Apologies for being MIA the last little while. I’ve been sick. Unfortunately, I was also bored because I called out of work for a couple days.

Some back story – and some gritty irony as you keep reading

The day before this past Thanksgiving, I was home and feeling ill. I left the house and drove less than a mile to Walmart. I got some feel-good-foods since I was sick and going to be spending this particular thanksgiving away from family. I wasn’t gone more than 45 minutes and in that time someone was able to break in to my house, steal my XBox 360 (non-elite version) and my 80GB iPod (while ignoring the cash, 48in HD TV, computer, and all the audio and studio equipment in the next room).

I’ve been plotting sweet revenge for some time now. Revenge in the form of… buying new equipment that’s better than what I had.

Was it an excuse to buy the cooler, upgraded versions?

Maybe.

Okay, yes.

Don’t judge me.

Back to Present Day

Me being bored is a bad thing usually. If it’s excessive boredness (i.e. home from work sick) I tend to buy new things to keep me entertained until I’m well. In this case, I could feel jealousy creeping up on me for my roommate who has been playing Grand Theft Auto IV on his PS3 for the last week or so. I dragged my heavily medicated self 25 miles away to the nearest Best Buy and procured my replacement XBOX 360 (this time of the Elite variety) and GTA IV (special edition).

What’s the moral of the story? There is no moral. I just wanted to tell you about it since we haven’t talked in a while.

Next Subject Please

Being that my purchase involved a game that is surrounded by quite a bit of controversy, I thought it necessary to discuss my thoughts on the matter. I can’t help but notice the progression of mature content in all entertainment medium over the past few years. First off, I do not agree with banning any work of art (face it, all forms of entertainment are also forms of art) for it’s content. I also believe that there is too much focus on how bad games/music/movies are and not enough focus on parenting and positive things. The media focuses on a small group of loud speaking people who are making a buzz about something, then turns around and makes a widespread mess of the situation saying “this [game/movie/music artist] is causing some major controversy” which just makes more people pay attention to it, which just causes more drama. Madness, I tell you! It’s a circle of pure madness!

For instance, I didn’t care at all about the game Bully that Jack Thompson made such a stir about until after he made a stir about it. There was so much talk about how evil this game was that I had to check it out for myself. I thought the game was entertaining and funny. To Mr. Thompson and those that follow his rationale, that makes me a propagator of evil when I wouldn’t have even played the game had they not made such a ruckus about it. I know several people that are like me and only play games because they’re fun. The “problem” is that those of us (yes, I included myself there) that play games like GTA and Bully find them fun instead of offensive. The question shouldn’t be about stopping entertainment like this from being made, rather, it should be about how to fix the societal issue that has made my generation find those things entertaining.

I blame the media and the government.

Of course, they are to blame for far more than entertainment controversy, no doubt. But I’m not here to slander the media for doing its job – and I’m not going to touch the government issue at all right now. The news is only going to report on the things that people feed on. The problem is, the sensationalist-hydra-beast is being fed by millions of people all over the world and it’s growing bigger and stronger every minute of every day. The problem is societal. Period, end of story. I personally think that the people taking these heroic stands against violent and sexual video games are just making the problem worse. These people are stirring up drama, people are feeding off of it and lash out at game/music/movie makers who get an enormous amount of press on the issue then capitalize on it and release more games/music/movies even “worse” than the last one.

I love violent video games. Not because of the violence though. They’re just fun. The stories are usually pretty interesting and the action is almost always energizing. I get the same enjoyment from a good racing game or fast-paced sports game of some type. I like a good story too. It just happens that action and a good story usually involves guns and killing people.

I guess I really don’t have much more to say about it without someone arguing with me. So… post a comment and let’s discuss even if you agree or disagree or just have something to say.

- john

ps: To bring more irony to the mix, all the talk about the evilness of games and such made this quite humorous to me.