Barack Obama

Everyone wants a piece of Grand Theft Auto IV these days. And while we normally don't talk politics on this site - it's just so freakin' boring - this is something that's worth mentioning.

Leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama talked about GTAIV in a speech yesterday, and for once, it wasn't a Thompson-esque rant about how video games are killing our children. It was was a calm, steady, relatively informed set of statements that actually surprised us. For the first time, we saw a politician admit a game was designed specifically for adults - which GTAIV is, of course - and didn't immediately assume that games in general were evil. However, Obama did say he believed that kids would still get their hands on Rockstar's blockbuster (and he's right), and that games and entertainment are "raising our kids." (source, MCVUK, GamePolitics)

"I was just catching the news this morning about Grand Theft Auto, this video game, which is gonna break all records and make goo-gobs of money for whoever designed it. Now, this isn't intended for kids, although I promise you there are kids who are playing it, but these video games are raising our kids... Across the board, middle-class, upper-class, working-class kids, they're spending a huge amount of their time not on their studies, but on entertainment."

And so part of our job is going to have to be to inspire the entire country to say, 'How are we giving our kids a thirst for knowledge?' And turning off the TV set, and getting them to be engaged and interested, like their future really does matter on how well they do in school."

We're not promoting Obama and we're not saying everything he says is 100% accurate (far from it), but we have to agree completely with everything in those quotes. ...since when do gamers agree with politicians? What's the world coming to?