The Games People Play

Now, the criticism of video games and video gamers is hardly something new. The Grand Theft Auto series has been a popular target, and not without reason — the games are violent and very mature in theme. Criticizing something that is controversial, or at least has the potential to be, has always been a reliable media tactic to get attention. Being preposterous about it to the level that Christopher Byron was in the post is maybe a little more fresh. He's obviously rather upset that games like Vice City exist and can fall into the hands of kids. He uses phrases like" glorification of mass murder," "the most menacing messages known to civilized man," and "10,000 times worse than the worst thing anybody thinks Michael Jackson ever did to a little boy." If you believe him, anyone who plays this game is likely to go on killing sprees, even going so far as to nearly link the game with the recently convicted Beltway snipers (ignoring the fact that they were arrested before the game was even released).

Christopher Byron calls this insane, but I'm wondering just how sane and reasonable he is (not to mention on the ball, Vice City has been out for well over a year, and 11 million copies have sold, so the horse is long gone from the stall). This is a video game, and frankly, a highly entertaining and popular video game. No, it's not wholesome family entertainment, but neither are the majority of movies released, the bulk of shows on television, nor a wide selection of other video games. I can name several other games currently out there that in comparison to Vice City would probably leave Mr. Byron twitching in apoplectic shock. Of course, he'd probably just use that to further condemn the video gaming community as a bunch of antisocial deviants.

The video gaming community probably does contain some antisocial deviants, to be sure. That it has in common with society at large, and pretty much every community of people with common interests (except maybe the "Grown adults who collect My Little Pony memorabilia" community, which probably consists of nothing but antisocial deviants). The video gaming community is a large group of people, with countless magazines and websites, and at least one popular web comic — Penny Arcade.

The guys at Penny Arcade, which is incidentally one of the most popular, and hilarious (if rather crude and a bit inside) comics on the net decided to do something good for someone else this Christmas. They started a campaign called Child's Play to encourage their readers to buy toys for a Seattle children's hospital. Readers, the vast majority of which are video gamers, proceeded to donate $200,000 dollars worth of toys, and $27,000 in cash. How much media coverage did this receive? At last count, none. Their local news reported the donation, but listed it as $1000, and for some reason, as a local catholic school.

So where do we stand? Some business columnist for the New York Post gets upset about a video game, he gets to vent his hyperbolic rant about to the readers of the Post, who will probably finish the article and surmise that video games are dangerous, and gamers are highly evil. Penny Arcade arranges a massive charitable donation, they don't even get a proper mention on the local news.

Dontmindme.com is not exactly the New York Post. This article is not going to make everything right with this messed up situation. But when good deeds go unlauded and unrewarded, and loudmouths with nothing of worth to say get to shout their lies from the New York Post, little guys like outside the mainstream need to speak up. And so I say, Gabe and Tycho and company, keep up the good work. Christopher Byron, go down to the hardware store and get yourself a crowbar. You'll need it to get your head out of there.