Yes, checking ID for an M rated game is a good thing; it’s self-regulatory and as such keeps the government at bay. Scanning the driver’s license was what angered me. I’ve never had to scan my driver’s license to purchase liquor or an R rated movie. That, and the way the woman treated poor God of War Guy, as though he were buying horse porn, was unacceptable. And the whole ’state law in Arizona’ thing. The sum total of the situation was enough to rile me up.

We’re not talking about booze here. There’s just no reason to hassle a guy who’s obviously over 18. There are no liquor licenses for games, no state-imposed fines for retailers who sell to minors. Just as a movie theater can sell R or NC-17 tickets to ten year olds all day long and face no government censure, games ratings should be industry-enforced. As a means to the end, keeping the government from regulating games, checking ID for M rated games is a good thing. But, hey, Target, your employees are hassling your game-buying customers, and so are you. Who scans IDs? Ridiculous.

To complicate my point and this debate, anyone who seriously thinks that play violence, even graphic video game violence, is genuinely negative for children should read Gerard Jones’ “Killing Monsters.” He has three great points:

1. Children seek out violent entertainment because it is empowering for them and because it is the way they deal with stress.

2. Adults do not interpret media the same way children do; we’re much too literal and so are not properly equipped to interpret what stuff actually means to our children. We would do well to remember that and to not interpret media literally, but as a child does. You know, before totally freaking out.

3. The entertainment your child chooses is an extremely important piece of parenting information – remember, children choose what helps them cope, what helps them develop, and what they like. Respect your children’s choices, learn from them. Allow your children to have heroes.

The book hits very close to home: violent stories, films, and games were my primary stress-coping mechanism as a child. I read Tolkien, Dragon Lance, Clavell, and Wolverine, watched “The Crow” and “Aliens”, and listened to ridiculous death and black metal. I needed these things as a release, a respite, to feel strong and calm at times when my life was, to be blunt, categorically miserable. Of course, I now find a great deal of humor in the things I was into as a child, but that doesn’t reduce the power with which they affected and supported me.

So often, we as game developers and aged gamers lament the constant flow of shallow power fantasies from our beloved industry. How many of us, though, are here today doing what we do because those fantasies empowered us as children. I have to be uncomfortably honest and say that, yes, power fantasy is what led me to want to create games. I’ve grown up, I’ve changed, I now yearn for more sophisticated games to cater to my grown-up tastes, but there’s simply no denying that I am who I am today because violent, shallow, power fantasy games gave me solace and comfort in my times of need.

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