What is a computer game? Apparently it's a malicious form of brainwashing, forcing innocent individuals to do harm to others in the real world. At least, this is what some rather ignorant parents seem to believe.

If infact the above was true then surely we'd all be out committing crimes, bludgeoning our victims to death for our quick fix of violence. As a gamer for over seven years, at time of writing, surely I'd be on a killing spree by now, mind warped by the likes of Gordon Freeman and his blood tainted crowbar.

It is unfortunate that a minority always seems to attract more attention than a majority. Hundreds of thousands of gamers play online, beating opponents to death with blunt weapons, blasting giant holes into the bodies of enemies around them as they run through pools of blood, limbs and bodily remains of their previous victims. This gore fest is a daily activity partaken by males and females of various ages yet they rejoin the real world, undisturbed and as "normal" as any "normal" person can be.

So how is it that computer games have this reputation for corrupting the fragile mind of the average human being? It's because every now and then some twisted, disturbed individual picks up a copy of a popular first person shooter and forms the opinion that the old lady outside his house is a Fade from Natural Selection and needs to be eliminated.

After said crime what better than for the individual, the parent or the barrister to point at a defenseless peice of software and say "there's your culprit!". It's quite a pathetic thing, to witness such a method of defense being used in the courts when you have 200,000 people on IRC all saying "but I play games and I don't kill people ..".

I personally believe that the two main elements responsible for the ridiculously absurd reputation that gaming seems to be getting is the media and the parents.

The parents obviously can't accept that their innocent offspring could commit such an act, therefore they look for a source to blame. While gaming is only a form of entertainment much like music or television it does offer a large dose of violence which makes it the perfect scapegoat for anyone desperate.

Yes, games do have an influence as do many other things in life but they do not and never will remove free will. You will always have choice. It is the individual who commited the crime, not Sonic the Hedgehog. If the individual is weak minded enough to commit a crime because of the influence of a game then this person is a hazard in everyday life and needs specialist attention. The parents need to understand and accept this fact.

As for the media, well you all know the saying "there's no news like bad news". A lot of good things have come from online gaming, things like charity events and social events but it's rare to see these happenings in the news as they offer little interest to the public. So instead we get to hear stories about the emotionally disturbed, committing crazed acts related to games then devoiding themselves of all responsibility by pointing the finger.

If this isn't bad enough then we have the aftermath, mindless morons discussing the story without doing any proper research. These people feel the need to comment on something they know absolutely nothing about, unaware that every time they speak to someone about it they influence that persons opinion causing even more damage to an innocent entertainment's reputation.

I hope that the law continues to understand that every individual is responsible for their own actions. Choice will always exist and will always play a bigger role than influence. If someone doesn't have the mental capability to know right and wrong, virtual and real and the ability control their actions then they need help.

Passing the buck isn't going to help anybody.