I read an interesting article today in Wired, called "The Bad Lieutenant," written by Clive Thompson. It raises some interesting questions but has some problems that bother me.

In Doom, the game that began it all, you were a Marine. Then came a ceaseless parade of patriotic, heart-in-hand World War II games, in which you merrily blow the skulls off Japanese and German soldiers under the explicit authority of the U.S. of A. Yet anti-gaming critics didn't really explode with indignation until Grand Theft Auto 3 came along

First of all, Doom was very controversial. It was blamed by the media for the shooting at Columbine. It was controversial enough to draw the attention of lawmakers. Grand Theft Auto has received a similar amount of criticism from the same people, but the assertion that the criticism of GTA was an "explosion" next to Doom is overreaching.

Furthermore ... Doom was released in 1993. GTA 3 was released in 2001. The WWII video game craze didn't really hit until well after GTA, with Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty and many others coming out in 2003 and 2004.

Why weren't these detractors equally up in arms about, say, the Rainbow Six series? Because games lay bare the conservative logic that governs brutal acts. Violence -- even horrible, war-crimes-level stuff -- is perfectly fine as long as you commit it under the aegis of the state.

This is typical of a lot of stuff I've been reading lately. The "why is it ok for a soldier to shoot a terrorist, but it's not OK for a criminal to deliberately shoot an innocent person who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?" I think if you are curious about that question, this isn't a good blog for you.

I'm not a fan of questioning common sense or questioning authority. Not that they are always right, but they typically are. It's better to tweak them where they need fixing and then leave well enough alone.

The irony is that, in reality, New York's actual police have moved in the opposite direction. They've become more successful at keeping the peace by being less bloodthirsty.

The success of the NYPD in recent years is usually attributed to the Broken Windows and Zero Tolerance policies that former Mayor Rudy Guiliani pushed. I don't think either of those policies have much to do with levels of bloodthirstiness.