There's a really interesting blahblahtech posting that has popped up to address what it refers to as the "myth that video games harm children both socially and intellectually."
It approaches the debate from parental questioning perspective, which seems as good as any to be fair. Some of the research it picks up upon includes that which suggests gamers process information more quickly and multi-task better than non-gamers. I rather liked the research quote which was based upon surgeons playing Super Monkey Ball: "Surgeons who play video games three hours a week have 37 percent fewer errors and accomplish tasks 27 percent faster."
Obama has once again linked underachieving kids with video gaming. In a speech last week Obama promised to invest in education, but then added that "it won't make much of a difference if parents aren't turning off the television set and putting away the video games and making sure that our children are doing their homework."
Which is fair enough, but then at the same time it appears that Obama is moving his Presidential campaign in front of gamers by advertising inside Xbox 360 games such as Burnout Paradise and Madden 09. You can see his face on in-game posters asking for votes and promising change. Well, he is certainly delivering that - one minute video games bad, the next video games good!