Matthew Lesslie
Pre-AP English II
Mrs. O’Neal
17 November 2010
 Don’t Ban Video Games
    In today’s world, certain law-making bodies have deemed it necessary to censor or even down-right ban video game retail and consumer consumption. This can’t happen, and it won’t. Nor should it even be conceived due to video games ability to calm the nerves, excite the senses, and even allow physically disabled persons the ability to become anyone they want, be it a space marine, as in “Halo”, or a covert Black Operations personnel as in the newly released “Call of Duty:  Black Ops”. Now, these all are all intentionally artificially violent games that present multiple opportunities to maim or damage something/someone, but that doesn’t mean the user is harming another individual, nor does it mean that the user intends to. The gaming industry as a whole isn’t violent by any means. The overall perception of the industry suffers from the public’s need to attract attention to the seemingly bad in the world. Let’s look at the history of the video game.
Throughout the years, there have been many mediums that convey messages or provide for an outlet of entertainment, e.g. language, paintings, books, etc. Most, if not all of these mediums, have had a time or period in which they received a lot of criticism for their open usage. However, all of these mediums whether in whole or in part have escaped that crucial moment in their history either entirely or most entirely unscathed.
    Now take video games, a recent technology first pioneered in 1947 with the invention of what was known as the “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device”, which included a single game, a missile simulator. So you may be thinking that from the very beginning that the video game industry was made to train kids to be violent and militant. However, in thinking this you’d be neglecting such instant classics as “Tennis for Two”, “Pong”, and even the Soviet–made “Tetris”. None of these games were intended for violence, rather, they tested mental agility and one’s ability to defeat an artificial intelligence or even his human opponent in some cases. This isn’t a violent thing, it’s merely a test of one person’s ability to excell at a game, and best his fellow man or a artificial enemy.
The legislation being put forward recently seems to have no logical basis, minus being backed by multiple reputable lawmakers.