Regarding games, censorship, and politics

In Singapore, the casino debate is polarizing the opinions of its citizens. In the US, something much less trivial is being debated upon. Believe or not, its GAMES.

The current topic is whether videogames nowadays are violent, and whether a more powerful control should be built over the current system. The are many... and I mean _many_ talks on this. The point is, unlike S'pore's casino, which would only affect Singapore and Singapore, the games issue would impact the entire gaming industry, which itself is already larger then the movie or TV ... Or DVD industries, despite being a lot younger.

my views on this matter depends. A lot of sites ask this question :
Are the majority of today's videogames violent in nature?

My answer will have to be yes. In my estimates 99% of games include violence, the only question is the level of violence, and how mature is the audience. Tetris is violent, since you witness blocks that explode whenever you tile them together. Mario is too, if you think it that way. The question is: will the gamers accept it, and what meaning do they get out of it.

Politicians have risen a new question of whether games factor into the new level of aggression inherent in our society's youth. The answer to that question is, in my humble opinion, yes, but only to a certain extent. The aggression in my view, being an adolescent myself, is instilled into us through society itself. The fact that we need to fight our peers for a upper hand in education, races or whatever, much earlier in life then our predecessors, is the cause of this inherent aggression. Games, in my opinion, is actually a way in which we blow off steam, much like movies. Even though scientist keep saying that games actually hike up this aggression through andrenaline and other BS, it is a known *fact* that after we finish a round of Halo, we feel exhilarated and that complete feeling of gaming bliss. That we would want to blow our fellow gamer apart with real guns is probably the last thing in our minds. (unless of course we lost horribly, but would that be different from a round of cards?)

This is where there is a hitch. Society has groomed us to be competitive, and capable of handling massive amounts of stress, but there are certain people whose minds just cannot do it. This anomalies, would start seeking places to vent that stress induced anger. And when they cant find it, they turn vaguely insane. This, I say, is what caused some of those crazed kids to go after their friends. For the rest of the 99.999% of gamers out there, I believe games are safe, some even educational and healthy, infact.

Anyway.. If Videogames is linked to crime, shouldn't movies like the Matrix, which talks about hacking and going against the "law", and board games like Risk, which promotes conquering the world be banned just in case another super-hacker or another Hitler come around? Treat games like an entertainment platform, not drugs. Thanks for reading


Blaz/TF