Thanksgiving break is over, and I am sure a few of you were met with the surprise, upon your arrival home, that you would be relegated to the children’s table. Despite your learned knowledge as a college student, you were still deemed unfit to sit next to your elders and discuss body scanners, Obama’s approval rating and corn prices — opting instead to challenge your cousin to a deviled-egg eating contest.

This is similar to how society views video games. Despite their status as a multi-billion dollar industry and their growing popularity, complexity and depth, video games are still seen as a domain for children and the immature to enjoy overly violent content. I think the usefulness of these ideals have been depleted, and it is about time that video games prop up a chair next to grandpa books, great aunt music and cousin movies and TV.

Misconceptions about video games seem harmless, but these fears have resulted in a number of court cases including a U.S. Supreme Court case, Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association and Entertainment Software Association, still being debated, that seeks to restrict the sale of “violent” video games to minors. Although I believe the Supreme Court will strike down this restriction, these views about video games will continue, as they have after more than a dozen other court rulings, as long as these misconceptions are not addressed.

Video games are not just for kids or vast armies of man-children. Sixty-seven percent of all American households play computer or video games, and the average age for a game player is 34. People have explained to me that the growing age of gamers is attributed to the fact that an increasing population is unable to grow out of playing video games. Why is video game abstinence a necessary step for obtaining adulthood? Playing games does not force you to adhere to the standard of being a Hot Pocket-eating, unemployed basement-dweller.

Controlling a digital avatar through a computer-animated world for a few hours doesn’t sound like the most adult activity, but how is watching a movie more beneficial? At least you would be burning calories by moving your thumbs with a game.

The main difference would be the storytelling in the two mediums. Admittedly, most stories in video games amount to the level of a B-rate action movie; however, there are some quality outliers. Like early movies, many video games concentrate on delivering an increasing spectacle — making bigger explosions or more realistic laser pistols. Now that game developers have realistic graphics and quality voice-acting, it seems more and more games are going beyond the novelty of excitement.

A common complaint I hear about video games is that they are too violent. Talk to anyone between the ages of 30 and 50 — if you go any older you have to figure in how many times they will offer you butterscotch candy — about video games, and 78 percent of the time they will start complaining about how “Grand Theft Auto” causes people to rape and kill others.

Of course, everyone has seen commercials for violent games like “Assassin’s Creed” and “Call of Duty,” but these mature-rated titles only make up a relatively small portion of the games released each year. And despite what you might be thinking, people actually buy nonviolent games. In 2009, E — for everyone — titles outsold the combined totals of mature and teen-rated games, and 13 of the 20 top-selling video games of 2009 were rated E.

Society has accepted there are negative effects of watching violent television and movies, and seems capable of monitoring exposure to such content, so why should video games be any different? Some would say interactivity creates new implications. Since you are actively controlling the violence, it will be more damaging than simply observing it. This makes sense on paper, but there is currently no research that suggests games are especially harmful.

Luckily, the Supreme Court has examined the available research and realizes the implications this restriction would have if passed.

“One of the studies, the Anderson study, says that the effect of violence is the same for a Bugs Bunny episode as it is for a violent video. So can the legislature now, because it has that study, say we can outlaw Bugs Bunny?” said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the case’s opening arguments. 

Video games have only been around for 50 years and available to the public for an even shorter period of time. For a form of entertainment, there are quite a few complexities and issues when discussing the medium, and the level of technological evolution is staggering. However, the best advice for understanding video games is to ignore stereotypical views and just play one for yourself.