Video Games vs Politics

I feel like there's been a lot of politicians jumping on the "Video Games are corrupting our youth" bandwagon, and frankly it's pissing me off. If you haven't seen it allready, you should check out this article that Stephen King wrote for entertainment weekly on the subject. The funny thing is that I partly agree with what their saying. Little kids should not be playing violent video games. Having said that, I don't think that means selling M rated games to minors should be illegal. That's crap. The video game industry, just like movies, should continue to be self regulating. Violent video games are no worse then violent movies. No one seems ready to ban 300 (though I sorta wish they would). I think the bottom line is this; parents should know what their kids are into so they can decide wether or not it's appropriate for them. It's every parents responsibility to know their children. Thats what it means to be a parent.

I guess where my idea sort of falls short is that it doesn't take into consideration how screwed up some parent's priorities actually are. I was pointed to this poll from whattheyplay.com which shows what parents find most offensive in video games. Guess what? Two men kissing beat out graphic decapitation and multiple uses of the F word. Mind you this isn't two men having sex, it's just two men kissing. What the fuck?

While I'm on the subject of politicians who hate video games, I'd like to quickly give a big middle finger to Elliot Spitzer. I know it's old news at this point but I never got to put my two cents in, so here I go. From what I understand, he was one of the more outspoken politicians against Grand Theft Auto. What people fail to recognize is that GTA is a satire, but whatever thats not really my point. What I guess I'm trying to say is that here's Spritzer condemning GTA for allowing sex with virtual hookers when he's having sex with real ones. Also, let's not forget that he was using government money to do so. Fuck that.

Ok, here's the last thing that gets me. Most politicians that are criticizing these games have never actually played them. In the past few weeks there have been multiple analysts who have admitted to this (Cooper Lawrence, and that guy whose name I can't seem to find). How come thats acceptable to people? No one could ever get away with criticizing a movie that they haven't seen. I'm not asking them to play all the way through, just enough to understand what it's all about. Video games are an entertainment medium, just like TV and movies, and it's about time that politicians understood this.