The Byron Review has generated a lot of controversy over the past several days as several media outlets across the United Kingdom (or ‘England’, if you prefer) have twisted and misrepresented the report to further the ‘video games = death’ argument. The report itself says, in short (very short), that the biggest threat video games post is from online access to potentially dangerous people.

In short, video games are about as dangerous as MySpace.

However, this has not stopped many UK publications from calling for the industry to be burned at the stake, and now Kotaku has discovered that “Star Now“, the UK job posting site for actors and the like, has a job posting that calls for…

A national newspaper wants your story and will pay hundreds of pounds to the right person.

Write a few lines about how computer games turned you to crime and if it’s something we like, we’ll call you straight back.

Payment details: paid role

So a national British newspaper wants actors to act like video games have turned them to a life of crime? …okay. I took a semester of theatre in college. I’ll give this a go.

“I used to play video games. It started with games like Barbie’s Horse Adventure, and Mary Kate & Ashley: Sweet Sixteen. Next thing I know I’m shooting heroin and beating up homeless people! Feds finally busted me when I was strung out on Meth, jumping on snapping turtles in the Detroit Zoo.”

Come on, everyone! Give it a try. It’s actually kind of fun to see what kind of bogus story you can pull out of your ass.

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