Killing Washington is part of new video game

The advertisement for the game reads: “Driven by the desire to secure the fate of the colonies, the greatest hero of the revolution, George Washington, succumbs to the temptation of infinite power. The new King is born and his reign leaves no one untouched. To return freedom to the land our new hero must dethrone a tyrant he once called friend.” In short, in this French Company game sold in America, our American heroes must kill George Washington, the father of our country.

A new action video game swept the country this past holiday season. It’s called “Assassin’s Creed III.”

A “stealth-killing game set in the American Revolution,” the goal of players is to assassinate a variety of individuals in a mainly revolutionary setting.

One of the subplots of the game, “The Tyranny of King Washington,” has as its goal to assassinate George Washington.

Published by the French company Ubisoft, “Assassin’s Creed III” grossed more than $420 million in retail sales, with seven million copies sold in its first month, making it the fastest-selling game in Ubisoft’s history.

Indeed, Ubisoft announced before Christmas that since "Assassin's Creed III" launched one month ago, players have committed more than three billion assassinations during the game's solo missions.

The plot in one part of the game, called “The Tyranny of King Washington,” is that George Washington who, in real life, turned down the opportunity to become king, changed his mind and became a tyrant.

Considering the lucrative sales, perhaps we will soon see a WWII game where the goal is to assassinate Franklin Roosevelt, on a plot that he sold out to communists. Or a Civil War game where the plot is to assassinate Lincoln, something that actually occurred.

Ironically, it is because of Washington that America is imbued with such freedom principles that a French company can market a game that assassinates him in a plot line that describes him exactly opposite to what he was.

Washington symbolizes everything in this nation that is strong and courageous. He could have been king. He could have been president for life. He turned it down because of the same freedom principles he gave our nation.

Now– and this is novel - Americans are going to play at killing the father of our country.

But video game makers are always coming up with novel things.

A game called “Carmageddon” offers bonus points to players who drive into pedestrians causing a bloody explosion. It may not encourage anyone to drive into pedestrians in real life.

A game called RapeLay allows a gamer to step into the shoes of a rapist, and stalk a mother and her two daughters before raping them in a variety of scenarios. It may not prompt anyone to rape anyone. Games that kill policemen or innocent bystanders or assassinate billions may be just good clean fun and have nothing to do with rising violence in America.