As I said on the front page he dared the gaming community to call his show. Since I've no desire to be harangued about my stance on this I sent an email. I thought I'd share it here with you all. Figured this would be the right forum to post it in.

Mr. McCullough

Rather than call your radio show to be haraungued by you, as I know your type would do. I'll send this email. By no means should you take this as an act of cowardice on my part, I just know that I'm far better at getting my point across in written form.

Now I have to, yet again, mention that we in the gaming community weren't calling you a liar because we didn't like what you said, we called you a liar because that is precisely what you did. I'll begin with some basic corrections about the industry in general.

1. The Federal Trade Commission has consistently been giving the ESRB better grading for their enforcement of the voluntary rating system that they use. Keep in mind that the only people who can actually enforce this are the people on the retail level. Stores like Best Buy and Target have computer programs that prompt the cashier for the buyer's ID before even going to the ring up screen. Considering how young the system is in relation to others I think we're doing a pretty decent job of enforcement.

2. Parental involvement is paramount in this issue. A game's rating is clearly visible on both the front and back of the box, as well as content descriptors.The ratings aren't that hard to figure out and if you do need help all you have to do is go to the ESRB website or ask the cashier or whoever else works in the gaming section of your local store to get an explanation. Now once a parent understands they are more likely to make intelligent decisions based on that knowledge. Case in point, I used to work at a game store. During my tenure there a mother and her son came in looking for one of the Resident Evil series. The son was obviously a minor and when I asked her if she was aware of the rating she said know and was glad to be informed of it. She made the decision not to buy the game based on that. Retail level and parental involvement working in concert with one another, that's what's needed here.

You accused Bioware of creating a game in which you were capable of "the most realistic sex acts ever conceived" among other fairly ridiculous accusations. Now I realize that you admit to not having played the game and only used what other people told you about it, but doesn't that make you irresponsible as a journalist? Shouldn't you have looked into the matter beyond a 57 second video that's only a very small part of a 20+ hour game? Others have repeatedly called you on this. The "alien lesbo sex" you seem so focused on is not how you portray it. The alien in question is a member of a race that is genderless. When in the company of other races they only go by the feminine pronouns to avois confusion, again this is something you've been told repeatedly.

I'm a 34 year old man, I've been in the gaming community since the days of the Atari 2600; long before there even was a gamer classification. I've seen this type of hysteria during the eighties when Dungeons and Dragons was the cause for all the world's ills and again during the nineties when the focused switched to Vampire the Masquerade. Every time something new comes along people blame it for society going to pot. The problem is that what you advocate is patently unconstitutional and you know it. You have to know that you're stretching when you say that there's already precedent for censorship.

As a Christian I also understand your point about the inroads of smut, however you're reaching with this one. As a free market guy I believe that the market will tend to itself, it has in the past after all. I think you know that too, you just want the publicity of speaking out about something whethere you know anything about it or not.

You deliberately wrote a piece that was a lie. You admit as much when you say you only wrote about what you had heard instead of doing research first hand to find out if it was true or not and whether or not there was context to the scene. Again this is why we called you a liar. Not because we wanted to make fun of you but because you lied and we can prove it.

The gaming community is here to stay. Our average age is 33 and we vote. We make our voices heard when something like this happens and I think that it bothers you that so many are willing to take a stand for free speech. No one is breaking the law here and we shouldn't be treated like it.

Next time you decide to go off on a tirade why don't you do the research before you open your mouth. After all Abraham Lincoln once said "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

Thank you for your time
John