Decatonkeil: It isn't like I (I don't know about Anita) am asking to ban or censor anything. But maybe we both are trying to act non-protective, unlike fanboys who seem to think that "videogames are a way of life, a religion, a nationality, something to protect from outsiders and their scrutiny".
JDelekto: Now tell us how you really feel. :)
In my humble opinion, games are just a distraction so we don't see the ultimate truth that lies ahead. The minute the light goes out, we'll be eaten by a grue.
How I really feel about what? I feel like I'm a flawed, somewhat biased human being, just like anyone else. I also feel like with such a media like videogames which are usually costly to make, we have become quite used to just seeing one side of the picture on a lot of problems. I am able to enjoy videogames, but I'm also a person with a political conscience. CoD may be a good series, may have good mechanics, but when I see Activision use people like Oliver North as PR to give a monologue on how America is threatened by the whole world, it makes me concerned that that particular cultural product is being sold to children and that we just accept gladly that a Hollywood kind of entertainment making is automatically harmless, exportable... I mean in one of the later instalments the plot goes like "a lot of South American nations form a coalition against the USA". And it's not just american children that are being told this hatemongering propaganda which guards no relation to reality, against these countries. The Hollywood model is exportable, this is being told to everyone. In the rare cases when you have a (japanese made) MGS: Peacewalker, everyone feels uncomfortable and asks: "Why does Kojima hate America?"
But I digressed for the entire paragraph: I don't politically agree with all videogames, they are just cultural expressions like any other. Some I just disagree, some I despise. The first group I'm able to enjoy, I'll cherry pick the parts I like about its message or make my own reading of it.