understand it to a certain extent. But

like you said earlier, specifically for kids

and I'm not a parent. I don't have kids. I have

no intention of ever having like The last people,

last thing anyone in this world needs is a TFG2

mic. Seriously, it's not TFG1 mic junior, whatever.

You know, it's the last thing anyone needs, but

I still have the values that my mom and my dad

and everybody instilled in me about whatever,

about... Common sense folks again, it all boils

down to common sense and using your own like

look This is coming out of China China's gonna

China because China is China but it's one of

those things where If you're a good parent if

you like, you know Nowadays kids get your kids

may not be but you know most kids end up with

tablets and things and they end up with time

limits per day on the stuff. Anyway, here, our

good buddy, Peek on Chrome Michael, his kids,

when he and I and his wife and kids and Karen

and I met up for dinner several times, you know,

and Michael has told me specifically, like if

Michael is, if Michael and I are recording an

episode of the podcast organization without a

cool acronym for Phineas and Ferb. Respect my

authority. Like five minutes before we start,

he'll get a message from his son on a Friday,

on a Thursday night or whatever. Can I have like

five more minutes, dad? You know, the kid's going

to go to bed after that kind of thing. So we're

I mean, now with technology here in the US anyway,

we already have potential parental controls of

time limits. Three hours per week is just fucking

lame and stupid and dumb. If China wants to,

you know. Well, I mean, I mean, let's put it

this way. I voice act because. I watched a boatload

of television. Right. The reason I could do so

many voices from animated series and I can copy

them and I can do impressions or I can reproduce

a lot of them or create my own is because I watched

a lot of cartoons and video game voices. Just

I won't go there because they sucked back then.

But but. I watched and I was allowed to watch

an hour a day. However, I split that up from

my media time was up to me. Like if I wanted

to be on my computer 20 minutes and watch 40

minutes of television, that was that was my call.

But within an hour, TV was off, but I could watch

an hour every day. Now, the exception was Friday

nights when we had TGIF. Yep. Because there was

like two hours of television that was really

good. and then Saturday morning cartoons and

then of course Sunday morning cartoons. So I

would watch five hours of television on Saturday

mornings until I, you know, started working.

And then on Sundays, I would watch the first,

you know, the three hours of cartoons that would

be on that day. And that was pretty much my television.

Like I did, you know, occasionally we'd watch

Star Trek The Next Generation for dinner or something.

But otherwise, I that was my TV. Like, yeah,

I had like probably 15 hours of TV a week. But

It didn't influence my ability to perform at

school to do my job. I mean, if it weren't for

the fact that I did so much television or what,

you know, play video games that I did, I don't

think that I would be where I am now as far as

your creatively. And so I don't know. I and the

thing that they're they're hounding on these

games for is games with the wrong set of values.

So they are. One if it's not what China wants

it's not what China wants and so they just ban

it you know and then choice and then they're

like well I agree with that position because

I have to because the government said so So they're

they're not liking the fact that There's obscene

and violent content which Aren't they known for

that? Like they created a lot of these blaster

games, a lot of these fighting games that we

have. But OK, I'll ride this wave. You know,

yes, as Americans, we do have a lot more violent,

obscene, you know, grotesque. You can see guts

gore and, you know, any type of weapon, you know,

under the sun. And so then they also say that

there's breeding unhealthy tendencies such as

money worship. Well, let's get back to that part.

The money worship part we get from them anyway,

because all of our games have gone from, you

know, subscription based service to free to play

with microtransactions. Oh, yeah. And it's not

just Americans that do it. They do it, too, because

there's Chinese companies. For instance, they

own there's a Chinese company that owns Star

Trek online. Or a couple of the other Star Trek

games. It's like it's a subsidiary of some Chinese

company And they do micro transactions up the

wazoo There's like eight different ways of paying

for stuff in game and you have to obtain all

of these different money forms Well, yeah, there's

money worship because if you want to get anything

good in game, you have to have money and if you

don't have money you kind of suck in the game

and that's the way that they kind of do it, but

they they say that that and then the effemininity

or effeminacy of men, meaning the flamboyantly

portrayed or canonically gay characters, for

instance, like they mentioned in this article

on PC Gamer about the League of Legends character

who has two different looks, one in the West,

which is here, and then one in China of how he's

depicted. And the one in China looks like something

from, you know, Final Fantasy, whereas the one

from the West, it looks like the guy that did

the I can't believe it's not butter or the, you

know, the, you know, the long glowing blonde

hair. OK, first of all. Everybody gets the quote

wrong. It's not that the love of money is the

root of all evils. It's that money is the root

of all evils. Money itself is because people

want it. People want to spend it. People don't

have it. People want to get it. And yes, you

work. Look, I have a hell of a lot of ethics

and work, you know, like My workflow just go

back and listen to the last episode of this podcast

folks. Anyone questions my work ethic and me

wanting to be able to work. You can go jump out

a window for all I give a crap. But it's one

of those things where. You either want it have

it don't have it need to get it fine and you

have to find ways of getting it and most of those

ways most of the legal ways anyway are to go

out and get a job or find something you can do.

to make money to. The problem is, is that most

of us live on programs that are funded by the

government, that are funded by taxes and everybody

else that's worked for 30, 40, 50, 60 years.

Look, I've mentioned this on several of these

altered geek episodes recently, as we are on

the road to the 400th episode of this podcast.

I was born disabled. There is nothing I can do

about that. Is there have there been things in

my forty one years that i can do to improve my

life yes have things degraded to a point where

i feel like i cannot for the qualifications that

i have you know and for what i'm allowed to do

on on supplemental security income do i feel

if i go and get a job right now at Kroger Fred

Meyer same damn thing both the old Kroger Jones

Fred Meyer whatever. You know what I mean? Like

that's really like that McDonald's Walmart, which

I won't ever work. I worked at Walmart for a

day and a half back in. Oh, God, that's 20 years

ago. I was in message. I was living in Massachusetts.

I worked for Walmart for a day and a half. That's

the side of the country you're on, though, like

this side of the country. Everybody's super nice

and they actually get treated decent. Right.

Well, I don't targets. Not yeah, I I'm not gonna

start the Walmart target thing. I'm just saying

I worked for I worked for Meyer, which is not

associated with Kroger whatsoever Yeah, we have

King supers out here, which is owned by Kroger

But yeah, and and like weird gas stations named

loaf and jug which they all have the same logo

It's the only reason I can tell they own it is

because it's it's They all have the same logo

that little that little four color thing that

they've got going on but but anyways like I worked

for Meyer for about a month. Yeah, I quit happily,

like because that place they the way they ran

things was so backward and like they wanted you

on the clock early to start working. But you

would get penalized if you were working, but

they would page you for work before you were

supposed to start working. And then and then

you weren't supposed to stay after unless they

asked you to, which was almost every night because

nobody would work. And then What had happened

with that is They would pull you for the crappiest

jobs in the store and you would get micromanaged

by somebody else's manager from a different department

and I yeah that that was just like I and they

didn't want you like really working over like

they would Purposely like try and get you out

as quickly as possible But they wanted you to

do all this extra crap at the end of the night

so They would pull it like surprise five minutes

to hey, you're I know you're supposed to be leaving

but and then yeah, so I Eventually came up with

the the story that my ride's gonna leave without

me Well, can you ask your ride to stay? No, I'm

pretty sure it's gonna leave on time Yeah, I

drove. Yeah, of course you did I drove so my

vehicle was leaving at the person, you know required

time because that's when I was leaving. Yeah

And I know we've kind of switched off the video

game thing, but it all ties into money and it

all ties into the money thing with China and

whatever else. It's just and it's funny that,

you know, we're talking about Walmart and Target

and all these stores. There was a tweet that

I retweeted about this electronics employee at

Walmart. She quit over the intercom. She called

out how creepy the store manager was. She did

all this stuff and it went viral. on Twitter

and I'm like, oh man, that's one of the best

things ever because you know. Attention Walmart

shoppers and associates. My name is Beth from

electronics. I've been working at Walmart for

almost five years and I can say that everyone

here is overworked and underpaid. The attendant

policy is bullshit. We are treated for management

and customers poorly every day. Whenever we have

a problem with it, we're told that we're replaceable.

I'm tired of the constant gaslighting. This company

treats their elderly associates like shit. To

Jared, our store manager, you're a pervert. Greta

and Kathy, shame on y 'all for treating your

associates the way you do. I hope you don't speak

to your families the way you speak to us. Shout

out to Kamini, Patty, Shardell, and so many more.

Walmart doesn't deserve y 'all. Fuck manage it

and fuck this job. I quit. Are you listening?

Well, the Nostalgia Critic did that. Well, he

went into the break room and he had this played

this boombox and then started, you know, he ripped

off his shirt and he had words, I quit written

on his chest. Like it was just like it was epic.

I mean, I get it. But I would never do that to

someplace that I genuinely enjoyed. Like I worked

at the car dealership for 10 years. And I gave

them notice like. Were the things I hated about

that place? Yes, but I didn't like I couldn't

do that to people I worked with like I don't

know like In like my art like I was younger Yeah,

so like I had no care whatsoever I was like I'm

not taking this and then I ended up working for

like this little pizza joint for about three

days pizza pizza pizza pizza that swore they

were so busy. And it was like a kid's birthday,

like hub type thing. And I knew some Little Caesars

people that had worked there after I'd quit Little

Caesars at one point. And I worked there and

they were like, oh, it's so busy. I don't even

know what to do. And I'm like, I know what to

do. I worked at Little Caesars for like three

years at that point. I was like, you do this

and everything will be fine. No, no, no, we don't

do things that way. And they had like double

the crew and half and like a third of the work.

And they would freak out and I was like, I can't

deal with this. So I left and then they're like,

why did you quit? And I'm like, because you guys

swear you're busy and you're not like you work

a Wednesday at Little Caesars. Tell me how you

feel then. Like, I don't know. I worked a little

Caesar for five more years after that. But it's

still like, I don't know. Like, I feel like,

yeah, money, money is, you know, the root of

all evil because the more you covet it, the more

that it twists your your thoughts on it. But

the sad part is, is you need more of it because

inflation keeps going up. And the way that these

governments, I know it's gone off in a weird

government tangent, which I'm not intending for

that, but I'm not talking about individuals.

I'm just talking about the whole structure. Yeah,

overall. But the fact that, you know, they show

that inflation started really affecting, you

know, for instance, minimum wage, everybody's

crying for higher minimum wage, which don't get

me wrong. I agree with to an extent. I agree

with it to the point that inflation, because

the government prints more money, it continuously

drives our dollar down. So we need more of it

to buy the things that we need to survive, which

is why there's so many homeless and so many people

being evicted, so many people that are stuck

on these fast food jobs because one, the older

people haven't yet retired to open up those spaces

for those of us in the 80s on through. And so,

yes, there are people that are stuck in fast

food jobs and can't get out. Now, sometimes it

takes a leap of faith to get out of it. You can't

just stay in it forever. I know that some people

are like, I can't get out of it. It depends.

Like if you get into a management position, it's

kind of hard to leave because you make decent

money. But, you know, if you're one of the other

ones, it's like part time. Yeah, I mean, that's

it's meant to be a starter job. And I get that.

But at the same time. When when the wages don't

go up competitively with inflation It means you

have to work more jobs more hours more more things

and you're unable to afford things like the cost

of living in Colorado is equivalent to Texas

or California and You know in in Michigan you

can make X amount of dollars and and you can

make like I can make a fraction of what I make

here And live decent in Michigan. But because

the cost of living here keeps increasing because

we're about to vote in October again for them

to figure out a way to raise more taxes. Yeah,

I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Like everything,

you know, no. I don't know. Anyways, so. My my

gripe with the minimum wage thing going up in

this, this is kind of the other side of the government

coin here. If it's going to go up, it should

go up competitively with everyone as far as what

inflation would be for what they currently make.

So if somebody is making, let's say, you know,

say minimum wage is $12 an hour, say that if

inflation had kept up with minimum wage or minimum

wage kept up with inflation, you know, let's

say minimum wage is supposed to be $26 an hour.

Let's say that I make, you know, like my dad

made like $38 an hour or something in the shop

or something close to that. You know working

as a skilled trade that he went to school for

to learn not just you know, one of the guys pushing

stuff down the assembly line but So let's say

that you know that minimum wage gets bumped up

to $26 an hour So that wouldn't be fair to somebody

who's worked their butt off to get to the wage

that they currently have so if they have if they're

making let's say if they're even making $26 an

hour now and Minimum wage goes up to that Well,

it's not fair for them to stay $26 an hour. It

should increase by the percentage that the people

that went from the lower point, from the $12

an hour, whatever that percentage is to go up

to the 26, that's what it should increase from

the 26th person that earned their way up to whatever

they'll end up making. And that's part of the

problem too, is that it's unfair to ... both

sides of the spectrum, the ones that work their

way up and the ones that are trying to make more

to actually make a living because the government

spends money like it's water. Yeah, you're still

there. You're cutting out. So yeah, I guess the

government is trying to censor you from talking

because you keep cutting out. So I'm not cutting

out. Then that's discord for you folks. So yeah,

I don't know. I feel like this whole thing with,

you know, government regulations and tighter

control. I feel like it's just, it's a giant

negative on all fronts. Like I feel like people

should be able to police themselves to an extent.

Like I don't feel like this is something the

government needs to jump into. And we already

know that like China's like Uber, like control

freak on everybody else. And to a lesser extent

so as the United States getting to that point

They it I think the who even declared like gaming

a mental illness Like and I just I don't know

like I can't I can't agree with that Yeah, the

the American Psychological Association has proposed

adding gaming disorder to the diagnostic and

statistical manual manual of mental disorders

to like I It's not it's not a disorder Yes, some

people play excessively It's not an illness.

It's not a disorder like it's not now those the

games that have microtransactions that have gambling

Yes, then that that's an addiction Like that's

why I don't do the micro transaction because

you're gambling every single time for these little

lock boxes that may or may not give you the thing

that you're trying to get. Like in the Transformers

Earth Wars video game on the mobile came out

2016. I still play it. Sometimes I play it more

than others. Sometimes I don't. I jump off for

months at a time. But they came out recently

with the Transmetal 2 Megatron and Optimal Optimus

in game. Well, you can spend varying amounts

of money to get certain amount of these crystals

that could generate the figure or give you an

amount of shards, which are pieces that lead

up to that figure, which usually when that happens,

there's like five thousand to get to. And so

you'll never get to it. So like the more money

you spend, the more of these crystals you get.

And so like if you spend five dollars, you get

two crystals. You spend 10, you get four. If

you spend, you know, 20, you get you'll get like

10 and they increase. And so like you you can

spend upward to one hundred dollars to get like

80 of these crystals. And you may not get the

figure like the character for a fictional character

like that. That to me, like like these these

gambling things like it. You remember how I used

to play like Star Trek online years ago and I

figured out how to game the internal system I

could flip stuff in from one currency to another

to flip something else to get a different currency

to get what I was trying to get and Buy it off

the market for a decent price with the internal

game money without spending a dime and I figured

out how to do this all in game. Well since then

They've they've packed that system so you can

no longer even do that on any of the fronts like

you literally have to spend cash. To get anything

so yes there are awesome things in game that

I would love to get my hands on but I'm not spending

a dime on it so I just will have to live without

so it's I don't know I feel like to some degree

yes some people are just like die hard overboard

on the stuff. But I think that, you know, can

it be a mental disorder? You know, possibly because

it's a gaming addiction, which is no different

than than gambling. But again, if you let it

OK, well, I control your life and bankrupt you.

It's an addiction. If you're playing it for enjoyment

a couple hours a day or something, it's not hurting

anything. OK, perfect example. OK. Let's just

go with 1992. Okay, 1992. I'm 12 years old. It's

just before the Christmas holiday. I have maybe

three subjects of homework to take care of. I

usually used to get home from school. maybe 3,

3 .30 Eastern time, maybe, depending. Sometimes

it might have been four, but as long as I got

two of my three subjects of homework done before

dinner, so I had two hours to work on my homework

before dinner, I could have an hour of TV time.

Or i could have an hour of tv and video game

time 30 minutes for each so i could watch one

like i could watch an episode of the cause of

the show and i could play super mario world for

30 minutes obviously. I didn't have a super nintendo

until actually christmas of 1992 which was a

few weeks after this but the example holds as

long as i got a good portion of my homework done

before dinner. And as long as I finished the

other portion after dinner, I could play at least

an hour a night versus three hours a week. Like

this needs to be something that the parents like

the fact that the government wants to do. And

like you've already said in this episode about

registration, like what is this? The Mutant Registration

Act of 1992 already? Like, come on, people. Well,

especially when it's a big privacy thing, like

you don't want people knowing kids names, how

old they are. Absolutely. It just makes it easier

to figure out how to hunt them down. Like people

are disgusting. Like it's not a guarantee about

moral status. Like I don't feel like, you know,

having somebody have their real name posted.

Yeah. Yeah, it's just a little crazy. And we're

not Chinese. We're not in that culture. We're

not in that country. But as people with common

sense who, if I had kids, I would let them maybe

have, like I already said, what I had an hour

a night, maybe two hours a night every couple

of nights. kind of thing like it wouldn't like

what i would most likely do if i was a parent

right now in these times you can have video games

four nights a week you can have time for tv three

nights a week or vice versa and i would just

keep flip -flopping it you know it just depends

on what's going on but the fact is government

limitations of limiting video games oh boy I

swear I got flashbacks of the 80s when I first

heard about this whole thing. Except it's not

happening here. It's happening over there. I

don't know. I feel like there's just getting

to be more and more of people telling other people

what to do and less autonomy or the fact that

people just want other people to be regulated

because, heaven forbid, people can't. be, you

know, able to control themselves or something

like, I don't know, I just, I feel like people.

It's kind of like, Oh, okay. It's perfect example.

Okay. Need to mind their own business. There's

that. And I agree with that. But say, for example,

What's a movie you love that you know that I

have zero interest in like it's not that I dislike

it It's not that I have an opinion, but I've

never seen it. You don't like Ace Ventura. Do

you? I like the first one. I don't like the second

one. I've seen them both but okay, but okay God

I'm trying to think All right, we'll switch it

to we'll keep it in with keep it in with the

video game thing I have Never played to my recollection

any of the Diablo games. You like some of those,

right? Yeah, I used to play them. I don't really

care for them now, which is funny because I'm

older. Okay. Now, now you don't care for them.

But when you were playing Star Trek online. Okay.

Oh, there you go. I really don't give a shit

about that. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I remember when

you were so hyped up about this and everything

else, and that's great. You enjoy it. That's

awesome. Great. You know, I'm a casual Trekkie

at best. I've looked at it. I like it, but I

have no interest in playing it. Does that mean

I'm going to allow you to force the fact that

you love this game for me to be able to play

it and love it too? No. Opinions are opinions.

This whole. This could be a topic for another

time, and I kind of want it to be. But anyway,

like. I enjoy Nickelback. I don't sit here and

force anyone to listen to Nickelback. I may make

a joke. I may make a snide remark, but I'm not

sitting here and telling Steve Megatron to enjoy

how you remind me, which is 20 years old as of

last month or this month, actually kind of thing.

If it's not your thing, it's not your thing.

Just like. I have zero interest in watching the

princess bride all the way through from beginning

to end. I don't dislike the film i don't like

the film i have no opinion of it but at the same

time i would much rather watch. Something i would

am into something that i do enjoy same thing

with the lost boys. I get it. It was nineteen

eighty seven it was a vampire movie everybody

was into it everybody liked it. I was seven years

old at the time and i was enjoying turtles and.

What little was left of transformers and he man

and and under cats and silverhawks and all the

other stuff like but people saying now oh mike

is never seen the lost boys he needs we need

to make him watch no you don't. Need to make

me watch anything. If there's something you want

me to see, I will look at the trailer at least

to see if it's something I'm interested in and

then I will tell you yay or nay. But I'm not

going to sit here and allow anyone to force their

opinion on me or for me personally to force any

of my opinions on anyone. The fact that I think

Caddyshack 2 is the superior of the two Caddyshack

films That's my personal opinion. And if people

have a differing opinion, yay, we don't agree

on that. Let's find something else we can enjoy

together. You know what I mean? Like this whole

thing of force and really with this China thing

in the video games thing, like you said, it more

comes down to having to register your real name.

Oh, look, all of the Chinese. I don't mean Chinese

as in the Chinese people, but. All of these,

you know, Chinese hackers who get information

or who sell this information to pedophiles and

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, this and blah,

all this evil shit in the world. This is just

going to make it even easier for those evil people

to find specifically children. And that's just

dumb, stupid. And I don't know why. Don't ever

move to China, folks. As bad as the US is. And

now. Yeah, I again I don't I Don't agree with

it. I think that it's Invasive like I it wouldn't

matter if it happened here like I don't I don't

like any of that like I Should be up to the parents

if you want your kid, you know wait, you know,

you know television will rot your brains Blah

blah blah if you want your kid watching forty

hours of television every month or every week

or every day or not there's forty hours of tv

in a day but you get what i'm saying like if

you want your kid doing that well that's what

you're gonna do if you want your kid on a more.

I don't wanna say restrictive but a more reasonable

television or video game schedule then you do

that you know i mean again it all boils down

to common sense of the parents with the children.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I and I agree. I just I think

that this is a bit of a bit much for overreach.

Yeah. And I feel like we as a as a culture just

kind of need to stay out of everybody's business

like. You don't, you know, I may not agree with

somebody's personal life decision, but it doesn't

mean that they have to live the way I expect

them to like or I should live the way that they

expect me to like it's it's a part of that that

life journey that everybody goes on. And honestly,

if you you just kind of need. To mind your own

business, like I don't have to approve of your

life choices. You don't have to approve of mine.

That's the beauty of life. Yeah, I just I feel

like that that's just. I feel like that's just

the way it needs to go. Yeah. And we don't talk

about this very often, and I'm glad we've had

this discussion tonight. I'm glad this topic

brought all this up. And I think we've been pretty

civil on it. I mean... Yeah, no. I mean, look,

we've been friends for almost what it feels like

20 years, but it's, you know, 13, 14 years at

this point. There's nothing that we've said to

each other on air or off air that has ever made

the other one... We may have been upset or we

may have been mad, but usually by the next day,

if we apologize to each other or something, You

know, it's not the end of the friggin world.

I mean, in like, you know, there are people that

have different political views than I do, or

I find them all corrupt, lying sacks of garbage.

And so that's just the boat I ride in on. Like,

I don't care what political aisle they are. If

they're not a decent human being, then they just

please get rid of them. All of them start fresh.

Please, no one. No one that we currently have

in that start fresh. Yeah. Anyways, what's your

slogan, Megatron? I simply have a penchant for

intelligent conversation. OK, what's your ancestors

slogan? He's through tyranny. Uh huh. Yeah, basically,

you know, folks look the more well, and that's

the thing, too, is like they're quick to spend

our money and quick to take it. And they don't

care that we're struggling. And that's government.

Yeah, it is the way it is. I know. I'm just that's

all I'm saying on it. No, no, no, no, no, no.

But my point here is, OK, so my point here is

a pension. OK, let's just put G1 versus Beast

Wars Megatron on either side of the aisle. I'm

not saying that there's an elephant or a bull

or what. I'm not saying specific parties, but

let's put them on either side of an aisle. peace

through tyranny versus a penchant for intelligent

conversation. Some intelligent conversation went

out the window ages ago. Well, yes, that's what

I'm trying to bring here. But it's one of those

things where you have some people on one side

and other people on the other side. The thing

with you and I is for me personally, you know,

and I agree with part of yours. They are all

corrupt. I've always said that just like you

have. But It's one of those things where. Who

is going to as much as there isn't any, who is

going to bring the most common sense to the next

four years or whatever? Out of the two that are

in front of us kind of thing, that's my thing.

Like whatever is going to be good for this country

comparatively to what happened, you know, with

the last person that was in charge, we got hosed

to the last eight. Yeah, I don't know and I I

don't even want to that's all right Regardless

we need less less government intervention and

more like Like on your own more personal more

You know and like I mentioned be less less less

government control more human decency Yeah, and

like I mentioned before nowadays with technology

and everything else As a parent, you can set

limits for your child. That's what I'm getting.

I have limits for mine. I have an app on my phone

where it's the Google Family app, Family Link.

I can see how long my kids have been on their

tablets, how long, when, what they were on. Like,

there's nothing I can't discover. Yeah, exactly.

It's that thing of you're taking responsibility

for your children and the time they are spending.

You don't need the government to come in any

government, no matter what government. I feel

like companies have made it entirely too easy

to to self -regulate like companies like Google

and like, you know, Amazon, any of the things

that have like kids based things. You just put

them on a device like I can lock down windows

if I wanted to and I've done that with the computer

that's in the other room. I've told my son I'm

like. Just so you know, I used to be an IT person.

I will find out what you're doing on that computer.

I don't have to lock it down and I can obtain

any information that you figure out to remove

because I did it with sales people. People that

were as old as my grandpa, grandfather or my

parents now. But yeah, but yeah, I mean, it's

it's not it's not beyond me. I will figure it

out. And I've told him that. And he he discovered

the hard way that I figured out what he'd watched

on the television because of the supervision.

Oh, gee, he's not bad. He's just it's you know,

he just thinks he can get on whatever he feels

like. So he's he's launched, you know videos

of how to draw stuff or various Cartoons that

either he's heard about from kids at school or

that I've mentioned in the past and He'll say

how did you know I and I says I just know I Says

in on the TV. You can't clear your history I

said, so I know it like you got to go through

a lot of hoops to get to it. So I let him know

that. And so he's like, oh, OK. And I said, so

if you don't want to get busted by your mom for

watching stuff that you know she wouldn't approve

of, you're better off not doing it. So he he's

like, OK, he's like, I get it. And then like

he does, you know, stay off it after that. But.

But again, it's having that conversation, that

confrontation with your kid, letting them know

that you're not dumber than a box of rocks and

that you will police them if they need it. So,

yeah, I don't know. I feel like, again, government

interaction is not needed. Yeah. And let's kind

of end it on this. For those that are still listening

to this. I'm sorry. What? No, I'm just saying

I'm sorry for those. No, no, no, no. I know.

No, I know. I'm just no I wasn't like what would

you know? I'm like I was gonna say what but then

I stopped myself as parents How do you what do

you allow your kids to do you can write us at

feedback at geek castrero .com you can comment

on this episode on the website or You can tell

us on Twitter at altered geek Any of that good

stuff, let us know and let us know what your

opinions are on video games only three hours

a week, whether it's China being China, doing

China or some other country, whatever for crying

out loud. I used to play video games like I used

to play Battlefield four. Mm hmm. Well, for hours,

I used to play three hours on a Friday and like

three, four hours on a Saturday. Mm hmm. And

then sometimes like five hours on a Sunday night.

So yes. But I used to do it with Arkham. Like

I used to play the Arkham games on my Xbox. Like

I used to play it. I think I would stay up till

like three in the morning, which was that was

excessive and I had a problem. And my wife was

justified to yell at me for that. I've since

toned it down like I don't even go to bed at

two a .m. anymore like I used to. And even like

six months ago, I was still trying to scoot back

up to the two a .m. mark. And she's like, you

need sleep. You're getting old. And she's right.

I don't like sleep, but I've got this appreciation

for it now because I'm like, I do get tired about

certain time and I can get up early, but I, yeah.

So, yeah, I would love to hear what people do

to police their kids and, you know, do they think

that they need interaction like, you know, China

telling people what to do or, you know, do they

have like software that they use to police their

kids or, you know, this magic thing of like.

I took the power cord. I first did that one to

me a couple of times. I've almost done that to

Ian, but he doesn't know how to get on enough

stuff to make it worth the effort of crawling

underneath a table and grabbing a cord. Yeah.

That's a lot of effort, folks. And for the people

that don't have kids, how do you balance life?

Yeah. How do you balance life with entertainment?

How do you balance your job, your whatever, along

with watching television or reading comics or

playing video games or even collecting toys?

You know, so let us know, man. Let us know, folks.

We want interaction. Yay. So let us know what

we should talk about on a lighter note in the

next episode of Altered Geek. I'm hoping to.

If nothing else, go back to weekly, but I'd like

to do like every other week. If at the bare minimum,

like I don't want to leave it. I think weekly

is good for us because it gives at least for

now. Yeah, at least for now, because it gives

us a chance. I need a variety of things to work

on currently. After the top 100, you burn yourself

out, which 100 hours, but. The level of kudos

you've gotten. Yes, yes. Thank you to everybody

who has given me compliments. You could work

in podcasting, Mike. Seriously, you should market

your services as like an expensive editor. And

then you wouldn't need your benefits from the

government. You'd be like rolling in the dough,

peoples. Look at this. This stuff sounds awesome,

doesn't it? Yep. That is your demo reel listen

to this podcast. This will tell you everything

you need to know. Yep a thousand dollars a minute

folks That's my rate because at least in one

minute of work I can afford a new computer I

know I understand that I'm saying within a couple

days. You'll have enough for a new computer,

you know Anyways Anyways How can the good people

get a hold of you online I am on the Twitter's

at SCP 21 I am I can be found at the Twitter's

at TFG one Mike Or the other way around yeah

can always catch us on geek cast radio calm You

know, I'm I'm everywhere I do everything that

I don't I don't do everything I do a ha ha ha

I couldn't help it man wide open Until next time

get altered get geeky with the altered geeks.

It's a me Mikey Oh