VIDEO GAMES: Game Gandhi Proves He Is Master of the Holiday Spirit [OPINION]

What is better than Santa Claus delivering a personal greeting to your children on Christmas Day?  Getting a friend request from a famous gamer, of course.

If your child has an Xbox, Playstation, or other console, and plays more than three hours of video games a week, chances are pretty good that he or she considers some well-known gamers - especially those who post tutorials on YouTube - as celebrities. They are thought of as heroes, akin perhaps to sports players or movies stars.

Those who play "Minecraft," which Common Sense Media describes as a "sandbox-style game with open online play [that] fosters creativity," know Notch and Paul Soares, Jr.  "Call of Duty" players know the succession of clans - and the leaders of each - and to which they may eventually aspire to be called.

Before we say any more, if you wonder what your children are playing or doing online then you may actually wish to stop reading this post and go check.

Even if your child is shielded from video games at home, there is a high probability - in the United States at least - that he or she is exposed to them at school.  There is a reason that the major discount retailers devote aisles to not only video games but also to the toys that are related to them.

And what is so scary for those over the age of 25 who have children in their midst is that there is a lot of bad out there in the cyberworld.  Sometimes the bad is mixed in with that which appears to be good.  Sometimes that bad appears more than the good does, especially where some games are concerned.

And as the bad pops up with the good, sometimes the good pops up where it may not seem possible.  It is a world built on virtual war, where killing is commonplace. The skill required to negotiate out of conflict is worthless, and the ability to annihilate as many member's of the enemy's team as possible is highly prized. And millions of children bide their time in this arena where there are more "dudes," AK-47's, and f-bombs than one can count.

If your children play "Call of Duty" which, despite its "M" (mature) rating is a favorite of many well under the age of 17, it may appease you somewhat to learn that not all of the gamers out there are foul-mouthed shooters who stay up until all hours of the night immersed in violence and virtual war.

One gamer, known for his use of words like "frick" instead of, well, something that we cannot publish here, has already established quite a following.  One of the reasons why may be that he is not afraid to show the human side of the virtual character he has created, Game Gandhi.

During a recent session, one of Gandhi's followers - affectionately referred to as "dummies-" invited Gandhi to engage in a play and chat in an open forum afterward.  With more than twenty thousand followers on Twitter (as of this posting) and twice that on YouTube, the frickster is an established celeb in the virtual world.  So requesting some time online with him would be kind of like a Yankees fan asking a very young Derek Jeter to toss a ball around for a bit.  What was unusual was not that Game Gandhi responded, but what he did after the play.

Even those who know little about gaming might find what transpired touching.

[EDITOR's NOTE: The video is set to play :07 seconds in.  However, if you manually start the video prior to :07 there is some NSFW video prior to the intro.]

At approximately :52 the younger gamer asks Gandhi to an "open lobby," basically a forum where the two can chat.  The gamer agrees and the game progresses.  When Gandhi (SPOILER ALERT) makes the shot the young boy rejoices, and then breaks down after the 2:43 mark, which you will just have to watch to appreciate.

Here's the video:

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