Things That Bother me

In what is sure to become a recurring column, I'm going to go Andy Rooney, and voice things that disturb me; both of banal and significant nature. So, on with another in the litany of Web 2.0 complaint lists!

World War II Video Games - I am a video gamer who has owned close to 75% of major-market gaming systems in my lifetime. Furthermore, I believe in artistic license, and allowing people the freedom to choose to consume media as violent or otherwise salacious as they wish (albeit with the proviso that no person was harmed during its creation). This being said, there is something macabre in the mass-market desire to simulate the worst event in human history. The idea that people receive a visceral thrill from recreating battles where hundreds of thousands lost lives, many through such inhuman suffering as starvation or freezing to death; disappoints me.
While most rightfully celebrate the memories of the allies who rose at great personal risk to defend the world (and themselves) from what was quite possibly the most conspicuous concentration of human evil in history; it remains undeniable for all of time that World War II was the greatest failing of mankind, and as such should not be celebrated in this form. When you die in Call of Duty, it is simulating the death of your grandfather or great uncle; and I think if this association was more common, perhaps this genre would be deservedly less popular.

Dwayne Wade - Okay, so Wade by himself doesn't bother me. He is a fantastic player, perhaps the best player in the NBA; however, the referees' insistence on treating him as if he were made of porcelain is giving the Miami Heat an unfair advantage. Wade scored 24 points in the fourth quarter tonight to lead the Heat to a comeback win over the Cavaliers; however this is substantively less impressive when one notices that fourteen of these points came from the free-throw line. We've already had the integrity of the Finals compromised (at least in my mind) by 'The Wade Rules,' and it would be nice to see a legitimately great player perform to the merit of his own abilities.