"If you’re worried about domestic militias creeping around in your back yard, playing Shadow Complex will take your fears, make them ridiculous, and purge them."

It seems a little odd to assume that playing a game that suggests conspirators against the U.S. exist would dispel conspiracy paranoia. As odd as it would be to assume that playing a modern warfare videogame that uses the current political terms like war on terror, involves Western military operations on foreign soil, and mostly ignores the concept of civilians does not encourage support for the governments operations. Some of the users commenting on this post seem to want a conspiracy theory, they should try the military entertainment complex.

The scariest thing about being brought up on war games, and spy/action films is that they justify military spending on weapons that we think are cool (mostly because we used them to kill some bad guys) operations in other countries (ever played conflict desert storm? a three word review: Iraq without Civilians) and teach us the most base level absolutist morality (the aforementioned bad guys)

This is why you won't catch me playing any game with modern warfare in its title, there's a conspiracy theory for you.

The mischaracterization here is that it's only 'tea-bagging', 'right-winging' 'nuts' that have it out for Mr. Obama - that this is somehow some great arbiter of change and peace.

It is a bit rich that Mr. Predator drone' 'teleprompter' president gets awarded a Nobel Peace Prize - what's even more rich is that the same left that previously abhorred Bush's wars now seem to love it when it's under a 'liberal' president - showing their true colours and how much stock they put into their own rhetoric, ie. none.

Lastly, I think these kind of editorials really do a disservice to the magazine. Never before in recent times have I seen such a heavy mixture of clearly biased politics seeping its way into Edge's editorial teams - it's almost as if these people are more caught up in partisan childish left versus right American politics than they are about videogames.

And yes, I called 'left' versus 'right' politics 'childlike' - it's all a mirage. They've put on this great show there in the US for over 50 years - the great Hegelian dialectic. I wager that getting caught up in these 'Oh the rightwingers are doing this - oh the liberals are doing that' is more childlike than playing Super Mario Bros 1. Because you could say: "Oh, playing Super Mario and getting him to Level 8-4 accomplishes nothing in real-life". Well, the same holds true for engaging in this type of debate - it's a nice distraction from going to the pub and sharing the latest 'download' you've seen on that oh-so-trustworthy thing called the 'mainstream media'.

The very same mainstream media that lied to you about the Iraq War and weapons of mass destruction.

The very same mainstream media that has military advisors and Pentagon money trickled into it at every avenue.

The very same mainstream media that fearmongered about this oh-so deadly swine flu and appears oh so eager to shove vaccines down people's throats that are very unsafe and are known to cause adverse side-effects. But I guess having big pharmaceutical companies like Baxter raking in billions of dollars from government contracts is the new economy - who cares if people die or get sick from badly tested vaccines with squalene as adjuvants in it?

See, this is the 'adult' stuff that editorials like this conveniently sidestep. No, it's not about Mr Obama - the little puppet who reads well off the teleprompter but is basically a total bad joke. No - it's not about Ms Palin signing an Xbox 360 that didn't get sold.

What it IS about - is that all these things that so-called CONSPIRACY theorists like Alex Jones talked about for years on end - that those things - were - well, guess what - actually TRUE. It's about the fact that all these 'conspiracy theories' like a 'world government' - are actually being declared right now and signed into law in the upcoming Copenhagen Treaty. It's that you're going to be paying a carbon tax. It's that more and more, the events that are playing themselves out seem to be ripped straight from the storyline of Deus Ex 1 - which is supposed to be 'pulp fiction' (recall the bit about everyone having to be vaccinated against some deadly flu after an economic collapse and terrorist attacks that brought down the Twin Towers and the Statue of Liberty - well, that last one hasn't happened yet..)

And the little quip about democracy - that has to be a joke, right? Remind me again when the last time was you had a say about the dozens of CCTV cameras going up anywhere. Remind me when you had a say in the spy satellites that the CIA put all over the world that you now know as Google Earth - and yes, if you google 'In-Q-Tel' on Wikipedia, you'll find out Google got their software from KeyHole, a CIA front company that managed the satellites. Give me a call when you get to exert something resembling a 'democratic process' at Northern Command. I can assure you they don't give a hoot if you get a license from the government to 'protest' in a certified free speech-zone.

Anyway, had to get that off my chest. Please, when I go to Edge, I want to take a breather from the bull that is 'politics' - especially when it's this type of editorialized, slanted, WWF-like left versus right blablabla hoopla.

And lastly - I see you were not above including 'race' into your polemic. Please - this has nothing to do with him having a non-puritan skin color. Besides, it's not as if the President is the guy calling the shots these days. I think you have some kind of deified impression of the post of the President - Obama and Bush don't really do more than give speeches written by speechwriters and read off a teleprompter and sign bills that were written carte blanche by the Council on Foreign Relations and other NGOs.

The only difference is - Bush messed up nearly every one of his speeches somewhere along the line, and basically looked like a buffoon. Obama fares a lot better, but when he gets asked a question that is not pre-screened or catches him off-guard, he's a stuttering inarticulate mess.

I'm not able to post much these days--splitting time between going back to school, & since October, political PR.

Yeah, the assault rifle thing gets pretty scary. It's weird to be setting up and have some hillbilly wandering around with an Ak or God-knows-what-else! I can't believe that he carries that around wherever he goes. During the Tea Part Riot, I saw an old guy, also with an assault rifle, yelling "Kill 'Em!, Kill 'Em!

I wonder what their point is. Seven hours with those people makes you rethink the interpretation of the second amendment. They can't be helping their cause.

I was originally going to comment that it's amazing more prominent libertarians, and for that matter Republicans, aren't bigger fans of videogames. Actually, even the religious right; all that Ban This Sick Filth schtick often comes from people who'd be more than happy gunning down unpatriotic types to save a ruined nation from the enemy within, like they already metaphorically feel they do. In general, the fantasies games allow (encourage?) are often a very good match with the kind of paranoid delusions extremists have about some kind of inevitable and imminent American Armageddon.

However, I'm now scared that, having posted this, someone's going to shoot me to prove how free I was. Particularly given some of the comments below. After all, people can argue all day about the right to bear arms. But the manner in which someone chooses to bear arms, and the idea that doing so is not only an appropriate way to make a point, but the best way to do so, is, well, less of a gray area. It's not about having a right as much as it is flaunting a weapon in a place that needs dialogue. Weapons and angry people aren't a very good mix, at least outside video games...

While we collectively have been criticizing Australia for its stubborness in giving violent videogames a classification, the rest of the world have been training up their populace to be urban geurrillas!

It is worrying, because I'm wondering how long it'll be before world governments start to get niggling thoughts that videogames, rather than being the pressure vents for people's angsts and darker fantasies, are actually training them up for civil war! Especially with games like the upcomming Modern Warfare 2.

It really wouldn't surprise me then that, at least in relation to videogames, there would be less to worry about with the lone teenager and his copy of Doom than with the middle-aged red-neck in a ghillie suit carrying a custom-made political gripe!