i was disappointed by this piece. it is exactly the type of shallow piece i expected to be produced by non gamers. sure the producer seemed to explore video games first hand a little by playing guitar hero, but thats like saying you've experienced all moving picture media after watching a cartoon.

the whole piece was tinged with the bias that violent video games are fundamentally bad. that violent video games are silly and at best a tolerable evil. imagine if one applied that to say film. its absurd. many violent video games are simply good stories and experiences. because you kill a hundred zombies in an hour doesn't mean you feel like killing someone in real life. self reports of so called "desensitization" are questionable at best. and frankly theres a disturbingly condescending attitude that assumes everyone else is unable to tell fantasy from reality and should be protected as such. the reality is youth violence is DOWN. and look at history. when was this golden age before the video game? world war 1? world war 2? vietnam? rwanda? the idea of video games as the boogey man just doesn't add up.

plus, at 50 dollars a pop its not like children can buy these like lolly pops. i've heard that man argue against video games before on other shows. he talks about them as if they were being handed out for free and shoved into children's book bags. an xbox or ps3 runs 300-400 dollars for the systems alone, let alone the games, meaning parental involvement is a given. he's just pushing anti video game hysteria.

as for the so called peace games or socially responsible games. i've heard these pushed on public radio once too often. they are SCAMS. they are made to sucker folks who don't know anything about video games into supporting them. its just a misguided idea. you might as well try to sell peace tick tack toe because thats exactly what they are doing. some things have no business being games. learning about world issues or history should be done through reading, it is the most efficient way. trying to play some peace political propaganda game is not going to help. games have simplistic models of the world, whether it be mario or halo just like sports because thats what is easy to make and is fun. complexity from simplicity and mastering a skill within simple rules. tennis is just balls going over a net within certain lines, but thats not to say maria sharapova is a simpleton that anyone could beat! you cannot model the complexities of social movements or peace processes within a game accurately enough to make a game out of it. at best you are making busy work with your own set of multiple choice questions/answer points which is just rather pointless. the only thing you'd learn from such a game is how to choose the correct answers the game makers want you to. but i guess the concept impresses non gamers and it gets them funding from well meaning but misguided people.