I am going to reveal one of my darkest secrets. In the 2000 election I almost wanted George Bush to win the presidency. Of course, as a lifelong Democrat I far preferred Al Gore's positions and personality, but as a somewhat immature 11-year-old I was a single issue voter. I was a committed video gamer and could not tolerate Joe Lieberman-one of the staunchest advocates of video game censorship and a constant condemner of the art form as a source of moral corruption-being one breath from the presidency.Even as national security, a misguided war and economic troubles removed video games from their position in the crosshairs of every sleazy politician looking to score points as pro-family, they continue to be the target of much ill informed invective and attack. Yet, even as Mitt Romney declared, "I want to restore values so children are protected from a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex and perversion," the budding format has continued to evolve in directions I could not even have imagined eight years ago.

To be fair to critics, some video games have become more senseless and violent over the past years. Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto and a slew of other series have seemed in competition for brutality and pointless gore. However, some games have also brought a sense of profound moral decision making along with this spur of violence. Games such as Bioshock offer the gamer decisions that touch the very nature of their humanity. In this game, one can choose to harvest small children for more power or rescue them, and each of these decisions has a crucial impact on your character's personality, interactions with others and the game's ending. Just as in the best films, games such as Shadow of the Colossus, or the Metal Gear Solid series create personal conflicts and force the gamer to think about the nature of his actions, goals and ambitions.

Perhaps because of the constant political assaults against them, video games have also come of age as a political medium. In the 2004 election, online games such as the Bush Game took stereotypical Bush-bashing into the realm of a side-scrolling action game and still managed to teach players more about the injustice of Bush's tax cuts than the mainstream media dared. Recently, Japanese environmental groups released a socially conscious whaling shoot-'em-up, Harpooned, that gamepolitics.com wrote "uses outrage to spread environmental message."

Right-wing and left-wing groups have both released games focusing on immigration. One from the left, The Maria Sisters emulated the original Mario Bros. game to show how immigrant workers are exploited by employers. Another good example, I Can End Immigration is a game currently in development. ICED puts you in the shoes of a high school graduate who also happens to have illegal status as you try to avoid immigration services and become a success. One nonpartisan game conceived by PBS puts you in the shoes of an Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector making difficult decisions about political asylum.

Even a world dilemma as intractable as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has had justice done in digital format. Peacemaker by Impact Games puts you in the shoes of the prime minister of either side of the Palestinian territories as you negotiate with world leaders and deal with radical sects constantly hoping to derail progress. This game in particular has received publicity in The New York Times and has been used by professors at Hebrew University to help analyze the peace-building process. It is distributed for free by the Peres Center throughout Israel and the Palestinian territories. If it is even somewhat possible that a video game could contribute to sustainable peace, then governments and other concerned bodies should quickly embrace the powerful format rather than condemn it.

Indeed, this process is beginning to some extent. The United Nations World Food Program released a very detailed, informative and fun online game titled Food Force to illustrate the difficulties that relief efforts face in Third World countries. This title illustrates challenges in identifying at-risk populations, properly balancing nutritional needs in food supplements and distributing aid to stranded refugees. Such games could help generate public awareness and build a consensus for stronger anti-poverty measures.

Of course, just like any medium, video games hold the potential to become a propaganda tool. The creation of the cartoonish and terribly un-lifelike America's Army for use of recruitment has probably given many high school students a distorted perception of the horrors of military service. Yet, because video games have the potential to create immersive and interactive experiences, they can also move and inform in a way that even the best film cannot. If we can get over our simple caricature of an industry, we can begin to uncover new potential uses for this digital medium.