Ed West, an editor in the book publishing field, from Garden City, Michigan comments on the recent article spotlighting the top censored RPGs (see "The Top Censored RPGs").

It is with continued regret that I see the word censorship used in a negative way.  I was around when all of the games in question appeared.  I think parents have the right when they see something suspicious to react.  If a teenager sees a suspicious looking car in his neighborhood, how should he react?  If a parent sees the same car, should he say, "Oh, just ignore it and other cars you might see that are similar in the future."  I think not.

Naming a game Killer connotes what?  Fun and games?  The immediate connection are newspaper headlines like "Killer captured after police chase."  Just flipping through the original Dungeons and Dragons books and watching young people casting "spells" when, prior to this game, was not part of the average gaming experience, raised, I believe, the necessary alarm bells among concerned parents.  To this day, parents have a right and duty to monitor and restrict what their children watch and read.  Game books do not get a free pass.  And I'm tired of seeing the specious connection between "art" and what may or may not appear in a game book. A rtists and writers producing fiction are just people.  They and their work should not be admired or considered praiseworthy unless they pass a reasonable community standards review.

Let's not paint with a broad brush all of those parents who were concerned about those books while making it a point to shine a spotlight on the small number who went overboard.  It's the unreasonable people that get the spotlight--it makes for more exciting news copy.  I hope ICv2 is a bit more even-handed in the future and does not promote a knee-jerk reaction when using the word censorship.

The opinions expressed in this Talk Back are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.