Subliminal Messages in Video Games

I love gaming. PC games, arcade games, console games, card games- I really just love to play. I play Xbox 360 the most, and my absolute favorite game right now is Battlefield: Bad Company 2. It's a great game with all the features I love in a first person shooter (FPS). However, I'm an adult, and I understand that it's just a game. Kids are different. A lot of the kids I know take these games very seriously. That's why their minds are ripe for exploitation by the powers that be. Messages in video games that are played for hours at a time, are sure to influence the player. And, my friends, after finally hearing it one day, I can tell you that there are subliminal messages in video games.

Take Battlefield: Bad Company 2. If you have the game, you know that, when you fly the UAV, and at some other points in the game, there is radio chatter in the background. I fly the UAV a lot. So I hear this chatter all the time, and never really paid attention, until one day I heard the word "school". I wondered about it just a little, but for me, it was enough to make me pay attention. I soon heard the following message:

"Engage the white school truck."

I had to listen a few times, throughout several gaming sessions, to make sure that this is really what was said. Now, when I was a kid, I know I would have enjoyed the thought of blowing up a school bus! So I wonder what other children who are exposed to this message think? Probably exactly what the powers want them to: "Hey, I want to be a soldier!"

"If you take out a bad guy I'll get you ice cream for dinner."

Yep, that's right. That one was much easier to identify after I started paying attention. There is really no need to explain the message in that one! Kids, it's good to kill 'bad guys' (whoever your leaders tell you they are), and to do so makes you worthy of sweet treats! Please, EA, tell me that this is not something you deliberately do with video games. Please tell me it was just some sociopathic, genius programmer who just happens to be an expert propagandist and who was just messing around.

Parents, I strongly advise you to monitor the games your children play. Even those that are rated E, can have harmful subliminal messages in them. Listen to what is going on in the background, if you can, and make sure you teach your children that while shooter games can be fun, they are just games, and the same behavior in real life is immature, sociopathic and dangerous to a healthy society.