Activision crossed the line

I was having a relatively nice, quiet afternoon that is, until I witnessed one of the games advertised on television actually defacing the Viet Nam War Memorial and then things began to go downhill from there.

My nephews are both gamers, one more so than the other. The one has every gaming platform ever released and if any of his friends needs advice on how to beat something or someone, our phones are ringing off the hook.

Now that I have established the fact of one of them living, eating and breathing gaming, I can get to the meat of the topic.

One of the television channels often blaring in my home is called, Xplay, which can be found on the cable channel, G4TV. When it is on, the Xplay anchors review each new game, which has been released. Their opinions are always honest and direct. One cannot help but respect someone as that, even if it is just a small amount.

The game is Tony Hawks, Project 8, by a company named, Activision. The screen shows a skater, operated by the player of the game; the skater is going up and down just about any and every building imaginable. I was watching the screen for something to do, as I was bored out of my mind at the time.

Then the screen changed, in one of the scenes, or levels, the skater began skating up and down and across the Viet Nam War memorial and I not only came out of my boredom, I began screaming at the television in the vain hope that the company would hear me.

Before anyone says I am nuts, yes, I agree it is just a game and gravity dictates the task of skating up, down, over and across the memorial an impossibility. The fact remains that Activision has created a game for our children that teaches them defacing something that has become a sacred memorial to many of us is a common every day occurrence. Not only common, but, showing them it is a pretty cool to do when skating. Why not set a ramp up and drive your car up and down it while we are at it or have Evil jump his Harley over the top, scratches, all the better, Tony Hawks said it was cool.

I am still eating Tums and frantically searching for an old Prozac I had in the house. (Only joking to make a point) and I am about to come unglued over this. The strange comment to the whole thing was the fact my two nephews were not only taken back when they saw it, they were insulted. That in itself is validation for all my teaching.

I found the Activision site and the comment section and sent an email stating my displeasure and how much of an insult it was to watch. I am hoping others can do the same.

Click here, if anyone is interested in making a comment on this, it will take you to the contact section of Activation.

Click here, If you wish to go the full Activision, site itself and see if you can find anything about the game.