The Finnish research showing that playing on-line community games can be socially
constructive is a useful counterblast to the incessant anti-Internet whining
of the moral majority.
It's intuitively obvious to any objective observer that if interactive gaming
didn't play to the social strengths of the gamers then they wouldn't be interested
in the game; but that doesn't stop the nagging nellies from trying to impute
moral degeneracy to people who socialize with each other through the medium
of an electronic environment.
Actually their Greek chorus cannot be heard inside the gaming environment,
and has done nothing whatsoever to impede the amazing growth in the on-line
population and in the complexity and verisimilitude of the games they play.
The problem is that politicians and legislators - just about the last people
to play such games themselves - pay more attention to the antis than to the
statistical realities.
Perhaps it's time that game creators put together a virtual reality World of
Statecraft in which politicians can have affairs with their research assistants,
stab each other in the back, slither up and down the greasy pole, and generally
play the games they like - all without leaving the bosom of their family.
