Whenever a conservative member of the mass media opens his mouth or picks up her pen to opine on video games, the collective gaming world cringes and holds its breath. It's not that we feel threatened by the inevitible stupidity of their opinions, it's just that we've seen how the uneducated, non-gaming audience receives these messages; which can best be described as rage bordering on panic. Who can forget the kerfuffle over blogger Kevin McCullough's comments about Mass Effect? You know, he's the guy who claimed, "Mass Effect can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes." Sure, he later retracted his bullshit lies statements, but not before Fox News picked up the story, and scared the daylights out of Middle America.

Today we get a whole new brand of stupid springing forth from the Right. In an article published on the American Spectator (which is described on its own website as being proud of a "history of providing meaningful experience to young conservatives") author Bill Croke blames video games for the illegal mass slaughter of animals. Take a gander at this:

"It's a sickeningly familiar story. Two moose shot and left to rot... Two yearling grizzly bears killed... An increasing wasted antelope body count... Senselessly murdered mule deer left on the ground... All this has nothing to do with the legal autumn hunting seasons... it's "thrill killing," as wildlife managers call it... It's actually a national problem.

According to studies extant, these wildlife atrocities are committed mostly by young men aged 15 to 22, the video game generation. Much has been written about the nihilistic violence that kids are exposed to when they play some of these games...

I think it might be an easy jump to get up from a computer game, go out and pull the trigger on an elk or a deer, and then walk away with a laugh. After all, it's only a game... Yet, I think our four-legged friends will get a break soon, as the video game-thrill killing trend graduates to a higher plane: human beings.

Video games are mindless, as are the parents who let their kids play them."

Maybe I've let my hunting license lapse for too long, but I'm not sure that I've heard this "sickeningly familiar story" before. First of all, far be it from me to point out that 15-22 is only the tip of the iceberg for the gaming demographic. That's not the real bone of contention I have here. Essentially, Mr. Croke is telling his readers that while his brand of hunting and killing innocent animals is noble, proud, and majestic, anyone who does it differently is both a criminal, and, most likely, a gamer. The idiocy required to believe that mindset is beyond my ability to comprehend. Not to mention the fact that Croke's level of disgust over the treatment of hunted animals doesn't seem to extend to the murder epidemic that is plaguing another species: human beings.

As stupid as all of this is, the coup de grace is the closer, "Video games are mindless, as are the parents who let their kids play them." Tell me what you think is more mindless: waiting around in a tree all day for a chance to shoot Bambi's mother in the head, or attempting to find all the puzzle pieces in Braid?

So here's to you, Bill Croke. You had a chance to bring your readers some truth and enlightenment, but you chose fear and close-mindedness. Someone may have just earned himself a Pwny nominee...

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