Monday, December 10, 2007

Electoral Politics and Video Games

Via Gamepolitics, I came across a group called Common Sense Media. They asked some major presidential candidates what they would do when it came to the regulation of video games. Some comments were sensible, others weren't. In particular, Milt Romney and Hillary Clinton have come out against violence in "adult" video games. If I had a chance to converse with them, I'd ask them if any of them had ever picked up a gamepad. I'm sure the answer from amongst the candidates would probably be all in the negative. Well, I did see a photo of either Huckabee or Brownback (who's out of the race now) playing Guitar Hero once.

Maybe we shouldn't take it so personally. Politicians always need a whipping boy of some kind to deflect the responsibility from where it really belongs: inattentive, wandering parents. Before this, it was violent movies and obscenities in rock and rap music. But since politicians don't understand gaming culture, and again have probably never so much as picked up a joystick, they should shut the hell up and stick to more pressing issues.

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