Kids have been playing war games for years. Pre computer games it was cowboys and indians or some such thing. Just because they like to blow stuff up and shoot things in games (yes, it is cool to blow stuff up) it doesn't mean that they think it's okay to do it in real life
Julia
I think it's kind of different when you bring religion or ideology into it.
The game supplies metaphors to people young and old that can serve to indoctrinate them even when they are not with their religious/church/youth group leaders.
It could be Christianity, or it could be fighting for Osama Bin Laden against the West, or it could be fighting for democracy against Osama Bin Laden and like-minded people/groups/entities. ie. assassinating agents in Iran, North Korea, getting involved in conspiracies in those countries to push a regime change, plotting to overthrow the People's Republic of China, etc. In the latter case it increases Western arrogance and self-righteousness toward controversial regimes and de-emphasises, as a priority, the need for cultural understanding of the people living under that regime.
Life, of course, is a battle, against internal and external dragons and demons. That is a crucial element in Christianity, which must be seen in context. The problem begins when we start creating imaginary adversaries, "adversaries" that wish us no harm, but because of the conspiracy in which we believe, we label them as enemies.
Christian youths, or weak-minded Christian adults may be taught, by their church, a reality that certain elements in our society are the dragons and demons that they must fight. If a video game promotes the same metaphorical ideology and the dragons and demons in the game are the same dragons and demons labelled as such by the ideology the church teaches, then the result may be anti-social behaviour where the game promotes militant fundamentalism. It may not result in murder, but there may be anti-social consequences.
As a comment on the situation in Iraq, democracy in this case has been poorly marketed and promoted in the sense that one believes that the only way democracy can emerge in any country is by brute-force. It is where, by a hostile takeover, you effect a regime change and construct a democracy on someone else's soil. You build the machine. The customer didn't want the machine, but you forced him to buy it.
That, I believe, violates the whole point of a democracy, which is to let political reforms happen naturally. I think there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg dilemma here. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? What created the democracy? While there would, of course, have been some great philosopher or politician who suddenly said, "Hey guys, we need a democracy," many democracies in history have been founded in an environment that wasn't democracy. ie. Democracies are not founded in a democratic environment. We saw that in South Korea and the Republic of China, which transitioned, spontaneously, to more democratic systems in the last few decades. They weren't invaded by the U.S. (well, of course, the U.S. was their ally which was why). The Western European nation states have had a long history of repressive regimes. Somehow they discovered democracy and made it happen. I think the main problem is demonisation of people who don't subscribe to your/our way of thinking. A country may have a repressive regime, but I believe there is still quite a lot of humanity in its people.
Video games can play an important role in politics and ideology where even after you are no longer in the presence and within ear-shot of a preacher or warmonger, you are still toying with the idea in your mind. Of course, I don't want to be vilifying and demonising such games, but ideology can be a very powerful thing. Video games can become part of a country or religious group's popular culture.
The video games will always be anti-social, even if you're not killing people. It's an "I'm better than you attitude." You're a dragon and I'm a saint. It is just offensive to non-Christians. Of course, Christianity in the West (where these video games are being marketed and promoted) exists in a democratic environment. But freedom of expression isn't necessarily the most important thing. What happened to manners and politeness? It may be uncomfortable to be oppressed and persecuted for expressing yourself, but equally uncomfortable when someone lords it over you that they're better than you because of what they believe.
Religion in video games? Not a good socialising influence. Bad for Christianity. It doesn't encourage Christians to be good socialising beings.
That is the rudeness of Bush's democracy and Christian video games with apocalyptic themes where you blow up (metaphorically and literally) dragons and demons.
