With a column like Very British Gamer, which as the title suggests represents a very specific theme, it can sometimes take some extra effort to find material to ramble about each week. On the other hand there’s the UK government, an always reliable source of imprudence relating to video game issues, and this week’s subject practically fell into my inbox, neatly packaged with a prominent stamp displaying “with kind regards, your friends at the Dept. of Health”.

Underneath the pristine wrapping paper is quite a gift; the UK government have explicitly linked video games with early death. “Explicitly” may sound like a bold word to use, but that’s how British games industry website MCV described it, and they’ve been leading the charge against the new Government health campaign in question, Change4Life. The campaign promotes healthier eating and more exercise to promoter longer life, which seems harmless enough until you see that what specifically annoyed MCV was a recently released poster depicting a boy reclining with a game controller in his hands – one that looks suspiciously like a PlayStation 3 Dualshock – all underneath the headline of “RISK AN EARLY DEATH, JUST DO NOTHING”. On reflection after viewing the poster, “explicitly” may be inaccurate, but you can certainly understand MCV Associate Editor Tim Ingham’s magnificently impassioned response:

"Change4Life’s advertising campaign makes a mockery of everything the industry has achieved in the last decade. And it’s bang out of order... when Change4Life then attacks our supposed role in the DEATH OF KIDS by pedalling an image of a low-lit nightmare you’d usually associate with the NSPCC, surely it’s the time for us to stand up as an industry and say: “That’s not fair”? Let’s be very clear, because this gets sensitive: Sticking up for video games’ achievements in the face of shrieking propaganda does not show us up as a negligent supporter of obesity in kids. It shows we’ve remembered where our bollocks are – at a time when the Government’s foot is wedged firmly between them."

Stop holding back Tim and tell us what you really think. So, Ingham’s rallying cry has been successful in lining up some supporters, with big names like Sony, Sega, Atari, and Konami all putting their weight behind MCV’s cause – or at least, for now, voicing that they’re on MCV’s side. That hardly surprising in Sony’s case given that the PS3 is having a hard enough time shifting off shelves in the UK without being singled out so carelessly in this campaign. Seriously, why didn’t they just put a “Caution: Toxic” sticker on every box of LittleBigPlanet?