I've been an avid poster for the longest time now & not just here on GameSpot. I've seen countless rants go on & on about various threads being locked. The original poster of the thread usually makes a solid point in his/her rebuttal. So, today, December 20, 2007, I found myself on the opposite end of the stick. Like so many before me, I too felt violated of my right to free speech, which in my own personal view, is the fundamental nature of a public forum.

I mainly get my news from 2 sources: Google News & Comcast.net. Today I happen to read the following story: http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/national/2007/12/20/Mortal.Kombat.Death/?cvqh=itn_mortalcombatdeath

So I went ahead & decided to share the story among the PS3's public forum. Some took the story in stride, others took it to heart. Personally, I see no reason to take the story so deeply - it's just one death among the millions that perish each day. Whether it be disease, (which by the way, GameSpot did a fabulous job by removing the official Folding@Home thread) the pointless war in Iraq, the AIDS epidemic in Africa, or just plain old murder-rape. Sure the little one was but a child, but I bet my last dollar that she lived a life of significance when compared to the children that literally starve to death in this great world of ours.

Now, what I find of particularly great humor is the fact that should this story been posted as a news feed on GameSpot, (or anywhere else for that matter) the general users of this website would've had a similar reaction to it. The sense of pain, loss, or flat-out laughter at the sheer stupidity of the incident would've been the same. People would exchange opinions back & forth via the 'Add a Comment' feature at the bottom of every story. Why can't this same format & standard be applied in a public forum is beyond me. You never see a news story get locked because of user comment.

So there you have it: Moderators & owners of the site exercising their false illusions of playing God. To reiterate my point, the news feed on this site allows user feedback. The story drew mixed feelings in the forums - it would've conjured the same within the news section. But alas: The freedom of free speech isn't always the happy-go-lucky beast we envision it to be. Feel free to leave comments. If they're deleted, I swear to you that it wasn't me.