This has obviously been a hot subject on every gaming site in America recently, and many of us have been watching the entire issue very closely.  Here's my opinion, and I'm going to put this as delicately as I possibly can...that law was bulls***.

Let me provide a bit of background about me so that you can critique my credentials, both as a gamer and an advocate for the rights of the citizens of our country.  I've been gaming longer than many of the members of this site have been alive, since 1979 to be exact.  I've played pretty much every type of game imaginable, from text adventures to puzzle games to hardcore FPS and everything in between.  I have watched the level of violence, and the realism with which that violence is portrayed, increase exponentially in the past 30 years.  I've also seen my share of real world violence, having joined the military in 1989 and participating in Operation Desert Storm.  I spent 11 years in service to my country and its ideals, so I have some fairly strong opinions on the freedoms that we enjoy in the US.

I'll give you an example.  If I see someone burning an American flag, it is my belief that I should have the right to find the nearest blunt object and beat them profusely about the head and shoulders for defacing the symbol of the very freedom they are exercising until they decide to stop.  However, if that freedom is revoked, then I will fight to the death for their right to burn that exact same flag.  That's how this country was built, ladies and gentlemen.  Freedom is not now, nor has it ever been, free.

We, as citizens, have been fighting censorship in its many forms for decades, even centuries.  Now, I happen to believe there are times when the dissemination of information can actually be a bad thing.  News outlets printing the specifics of troop movements during time of war, for example, is not a good idea.  However, I don't classify the restriction of that information as censorship.  I don't believe that the public has a right to know those details.  Therefore, there is nothing wrong with keeping that a secret.  But when Pat Tillman (Google it if you don't know) was accidentally killed by friendly fire, and the government covered it up for fear of a political backlash, they betrayed the public trust in concealing the truth.  I hope everyone can agree there is a significant difference in those two scenarios.

Video games remained free from public scrutiny for a very long time for two reasons.  Firstly, we were basically a subculture in the early days.  There weren't enough of us to really make a big impact on the world.  Second, graphics weren't exactly realistic back in the day.  I killed hundreds of Nazi soldiers in Castle Wolfenstein.  However, I seriously doubt anyone who saw that game in motion would consider it "violent", simply because the depiction of it was so crude.  So when did it start?  My guess is the first time someone put a graphical representation of blood on the screen.  However, I don't remember it really being an issue until two kids who were avid players of Doom shot up a school.

This is where it starts getting complicated.  See, human beings have a natural desire, a need, to know why.  Why are we here?  Why did this happen?  Why does everything taste like chicken?  So we see these two tortured youths go on a killing spree and society screams out that we must learn what caused this tragedy so that we may prevent other kids from following the same path.  After all, there has to be a reason, right?  Reporters dig into their lives and find out they played a video game called Doom.  Well, that certainly sounds ominous.  Let's take a look at this game, shall we?  OMG, look at the blood!  There's demons everywhere!  You can dismember things with a chainsaw!  How can an impressionable teenager play this game and not be propelled towards an inevitable violent end???

Training video for psychopathic murderers

News flash, folks: I played Doom.  A lot.  And Doom II.  And Castlevania 3D before that.  And Diablo I & II.  And the Grand Theft Auto series.  And Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor, and God of War and Mortal Kombat and and and...

I have two children, 8 and 18 months.  I've been married for over 20 years.  I am a professional who has held a stable job my entire adult life.  I have played more violent video games, and killed more virtual people and animals, than most of the population of this entire planet.  Not once have I ever laid a hand in anger on my wife or one of my kids.  Not once have I gotten into a fight because of overly aggressive behavior.  And if I were alone on this, I might consider myself a fluke or an anomaly.  But in my experience, this is true of 99.9% of gamers.  My gaming friends include a lawyer, an ultrasound technician, and plenty of other sound, rational people who play "violent" games every day.  Yet somehow they all manage to continue to function as civilized and well-balanced members of society.

How can that be?

Politicians can cite all the studies they want.  I don't believe a single one of them.  The most compelling study I know of is the one I have been living for the past 30 years.  I game nearly every night.  My wife thinks something is wrong with me if I go to bed before midnight, believing I must be sick if I'm neglecting my console time.  It's a way of life in my household and has been for over 20 years.  So when I say that I believe the argument that video game violence causes actual violent behavior is a crock, I am speaking from experience.  Simple statistics also do not support these claims.  Media scholar and MIT professor Henry Jenkins recently wrote an article entitled Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked.  An excerpt follows:

According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like common sense to me.  Video games have gone from a nearly underground activity to the most profitable form of entertainment on the planet.  Yet, in that same period, violent crimes committed by minors have fallen to an all-time low.  This isn't a study dealing with vague psychology.  It's fact.