I am a young software engineer recently graduated from an Australian university and among the top in my batch. All this because of my love for playing computer games. I would not have taken up software engineering had it not been for a long fascination with computer/console games dating back to the days of Atari.

I find Loceng Cat's remarks very unfortunate and ill-advised. He alleged that 'most likely you will see a bunch of failures (most of them are academically below-average teenagers with family problems) gathering there (cybercafes) to live out their electronic world fantasies.'

From which research results did you gather that most cybercafe patrons are 'academically below average teenagers with family problems? I have very strong feelings about this matter because a substantial amount of my academic achievements were underpinned by computer/arcade games. And I love my family and they love me too, thank you very much.

I was having supper with my friends the other day and our discussion shifted to the Second World War. After much debate on a certain battle at the western front, we decided to adjourn to a cybercafe for a session of Call of Duty .

The realistic reconstruction of the battles and the chance for you to try and see whether different tactics might influence the outcome of the battle and subsequently the war was excellent. It was truly an educational and thought-provoking session of game-playing, which also helped me visualise the terrains Stephen Ambrose was describing in his D-Day book.

The top student in my secondary school was a PlayStation enthusiast in general and a Final Fantasy freak in particular. The best students in IT typically create games as their final year project, partially due to its inherent complexities and, more importantly, a love for their 'electronic world fantasies'.

I always hated studying for exams. But computer games helped me a lot. Games like Sid Meier's Colonisation and Koei's Uncharted Waters 2 - New Horizons gave me such deep impressions that whole chapters of Sejarah were confidently skipped during my preparation for the SPM.

I prepared for my PMR in video arcade centres (before they were, unfortunately, clamped down). I would do a Contoh Kertas Peperiksaan there and if I got 75% or above (75% was A in my school), I would reward myself with a game of Street Fighter Zero , which cost me only 20 sen per game.

Hungry for more games, I would do another paper and try to score 75% or more. At the end of the day, I invested RM2 for 10 A-grade papers. Incentives don't get better than that!

I learnt from most computer/arcade games I played: Romance of the Three Kingdoms III and IV ; Genghis Khan II; Civilization II and III; King of Fighters; Sim City 2000, 3000 and 4; Warcraft III; and many, many more.

I sincerely feel for Loceng Cat's children. Children love to play games, analogue or digital, and it's a healthy sign. It's all part of growing up.

Loceng Cat is not taking issue with playing games - he/she is having problems with games on an electronic machine. Perhaps, Loceng Cat wants his children to play marbles, batu seremban and Jungle Boy cards (Jungle Boy cards were considered 'bad' when I was in primary school for the same underlying reasons Loceng Cat is complaining of in 2004).

Loceng Cat will have no problem if kids 'loiter' around flying kites the whole evening. But spending their free time in cybercafes is a no-no.

Perhaps it's the loud audio that's bothering Loceng Cat. Music is getting louder too - we should shut down MTV. Formula One is a noisy sport, let's close the Sepang Circuit. So are Merdeka Day fireworks, movies, football fans, market places, mosques, charismatic churches, parliaments, birthday parties, the suratkhabar lama van, etc. They are all loud. Ban them all then.

Everything in existence is neutral in nature. Dr Mahathir Mohamad once said that if you give a man a knife, he may carve a beautiful flower. The same knife given to another man may be used for murder. Loceng Cat chose to concentrate only on the knife being a weapon of murder.