14 DAY TRIAL // Before any computers saw the light of day, novels and philosophy works were those to be blamed for the poor level of culture and moral behavior of a youngster. Today, the spotlight changed its focus from books towards the game and movie industries. Yes, times have changed and so did the sources of juvenile corruption. At least this is what some people say. For some unexplained reason, gamers do not believe in evil computer games. They see things in terms of gameplay: exquisite or crappy.
Games - as violent as they may seem - do not hurt people. People do. On the other hand, with all those bodies torn to pieces on the screen, a gamer will never have time to notice. Playing a game is incredibly difficult these days. I found the last GTA release incredibly tough to play. I barely had time to notice I ran someone over with my speeding Buick. Poor polygonal entity!
Until recently art and all its forms was the keeper of our society's values. Well, not art, but official art, the state art. Everything else was to be doomed by weapons of censorship. Nabokov's Lolita wasn't art until some mad Frenchmen decided to publish it. Shortly thereafter, it became a universal masterpiece.
Fortunately, games have nothing to do with art. Therefore, they have nothing to do with the morality of the society we are living in. Well, it isn't like this. Art isn't anymore the keeper of our children's moral values. Youngsters do not read anymore, do not listen to Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" interpretations, they just sit in front of a monitor screen and watch polygonal people getting hanged, shot and ran over by speeding cars.
At least this is what non-gamers see: their children watching atrocities. Why should they see things like fair play, competition, tactical geniality, strategic flair, or great reflex and concentration? Why should they, when they fail so lousily to understand the meaning of playing by the rules according to your skills (mental or physiological)?
Games are exactly like sports. They have rules and they require great skill. One who does not comprehend things like discipline, fair play or improvement, should never play games. And fairly enough, they should never emit judgments about what should games look like.
As faith would have it, there isn't place for such righteousness in this world. It is not enough to put age rankings on the cover of a game; it must be also banned if it does not fit one's views.
It is hilarious. I received my education from my parents, never from the games I played or the books I read. And this is true for all gamers. Parents were the supreme authority of my life. And if I was bound to be mean with others, only my father could have this undone. If there is anything to be blamed for what is going on in a child's mind, games are at the end of the least. From what I remember, none of my school colleagues were gamers, not even one. But this didn't prevent them from being incredibly mean with each other. I will forever remember their vindictive spirits as an example of human foolishness and frustration. Poor, unhappy lads! It is clear as daylight how much they needed a good ol' computer and a - let's say - good ol' fashioned Splinter Cell. It would have rocked their day.
I wouldn't have been so annoyed with game censorship if I had not met the same people gathering in both the conventions for free speech and those against violence in computer games. Why not fight against sport related injuries? Let's ban K1, American football and soccer. Let's ban all sports! They are hazardous to juvenile minds: all those broken limbs and bleeding noses! The pain, the horror!
I have a better idea. Why not send parents back in school to learn raise their offspring? And maybe they won't have to hunt down developers that have maniacal passion for corrupting young minds.
Censorship has nothing to do with totalitarian political regimes; it is the consequence of poor education passed from generation to generation. The mechanic is as we all learn it from school. When a teacher fails to make himself understood, he starts throwing out his frustration on his pupils, blaming them for being stupid. This is the nature's way: the young must be ignorant, otherwise the old would find impossible to further pass on his wisdom.
There is nothing to worry about. Broken trees won't change the forest. Their own frustration of not being tall enough brought them down. And no one sees or listens to them now. They are like dust; they come and go with the wind. Let them ban all the games in the world. At least they have something to do. This way they won't bother us with their obtuse philosophies of life, and we will have more time to culture ourselves and become something better, men that will know to better raise their young and offer them a better future than ours was.