When a child goes on a killing spree in urban America, it is undoubtedly always blamed on video games. Some kid shot 12 kids in his / her school, which means he / she's been playing Quake 3 and that's DEFINITELY the reason behind his / her actions. A kid kills his / her younger brother, which means he / she's been shooting too many Nazi's in Return to Castlewolfenstein. Finally, a kid is found with cannabis in his / her pocket? Shouldn't have been playing too much GTA3 then should they?

All bullshit of course, yet we, the people who know better can never tell it how it really is to the world. Why? Because these bloody tabloids and broadsheets have all the exposure to do that, and don't let the good answers get into their letters pages. If they report some kid massacre and blame it on games, the next few days will be bombarded with letters praising the newspaper, but none attacking it to prove there's no way games affect children in such a way. Of course, the newspaper will have done that so as to portray it in a good light.

I play a violent video game, it doesn't make me want to run around blowing other people up with pipe bombs and such. No, i play violent video games and come away with a positive feeling. I enjoyed my playing time with the game and am content with the time just spent. I don't see blood and let it affect me. It's a fact of life, we all have blood, limbs, guts, muscles, in our body and if we were to get injured drastically, we may have to see these aspects of our inner sanctum. So why is that we're allowed to see the real article but not a polygonal / pixellated reconstruction of violence? Sure, injuries are violence related. Violence doesn't have to be inflicted by another human. If I see someone get run over by accident and their arms go flying off, that to me is violent. It's of a violent nature. So why is that when we see it in a video game it's immediately slammed for being 'too' violent? We see it every day on TV, documentaries, film, but no, the video game industry gets the brunt of the blame. Does it make sense? Never will either.

Tell me that you can't play an hour of Quake 3 and feel fine at the end of it and i'll happily guide you to any psychiatrists i can find in the book. Because that's all these kinda people need; mental based treatment.

On a final note, when you see your child want to play a game labelled '18', don't instantly take the guise of 'Parent of the Year'. The child isn't interested in what violence / bad language is contained, they're more interested in how the game plays. You on the other hand may be the kind of parent who has only ever played 'Tetris' and therefore believes that a game with '18' labelled on it is instantly cause for concern, and would never dare let your child play such a game. Fine. Continue life like that, but your child will be at a serious disadvantage if they can't view the reality of life as early as possible.