One of two "rants" that have occupied my head for a bit. The other may see the light of day. I haven't decided yet.

More and more, certain politicians are getting up in arms about video games. It pretty much started with Lieberman and has gradually become louder. The violence and depravity of today's video games are apparently corrupting our children beyond any hope of repair and turning them into sex crazed killing machines.

Seriously. Get a grip.

This political movement has continued to baffle me, but luckily it has never really been able to accomplish much.

Now, I do believe that certain video games are not intended for children; much like certain movies or TV shows. I'm pretty sure most would agree on that point. The problem is, if you listened to the rhetoric, you would be led to believe all children do is play GTA all day and think about how to kill people and have sex with prostitutes.

In the end, it is the parent's responsibility to regulate how their children spend their time. I'm not against getting ID'd to purchase a video game, but I know that really doesn't solve much anything. I'm mostly worried about a blanket banning of adult content from games. I'm definitely in favor of a hands off approach to the whole thing.

Now, I don't think adult content is necessary to make a good game, but it isn't something I mind seeing from time to time. In the end, the game makes the game. Everything else just flavors it.

What has surprised me the most is that the whole "anti-video game" movement appears to be more of a liberal agenda. I would have thought the conservatives would be all over this. I'm sure they are out there, but it seems they aren't getting as much attention over this.

I'm not trying to bash liberals here, nor am I stating that everyone who leans in a particular direction thinks the same. I'm just confused. It seemed to be right up the alley of the general conservative agenda.

In the end, I doubt much will change. They'll cite their "studies" and tie in incidents with shoestrings. Everyone else will just take the common sense approach.

Oh well. Not worth getting upset over.