Greg Costikyan

About the author: Greg Costikyan is a game designer currently with Unplugged Games. He also writes frequently about gaming and is the author of four novels.

Violence is a prominent theme in video games, and some games have depicted violence in crude and ugly ways. But in the majority of cases violence is only part of a game's appeal. The firstperson shooter games that do center around violence actually benefit society because they give young males a way to vent their antisocial impulses without harming anyone. The outcry against violent video games is reminiscent of past panics over comic books, rock music, and role-playing games. All these attacks on youth culture have had little justification in reality.

About 10 years ago, I had drinks with Frank Chadwick, then president of a...