Just when everybody though that the economy and Iraq would play the most important role in the United States presidential elections later in the year, it seems that at least one candidate is thinking about videogames and their impact on American society, in the larger context of talk about media in the United States. One of Barack Obama's latest campaign stops in Indianapolis led to this statement in which he even name-checked a game (there's also a video at the end of the article).

Obama said: "I was just catching the news this morning about Grand Theft Auto, alright, this video game, which is gonna break all records, and make goo-gobs of money for whoever designed it. Now, this isn't intended for kids, I understand, although I promise you there will be kids who are playing it. But, those video games are raising our kids.

It just reminded me, video culture, TV culture - across the board - middle class, upper class, working class kids, they're spending a huge amount of time, not on their studies, but on entertainment. And so part of our job is gonna have to be to inspire the entire country to say how are we giving our kids a thirst for knowledge, and turning off the TV set, and getting them to be engaged and interested and really feel… that their future really does matter on how well they do in school".

It might seem as a rather simple statement from a potential presidential contender, but it actually shows much more wisdom than Hillary Clinton's long standing dreams of banning videogames. Obama actually acknowledges the fact that the government is not capable of taking care of the issues of videogames and must actually work together with the industry and with other interested parties, like the ESRB, to make an effort to inform rather than to regulate.

He might be exaggerating a bit when he says that videogames are "raising" kids, especially when taking into account the fact the most games players are rather mature persons than kids, but he is in the right with the idea that education must be made more appealing and more important through initiatives that engage the children, rather than by banning everything else apart from school.

Such a statement also serves as one more reminder that videogames and the videogames industry are beginning to have a more clear and obvious impact on the society as a whole and not just on a limited subculture, following a reminder from TIME and one from Forbes.

Gaming has to adapt to the new challenges of media scrutiny and spin, while gamers have to look for ways of promoting their culture against the bias of some people.

Here's the full video: