NY Times has an article about drugs starting to appear in videogames. Read that first…

My initial reaction to these games was 100% negative but the more I think about it… I mean, they have a point that a ton of games have some kind of ‘power-up’ that enhances performance or whatever. Essentially those power-ups ARE drugs in that they have a short term impact on the body or the mind (and let’s face it, if they were real people would seek them out).

So in a way, I can see these games as forcing us to consider the kind of moral implications of using power-ups in games… and these power-ups have a downside, which also makes using them a strategic decision.

I still think games are becoming a bit too realistic for my personal tastes; I won’t play Narc, I don’t think. But I still support the right for developers to make these games; adult gamers should have access to adult games, if that’s the genre they choose.