Prostitution, Morality and Videogames

We've heard it a thousand times. Games are evil. There's considerable potential for discussion in the sentence. Games are bad. There's no questioning the fact that there are really bad games out there, just not bad in the sense that Jack Thompson would like us to believe that GTA is "bad." Games promote murder. Evidence shows that games are a good way of letting out steam so that you do not go and kill people with a shotgun, but rather pop enemies with a flak cannon in Unreal.

Recently, Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic governor the state of New York, has been forced to resign after details emerged that he has been, for the last few years, a client of a high profile prostitution ring. Not only that, but apparently Mr. Spitzer has used public funds to get his favorite girl into luxurious hotels and on top-class plane rides. So, not only prostitution, but also a bit of public fund embezzlement.

Now, it has surfaced that during the 2006 campaign for his election, Eliot Spitzer claimed that videogames were one of the major causes for the rise of prostitution-related offenses in New York. Here's a short quote from Mr. Spitzer: "Media content has gotten more graphic, more violent and more sex-based… Currently, nothing under New York State law prohibits a fourteen-year old from walking into a video store and buying… a game like ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ which rewards a player for stealing cars and beating people up. Children can even simulate having sex with a prostitute…"

Reading the above statement and now knowing that he was actively involved with prostitution at the time makes me want to question the moral records of anyone and everyone who is blaming videogames for the ills of society. Eliot Spitzer is clearly a hypocrite and none of his statements can be taken at face value. The real question is: How many more videogame bashers are hiding ugly skeletons in their personal closets? And how much of their hatred is pure hypocrisy?

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