"... To date, violent video games have not been studied as extensively as violent TV shows or movies. The number of studies investigating the impact of such games on youth aggression is small, there have been none on serious violence, and none has been longitudinal."

With that said, the report noted that recent "meta-analysis" of these studies found that "the overall effect size for both randomized and correlation studies was small for physical aggression and moderate for aggressive thinking."

Video game controversies tend to fall into three main areas: (1) games deemed so violent or controversial that governments and legal bodies intervene like Major Offenders; (2) games controversial enough to make retailers respond by pulling products off of store shelves like Retail Rogues; and (3) games that solicit grassroots uprisings, such as insider Web melee among groups that feel somehow maligned by a game’s message or mission but do not truly hinder a game’s success such as Peaceful Protest.

There are plenty of games that are worth noting that do not fall into these categories; you’ll find those in games like:

* Smash TV - This side-scrolling fighter is yet another game that harks back to The Running Man-style media-frenzy violence and competition set in a sci-fi future, 1999, that actually isn’t the future anymore. Two competitors fought an onslaught of enemies to the death. Then, the final battle involved the game show’s host, again, à la The Running Man.

It had a simple premise and a fair amount of gore. By the time this game hit the home consoles, people were watching and noted the graphic violence. But little was done to keep the game out of US stores.

* Microsoft Flight Stimulator - Just three days after September 11, 2001, CNN reported that Microsoft said it would "remove images of the World Trade Center from the upcoming version of its popular PC game, ‘Flight Simulator,’ following the terrorist attacks Tuesday on that landmark, the Pentagon and another attempt that failed in Pennsylvania, which resulted in thousands of deaths." The game’s introduction included a player commenting on the possibility of crashing into the Empire State Building and how "cool" that would be.

The simulation included scenarios where players could fly over New York, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

* Command and Conquer – The Command & Conquer strategy series first launched on the PC in 1995. Aside from a couple of forays onto consoles, it has stayed true to the PC ever since. In C&C Red Alert, time travel set up the story: an assassin traveled back in time and killed Hitler before his rise to power, stopping Nazi Germany before it started. But Stalin filled his shoes, putting a Soviet-vs.-Allied-force war into your hands--and you chose which side you played.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 shipped in October 2000, but only after September 11, 2001 did the game step into the ranks of the mischievous.

On September 14, 2001, EA announced that the C&C Red Alert 2 box art would be changed so that it would no longer reflect scenes of well-known American monuments in the heat of war.

More than anywhere else, it is in the U.S where there seems to be a full scale war being waged to remove such games from the market place.

But what about role-playing war games that simulate real-life war fare? Along this vein, Paintball and Airsoft come to mind.

Paintball and Airsoft have given hordes of people a chance to play out their combat fantasies. If you have ever dreamed of hiding in the brush and stalking your human prey in Rambo-type situations, then Airsoft may just be the game for you.

Airsoft players, much like paintball players, are broken into teams and then sent out into wooded terrain to try and eliminate the players on the other team or teams. The guns used in Airsoft look and react surprisingly like real automatic weapons. The authentic look and feel of the guns can make for a superior role playing situation.

While the guns shoot small gel-like paint filled capsules in regular paintball play, in Airsoft, the guns shoot small plastic like pellets called ballistic bullets or "BBs." As in paintball team play, protective gear is required, especially for the eyes.