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Do you recall the good old days of video game systems? Funny and imaginative characters would embark on a funny and imaginative adventure in a funny and imaginative world. Those simple and harmless days seem to be ancient history today. Today, many video games created for the Xbox 360 use real world events as their source of inspiration. Whereas before, video games were a tool used to escape reality through diversion, they are now extensions of the reality in which we live in. Depending on your vantage point, that can be very good or very bad indeed.

Consider one of the most enduring and endearing video games in history: Super Mario Bros. A plumber falls through a pipe and enters a world where he must rescue a princess, defeat and evil monster and navigate a world full of mushrooms, blocks, question marks and goombas. Regardless of the power of your imagination, you have to understand that such a scenario would only exist on something like the Playstation Portable, and not the real world. So, the illusion of the game remains intact.

Now, if you look at today's video games for popular systems like the Microsoft Xbox 360 or the Sony Playstation Portable, you can clearly see that video games are now using real world issues as their premise. Now, there are always a dearth of video games that are still fantasy based, and there always will be. But, more and more games are using Iraq as their setting rather than a mushroom kingdom. Can you envision a 1980 game based on the Falkland Islands affair for the Xbox 360 or the Sony PSP? But, today, there are many video games using current events as a fantasy gaming world.

There are many reasons as to why more and more video games, like those on the Microsoft Xbox 360 are using reality as their fantasy. The improvement of video game graphics can makes it easier to make real world wars, conflicts and issues appear that much, more, real, on the screen. Perhaps it's easier to steal an idea from the world of today than it is to create a whole new world with plot, characters, functions, missions, etc. It could simply be an easy way to reach frustrated gamers who want to participate in the real world fight, but simply can't or won't. In the latter instance, at least, it can make for a quick way to make a quick dollar.

It used to be easy to distinguish video games from reality. Reality had problems and issues, and there was nothing you could do about it. Video games, like the Sony PSP, gave you complete control over an entire universe. Idea: why not combine the two, and give a video game player the complete control that video games provide into a real world situation in which otherwise, they feel powerless?

It seems that today, a gamer can watch the news, get upset and then do something about it in the real world that exists inside their Sony PSP or Xbox. The merits of such a union is a matter for another debate altogether.