Sleep Tight -and- Violent Video Games

Sleep Tight - and don't let the bedbugs bite!

We have beautiful sunshine again today. It was cold this morning (49 degrees in the office at 8 AM), and there was frost on RAMMMMM's windshield, but the sun quickly raised the temperature. It was beautiful here all weekend.

I find the level of violence in today's video games very disturbing. I recall enjoying "Space Quest," "Leisure Suit Larry," "King's Quest," etc. There was a certain level of violence in these games, of course, yet it was not realistic and always promoted good over evil. Even truly violent games such as "Doom" allowed the player to represent a good force fighting evil. The moral was sound.

Much of today's video-game violence is disturbingly realistic. More disturbing is the glorification of the triumph of evil over good! The player often is put in the position of car thief, drug dealer, murderer, etc., and the player's score is advanced by how well he performs criminal acts. The moral is unsound.

There are greater limitations and restrictions placed upon the content of television programming than there are placed upon the content of video games. This is very disturbing, in particular given the age group of the market audience these games attract.