Video Violence Boring

The Washington Post has front page article on an allegedly new trend in video games–awarding points for moral player behavior. Violence has become so passe that the designers of Postal are thinking of a new version in which the "Dude" can choose to behave himself so well that he runs for president.

The article is an interesting contrast to the usual storyline in which video game violence leads to youth violence. Just a reminder–as the video game industry has grown to a $7.3 billion per year industry, the teen murder, suicide and physical fighting rates have been plummeting. Teen birth rates have dropped steeply too.

Perhaps video games are so distracting our youths that they don't have time to be either lovers or fighters? But for our national scolds, every silver lining must come with a dark cloud; in this case, instead of fighting, murdering or fornicating, America's youth are becoming fatsos. If video games don't cause violence, they must cause avoirdupois. It can't be much longer before perennial self-promoting moralizer, John Banzhaf, sues the video game companies in his war against obesity.