Play games and die!

A new Department of Health advert shows a child holding what appears to be a PlayStation 3 Sixaxis pad and bears the unequivocal warning “RISK AN EARLY DEATH. JUST DO NOTHING”. Shocked? You surely should be…

Further cementing the apparent link between videogames and a premature demise - i.e. yours! - the ad is backed by the heavyweight likes of The British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research and Diabetes UK. So there must be something in it, right?

Well, British society, if we’re to believe the scaremongering tabloid reports, stands on the verge of an obesity epidemic, with all the associated health risks bound therein. However, the last time we looked videogames were not to blame. At the very least not exclusively.

After all, the advert might have been more appropriate if it showed a family parked slack-jawed in front of the telly, as many millions are every night of the week - and have been doing long before games ever came to prominence. But that’s just not as emotive or sensational, is it?

Nope. Games, in spite of the great strides the industry has made to get its consumers, singing, dancing, exercising and flexing their grey matter, are an easy target, plain and simple. And now it appears playing them could lead to some properly life-threatening diseases!

The UK games industry has rallied to its own defence, with trade magazine MCV lodging an official complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, and Sony stating that they are considering legal action, but it remains to be seen whether it’ll change any deeper-held prejudices. Put another way, we doubt it’s the last time we’ll see games scapegoated like this.

Click here to see the ad on the government website.

That’s our tuppence worth, although you could say that we’re prejudiced too. But what’s your opinion - are games a key part of a very real problem or, with titles like Wii Fit and Brain Training enjoying massive success, a crucial component of a possible solution?