More PR Struggle for Games Industry... also, btw, RE5 comes out tomorrow.

In a bout of responsible advertising, a British ad depicting a child holding a video game controller with the giant text "RISK AN EARLY DEATH, JUST DO NOTHING" was released by the Change4Life campaign.

The ad is one of many, both in print and other media, released by the group, including an television ad showing a child playing video games and getting fatter over the course of the ad.

According to a cnet article on the media blitz, major companies have said nothing on ad-attacks. Whether this means that they are not threatened, have not otherwise been affected, or simply agree with the ads is left unsaid.

The column also points out other attacks made against the games industry with little complaint from them.

This, of course, at a time when gaming is hitting its largest and widest audience in history thanks to the likes of non-gamers taking part in the gaming world (woo who, Wii and Brain Age). But Don Reisinger raises a great point, when will the video game industry start fighting back? Countless studies (JUST CHECK THIS BLOG ROFFLECOPTERS) show that video games aren't all bad news and obviously anything taken to excess will have a detrimental effect. Why should a mud-slinging campaign be allowed to fly when all it does is show the extreme (and not even an accurate portrayal of the extreme side of things, thanks MMORPGS) effects of prolonged, uninterrupted video game use? Why this when there are so many more harmful first-party pressures that can have detrimental effects on a child's life, do we need to first cast blame at what may even serve as an escape from these problems?

Also, in case you're still reading, Resident Evil 5 comes out tomorrow. I won't have a copy because I didn't pre-order the game, but I hope reviews point in either direction for quality- either that it's over the top awesome or a simple rehash of RE4 but in Africa and now you have some spicy ethnic chick as your partner. I'd hope for the former, as this past year and some months have suffered deeply from "Rehashing or Poor-quality Sequel-itis."