Video Games(no love form the political side)

all this anti-video game crap realy burns me, for example i watched a few minutes of the house's recent hearing on the matter, and the dufas chairman trys to portray that the industry somehow is responsable because an M rated game, GTASA, beat an over used, E rated football franchise,Madden, in sales.

i swear these people need to actualy talk to gamers, their so ignorant to most of this stuff.

And learn. Hey, in The Sims... you actually have to care for your little people.

I love gaming. And screw anyone that doesn't.

not as much now as i used too, got kind of wirded out when the sim version of my mom died of old age.

They kick it around every once in awhile and see if anyone cheers. Lieberman uses quite a bit- but I've never heard him complain about the fact the US Army has their own violent video game they use for recruitment/advertising.

After looking at some of the games I have, what horrible violence.... Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, Nintendogs. I think the most violent one is probably Ocarina of Time... I didn't know that I HAD to buy Grand Theft Auto.

I also played Timesplitters with a group of friends. That was the most violent game I've played... and they only wanted me to play cause I've never done a shooting game before, and I wasn't worth a crap. But then I got drunk and found a baseball bat, then I got high score. Odd.

some of us are worried about "Grand Theft America."

(This isn't directed at the OP. I just... get tired of having to defend my favorite pastime.)

I grew up on video games. When I was eight or nine, I got to play on a ColecoVision for the first time.

I'd always liked arcades, but my parents would almost never let me go into them to play a game or ten. They saw it as a waste of money. To some people, I guess, fun wastes money.

Shortly after that, perhaps a year or two, I got an Atari 2600 for Christmas. For the next several years, I'd dream about getting games as gifts. The Atari, for all that it eventually collapsed under its own weight, really was for some time a truly fun experience. I still have my original console, in fact, and the last time I hooked it up (several years ago now) it still worked as it did the first day I used it. That particular piece of hardware was obviously built very well indeed.

My love affair with the Atari ended when I got the first NES. That was a stunning experience: I felt like I was playing arcade-quality (or nearly so) games. I would get up early for school so I could finish that one dungeon in Zelda before I got on the bus. I would do my homework first, and as fast as I could so I could play Ultima III: Exodus that much sooner. I would beg to stay up an extra hour to try and get past that one boss in Life Force.

About the same time, I had a Commodore 64 computer. Nearly every disk I had (and still have) was a game disk. I treated that machine like a different kind of console, a practice I continue to this very day. Learning the issues and fixes and construction of that gave me an enthusiasm for computer technology, which I also carry with me today. My exposure to those machines, and the requirements of technical reading foisted upon me by that "early" technology, is why my understanding of the same is what it is today.

Then I got an NES. And an IBM PC. And then an N64, and a machine that had a Pentium Pro. Then a Playstation, and a computer with 3D built onto the graphics card. And now, a PS2 (soon to add a Wii), and a computer that can play Oblivion smoothly.

My point is this:

Video games are a legitimate form of entertainment, just like any other. Moreover, they're interactive; what we do with them influences our experience of them. While some people have problems with shooters and others have problems with adult-themed games, it is undeniable that all of the actions in these games take place in a space that is not "real"; that is, it's all taking place onscreen, and not in real life.

No real people were harmed in the making of that horrific game scene. Everyone who thinks games are in some way dangerous need to find their own hobby. This one is mine, and I won't restrict it, because it occurs in a virtual space. NO harm is done, ever. Period. Thus, the type of game "allowed" to be made should be truly unrestricted in every sense of the word.

Let me put it in rather blatant terms:

I don't care that a digital hooker got run over and killed. I don't care that a digital shopkeeper got assaulted and murdered. I don't care that a digital child got molested. I don't care that my digital character- controlled by me- decided to kill his mom. I don't care about any of these things occurring in a digital game space because they are digital, not real, and therefore not anything to be offended about should they be "harmed".