Interface Is Key

I enjoy watching the Angry Video Game Nerd, but I was tired of the constant age verification at Gametrailers.com, so I decided that I could easily register an account on their website, let Firefox remember the password so I can quickly sign in and not have to worry about verifying my birth date every time I watch a new video.

Unfortunately, even when I created an account, logged in, and entered my birth date in my profile, they still ask me to verify my age every single time I want to watch a new video. Even if I just watched a video five minutes ago. What is the purpose of that?

They have an option for continuous play, but it won't work if you don't verify your age at the start of every new video. So, If I want to continue watching AVGN, I need to keep click on the month that I was born and scroll down to December, then after that all that, I have to select the day and year. Really? I need to do this every 5-10 minutes? What was the purpose of you asking for my birth date in the first place, Gametrailers.com?

There is a way to fix Gametrailer.com's broken age verification system by using Firefox, installing the Greasemonkey addon with this Greasemonkey script. You also need to change your profile so that Quicktime is the default video player instead the industry standard.

So already, they have alienated a large percentage of possible viewers. Most people are going to rightfully tell Gametrailers.com to fuck right off and they will not return. Less than half will stick around and continue watching a couple more videos. A small percentage of die hard fans will subject themselves to undeserved punishment and an even smaller percentage will find a way around it. Great job, Gametrailers.com!

These instructions are available on the Gametrailers.com forums and they have yet to be removed. I'd like to think that Gametrailers.com is aware of this pathetic interface problem and is working on a change. The whole situation is so pathetic, that it deserves to be addressed by the Angry Video Game Nerd, himself.

So I emailed Gametrailers.com and let them know how I feel and I got this response:

Sorry, but it's a liability issue. We're required by the ESRB to
provide an age gate in front of all mature rated content that you must
bypass manually. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Fair enough. I can't begin to explain my hatred of the ESRB. It just really cheeses my goat that people are punished for the safety of precious children. I think it's about time we start making parents responsible for their children. I know that's a wild and crazy idea, but sometimes I'm two wild and crazy guys.