Anybody who turns on the TV or listens to the radio or surfs the web probably knows by now that Barry Bonds has broken the all-time career home run record. And for anyone that spent an extra minute to pay attention should know about the controversy surrounding his accomplishment. Did he cheat by using steroids? If so, does it matter? The indifference argument goes such that we'll never know if the previous record was attained by cheating, so we can't say for sure that Barry is just surpassing another ill-gotten record, and thus we shouldn't care. One counter argument goes such that just because we can't know about the distant past, if we see it in front of our eyes now, we should do something about it.

Well, this would be an endless, boring discussion. Which is why I'm offering a different slant here. Should there be steroids in sports video games?

The history of drug use in video games is somewhat sparse. No game developer wants to actually put drugs into their games (for fear of bad publicity or crazed ratings boards), so we are usually left with assumptions of what parts in games actually refer to drug use. It's more prevalent than you think. Think back to the days of 8 bit nintendo. How did eating a magic mushroom make a plumber grow to twice his size (including his clothes, for some reason)? Take nearly any last generation FPS game... how did a "health" pack instantly renew your life? Doom had a berserkerpickup that let your punches do insane amounts of damage, an immediate reference to PCP. Coming to more recent history, in GTA3, you can similarly get "juiced" and be a walking, unarmed tank.

But where is it in sports? Considering that many of the popular sports games are licensed from official leagues, it's not hard to believe they wouldn't want to include it. But should it be included for those so inclined to cheat? Is steroid use so taboo that we can't have it in a game? Are sports games supposed to be a fantasy world in which nothing bad ever happens (except for losing)? Maybe the new sub-genre of sports games, which follow off-the-field storylines, should include this, as well as other public antics (arrests, singing careers, tv ads) that affect your character, because we all know how important these things play out, especially during the off-season. Imagine playing a game of Madden, and your star quarterback is now under indictment. Sure, his alleged criminal mischief is a huge detriment to the team, but how would you include it in the game without being too harsh? There must be some advantage, maybe it helps relieve stress or something like that. Your thoughts?