With the release of Ninja Assassin, we are delivered a dose of awesome ninja badassary(i just made that word up right now, roll with it) that quenches the thirst of every action movie fan out there. I mean really, How could you not like this movie? The main character, Raizo, uses two blades attached to a chain and swings them around slicing other ninjas up who betrayed him (Kratos with ninjas?). Amazing.

On another plane of existence but within the same month, us video game players got a helping dose of extreme military simulated violence in the form of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. No chains with blades swinging around here, but just as much dismembering and realistic killing as Ninja Assassin. So why the hell has Call of Duty been all over the media, slated as a “terrorist simulator” and calling for its ban, while not one soul has raised even a syllable against Ninja Assassin?

The battle against violent video games has been waged for ages. Even before there was Grand Theft Auto, many media agencies and organizations have took a firm stance against violence in video games. That last part, in video games, is extremely important. When was the last time you read an article on how a movie is “too graphic” or “too violent” and some organization was pushing for its ban? Never. The big reason this happens is not the excuse these people give(”video games are interactive”), but really when it comes down to it, our medium is not respected in general. To cast out a form of art just because of how young it is, or based on some examples that do not represent the medium well is pretty crazy if you ask me. Just because there are porn movies, or really bad B rated films, does that make thought provoking classics like Fight Club or Taxi Driver any less important? Do we automatically judge these films because they are on the same medium as those disgusting displays of the medium? No, we don’t, because our society does not judge a movie based on the fact that its a movie, but instead what genre or category that movie falls into. Films like Fight Club or say, Pulp Fiction, have just as much political and social questions laced inside them as many video games, as well as being extremely violent. If some person came up to a movie affieciendo and said “Fight Club is all about guys fighting each other in a basement,” that person would laugh at them and tell them how they missed the entire themeatic purpose of the movie because they were focusing on the elements that drove the commentary. Why is this not the same with video games?

I don’t want to get to detailed into why this is, or the history behind why this occurs at this moment, because as gamers you have all argued the same exact topic with more people you can now remember. In the end, we need to continue to stick up for our artform, not just because we have a blast blowing each other up on Xbox Live, but because art should never be censored no matter what way it is delivered. Anything can become art as long as it allows our minds to expand and take in new ideas, or give us a new way of looking at the world or ourselves. Us gamers are in a battle much bigger than ourselves, a war were in against mainstream society that we are unfortunately losing.

So this is a warcry. An exclamation to every gamer out there who must defend themselves and their love against the wild world that keeps trying to push them down. Never give up, never surrender, and never let anyone tell you that “games are just for kids.” We will win. We will conquer. We will play.

One word of advice, if anyone mentions this game, just deny its existence. Tell them the internet lies. Trust me, even politicians use this strategy. It works!