Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

Military players of videogames create an interesting tension for government policy-makers. Anti-videogame congressional legislation is often designed to make expedient points with voters by making legislators on both sides of the aisle seem socially conservative and even somehow anti-crime. Yet videogames are a tool for recruitment, training, and morale maintenance within military culture itself, and thus game play is also state-sanctioned behavior. Recently, as Game Politics reports, there was even a photo opportunity in which President Bush played videogames with the wounded soldiers that he was visiting.

Now gamers have an opportunity to support the troops by arranging to send them popular videogames through a non-profit charity, Fun for Our Troops. Those critical of the "Military-Entertainment Complex" that believe first-person shooter games instrumentalize violence through the interface of the controller and screen may choose to do their holiday gift-giving elsewhere.