galfridus

So, I’m headed out to Best Buy after work and listening to WDET (the local NPR affiliate) and I learn of a petition drive by folks in Michigan being supported by some very special Democrats in the state house.

The woman they interviewed (whose name I will not type here — I refuse to think that she’s a state representative) seems to have this misguided idea (much like her predecessor, whom I worked with on three campaigns before I realized what a loss he is) that videogames are somehow eroding the minds of our youth. Their latest target? The gangsta-wannabe 25 to Life, a game that Electronic Gaming Monthly wouldn’t even give a full review to and essentially said that it plays poorly and its plot sounds like to two 14-year-old white boys from the suburbs wrote it.

Now, I’m not saying that a game that gives you points for killing cops is good… but why are people giving a crappy game a reason to be bought? Year after year, the top 10 games of the year are always fairly decent games. Yes, Grand Theft Auto makes its way in there (and I own all three of the most recent ones and still play them from time-to-time — they are truly good games), but so does Pokemon and Madden. The Nintendo DS has outsold the Sony PlayStation Portable because it has damn fine games — like Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, and Meteos. Those are the sorts of games that all gamers, of all ages, like to play.

25 to Life, as sad as it might be, is going to pass and would have passed quietly if it weren’t for inane petitions and resolutions.

When will politicians learn? Take it from someone who has won all of the campaigns he’s ever worked on: Pandering for votes is demeaning to the voter and it makes you look like an ass. And no one — not me, not James Carville — can make an ass look good against anything other than a larger ass.