In the world of video games and music, one piece of news is getting a lot of attention. During this past week a feud between Courtney love and Activision has been becoming more intense. Love is disgusted by Activision’s use of Kurt Cobain’s image in Guitar Hero 5. Cobain is an unlockable character in the game; this lets players use Cobain for any song they choose. Love is now threatening legal action against Activision in order to compensate for the ill use of Cobain’s likeness.

This scuffle brings to light a bigger trend in video games in general. The level of realism in games is constantly on the rise. I believe that in the future more and more events like this are going to occur. Because games are becoming more and more lifelike, it’s becoming easier to identify games with real life. I can easily see how love and fans of Cobain could feel ire against Activision for their use of Cobain’s image but, I think there is a bigger issue to consider.

Since the use of a real person’s image in a game is causing such a stir, why doesn’t the deluge of first person shooters cause such a commotion? In theory the same kind of shenanigans are taking place. The myriad of shooters are trivializing the grim nature of war and turning it into a game. The mass audience has no problem taking all of these things as mindless entertainment. I’m wondering why everyone is getting into such a rage about the use of Cobain in Guitar Hero when there are more troubling trends taking place. While Cobain’s appearance might be tampering with musical continuity, the top tier holiday games are trivializing life and death. Surely there is some priority over the latter, or at least I hope there is.

This story has been a great piece of sensationalism but it leads me to consider a bigger, darker trend in gaming. I’m completely dumbfounded as to how this double standard can exist without the general gaming audience knowing.