Being a gamer I have read many stories saying how gaming is bad for you. Politicians and do-gooders seem to think it’s an easy target to get the uninformed masses in uproar and to receive the blame for all society’s ills.

To be honest, I’m fed up of it! Witness the recent outcry over Mass Effect where someone opened her mouth about a game she later admitted she knew nothing about. Gordon Brown has been reported saying he will be looking into the use of knives by characters in video games - there goes my Wood Elf in Oblivion!

There are programmes on TV that I will not let my children watch, yet I hear of other children (younger than mine) watching them despite the poisonous messages and crude supposed humor. The storylines of soaps make me cringe yet I don’t see any outcry over them.

So it was a nice change to read Sid Meier’s observations at the end of this interview from the BBC 

But most pertinently when asked why his games were addictive, he turned the question on its head.

“I’m more intrigued why people don’t play games: I think they are tonnes of fun and a great way to exercise your mind and do cool things you could never do in real life.”

Exactly. I play games to escape, to be someone I am not and never would be in real life, to experience other worlds and realities. Some people will be more susceptible to blurring the lines between reality and the game, but that can also happen with films, tv, music, art - if a person is wired that way then that is not the fault of the game or whatever.

If politicians want to have an opinion on games then they should at least have some experience of them first. So go on Gordon, have a shot at Oblivion or Bioshock or Resistance:Fall of Man. Truly immerse yourself in these fantasy worlds, frag some enemies, save some friends; then, and only then, will I take your opinions seriously as I know you are making an informed one.