Re: Naughty Eamons

["Matthew Clark" <EamonAG@gmail.com>]

"Poster" <poster!nospam!@aurora.cotse.net> wrote in message 
c8CdnSMbsYi2dWvcRVn-uw@giganews.com">news:c8CdnSMbsYi2dWvcRVn-uw@giganews.com...
>>
>> I have never played the two "naughty" games, and I expect I never will.
>> Even so, I am definitely in favour of keeping them on the web site. The
>> historical value of having a complete set of Eamons available far
>> overshadows any moral doubts that anyone may have.
>>
>>   Fredrik
>
> Hosting them yourself might be a better action than telling other people 
> that their morality is bogus. *shrugs*
>
> --Poster

No one ever suggested whether or not anyone's morality was bogus. In my 
post, I suggested that one should be aware of what the Eamons were and if 
that person was offended by their content, he/she shouldn't play them. No 
one suggested that they shouldn't be made or played by anyone.

This issue came up almost 20 years ago when the NEUC was deciding what to do 
with these Eamons. They tried removing 4 Eamons from the list altogether. 
(See http://www.eamonag.org/newsletters/1985-05.htm) For various reasons, 
they decided to put them back into the list in order to provide a service to 
their members. A member could order only if he adequately proved that he was 
of legal age.

Fredrik's point was that in his opinion he thinks the set should remain 
together and be freely downloadable by everyone. I share his view. Fredrik 
may not, however, realize the extent to which Americans are sensitive about 
issues of sexuality, especially if it may be accessible to children. I can 
see that side of the coin as well.

Maybe all of this is a moot argument anyway as it's unlikely that today's 
under-18 generation would be more interested in downloading a twenty year 
old text adventure game instead of the more easily accessible porn sites 
which seem to be so pervasive. I mean, after all, they can go to a website 
and get their jollies much easier then it would be to download an emulator, 
download the eamons, figure out how things work on an Apple II, figure out 
which eamon to play and only then get a text version of the same thing.

In the same like, however, parents should at least be aware of the game 
their children are playing. If a parent has set up Eamon for his 7 year old 
to play, the parent should know that these adventures are probably not 
suitable for children.

I see three options. 1. Post them to the website for all the world to see. 
2. Pretend they don't exist. or 3. Post them to the website, but include 
warnings when these adventures are downloaded in the package. I think the 
3rd option provides the best of both worlds, but I'm interested to hear what 
others have to say.

Matthew