Violence in video games

[kubedawg]

What is everyone's take on this?

With ESRB ratings, are kids really safe from these M rated games? And will it hurt them? After all, kids cannot decipher right from wrong depending on the age.

Personally, I like the ESRB rating system, and I think that they should raise the M rating to 18 and above. But, the parents are the ones to blame in a lot of cases. They buy GTA for their 12yr old, and the next week, they are using curse words, shooting people, and who knows what else?

The parents are the decisions makers, and in some cases, where the kid/teen is mature enough to play a game like GTA or some other shootem up game, the kid/teen is able to understand that this is just a game. But most kids/teens don't know why they do these things in certain games like blow someone's head off, just to have them respawn on the other side of the map thinking maybe they could do that in real life.


I love video games, I play them religiously, I am a gamer. I've been playing for a loooooooong time, ever since I was maybe 6 or 7. My first violent video game I ever played was Age of Empires. This type of game, i think is different than fps games because there are tiny little men/women killing each other rather than something closer to life sized with an fps game. I played my first fps game i think when i was 14. Still I turned out ok. But that does not change the fact that it can harm people.

As long as people are old enough to understand the diference between a game and real life, is the time when they should be allowed to play a violent M rated video game.

[Matt W]

Again, not Politics or News....moving to Society & Rights.

[Pooeypants]

Parents need to have an active interest in the games that their children play and how its affecting them. My auntie has no problem letting my 11 year old cousin play GTA:SA and Driv3r, which are rated 18 and 15 respectively (as far as I know).

[tman_ndsu08]

hey buy GTA for their 12yr old, and the next week, they are using curse words, shooting people, and who knows what else?

Hopefully, they'll shoot you first for making such a fallacious statement.

[Mr.Vicchio]

I don't think it's a big deal if they pass laws making INDUSTRY rated games age based for purchase. But I do think it's BS for game makers to get sued because of the content of the games. If parents are stupid enough to just buy any game thier kid asks for, then they have to suck it up for being shitty parents.

End of Story.

[Osborn F Enready]

Parents are the responsible party, not the industry.

The industry has the freedom to produce PORN video games if they want, or any other type of video game. It is the parents job to raise the kid, monitor their purchases, watch what they play, scan the material they are allowing their children to read and play.

To monitor the industry and limit it to try to prevent underaged kids from getting it, is like cutting off the hands of the artist, to ensure none of his dirty thoughts make it on canvas.

[PatrickHenry]

Quote by: kubedawg Age of Empires. This type of game, i think is different than fps games because there are tiny little men/women killing each other rather than something closer to life sized with an fps game.

Agreed, kubedawg. The first fps I played was when Wolfenstein 3D was released. That game gave me a stomach ache, but I kept on playing it until I recognized its addicitiveness and also its ruinous effect on my body. I have not gotten into the Doom phenomenon and have preferred the builder stuff, like Age of Empires and Civilization...

[Osborn F Enready]

Wow, no kidding Pat? Hmmm. Never figured you for a game player.

Ever played Sim City? How about Sim City4, their latest? Really lets the creativity vent a little.

How about Command and Conquer Generals?

Ever seen Call of Duty?

[PatrickHenry]

I talked about this before, Osborn. I have a serious game addiction, now transferred to Volconvo, heh. I have played a lot of Myst and its successors, Railroad Tycoon 2, Civ2, Age of Empires and so on. I played Sim City, but I got bored with it because it seemed to lack the variety I crave. I love problem solving. Never played C & C Generals or Call of Duty, but I can definitely kill some computer opponents...

[Chris the Chees]

I wa splaying violent video games from when i was around 9/10. If a kid goes out on a rampage, it has nothing to do with games, but because they are off their rocker or their parents don't treat them properly.

[SoccerfreakAB2]

At least it keeps them off the streets...

[Cephus]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with violence in video games, it's all in how the kid is raised. A healthy, well-adjusted kid can go out and play GTA, watch splatter horror movies, etc and be just fine while the kids who have never been taught any better can watch Barney and go postal at school and stab people with the safety scissors. It's just another example of modern parents abdicating responsibility for their own kids. Point fingers at anyone and everyone but themselves.

My own kids are both honor roll students at the top of their classes, my oldest daughter is in a GATE program, they're both extremely well adjusted and their teachers regularly comment on how well behaved, polite and wonderful they are. And they get to watch violent movies if they want (they show little interest although my 8-year old daughter did laugh her head off all the way through Dead Alive, the most violent movie ever made) and they can play whatever video games they wish, which certainly include FPS, etc. The important point is they realize that none of these things are REAL or ACCEPTABLE in real life. It's just a movie, it's just a game, that's where it stays. Neither of them have ever been afraid of monsters or ghosts or things under the bed either because they know they aren't real.

I take responsibility for my kids, why can't anyone else?

[Sonart]

Quote by: Cephus There's absolutely nothing wrong with violence in video games, it's all in how the kid is raised.

I disagree. These games, are, in effect, combat training and desensitization. If you have any doubts, just ask the military... they're frantically redesigning first person shooters into contemporary combat training tools.

.

[Mr.Vicchio]

http://bf2tracker.com/bf2_userprofil...bf2id=46287567


That's me :)

[Prometheus]

Video games are produced by private entities and bought by private entities. This should not be an issue we should bother discuss because there should be nothing we can do about it. However we live in a society where we feel we have to protect people from themselves... so away it goes.

[Osborn F Enready]

They are an excellent training tool Sonart, but what does that have to do with the point of freedom to produce a game for the public, just not kids?

Almost every conceivable toy could be viewed as a training tool of some type, to some degree, whats the point.

My point is parents have to be the RESPONSIBLE PARTY and be concious of what their kids do. It is their choice on whether or not their child is responsible enough to play it, because they accept the responsibility for their kids until they become adults.

I, as a responsible gun owner, and AVID shooter, believe if I so choose to design a game to sharpen shooting and tactical skills, I damn well can. The market would bear whether or not there was a demand for the product.

The Army and Marine Corps both have FPS multi-player "games" that are designed to give visual cues to the written instructions. The soldier gets to get the most possible feedback to accurately simulate the situations they will encounter in ACTUAL COMBAT, which makes better soldiers.

I praise FPS games for allowing me to use them to try various tactics to see how they play out in real time, and they are superb for doing things such as this as well as getting an accurate gauge of human reaction to the tactic employed.

So, is there something wrong with making games that accurately portray real life combat, tactics, techniques and tools of the trade? I would say absolutely not, and argue there is more need for such things. Any person that owns a gun for defense, should understand how to employ it correcty and to their greatest advantage. The more simulation training the better you will be, period. The repeated actions, the repeated sight picture, the repeated trigger cues, are all essential to winning a gun fight should you have the misfortune of being forced to defend your rights by firearm.

If all people taught their kids about firearms, trained them how to use them, trained them how to safely handle and employ such weapons for personal defense in their road to adulthood, people would see a result in more responsible people, with less gun infractions in crime.

[Prometheus]

I think that different people respond to voilance in the media/games differently.

A person well rooted in reality and sociotal conscience (like me) might look at a violent video game as a release, a tactical training, or a honing or reflexes. Or maybe just pure entertainment. It's entertaining to see a charictar in a movie dodge bullets and run up walls whil filling his enemies with lead. To most people, I don't think it is more significant than that.

On the other hand, you have people who don't like themselves or those around them. Often these people retreat into themselves. They construct thier own reality, often off of the media they experiance. You've seen them. They make Star Wars or Lord of the Rings thier reality. I don't mean to say that thye actually believe that it exists - it's just how they prefer to think and view the world. These types can latch onto something very easily, especially something like an addictive shooting game. People like this have a remarkabile ability to totally imerse in what they are doing, wheather it be drawing, playing an instrument or shooting people in a game. As they play a given game, they become much more immersed in the charictar and that charictars actions than most people do. In doing this they experinace a sort of reality, that is more easily played out in the real world.

[kubedawg]

Quote by: tman_ndsu08 Hopefully, they'll shoot you first for making such a fallacious statement.

I was just posting examples of what HAS happened. If you teach a kid how to shoot a gun in a game by pulling the trigger, and their parent or friend's parent or someone who owns a REAL gun that the kid has access to is unable to determine whether or not it's right or wrong to play with it and nd up shooting and hurting/killing someone. But it is the responsibility of the parents to teach kids between right and wrong.

But at what age in a kid's life should they be taught about guns/death???

[tman_ndsu08]

Quote by: kubedawg But at what age in a kid's life should they be taught about guns/death???

As early as they can comprehend it.

[Flip Jackson]

I am in incredibly experienced and hardcore gamer and feel I can put in my two cents here. While I know it is certainly the responsibility of the parents to moniter kids and regulate what they do and see, I do think video games have a horrible habit of using excessive violence and sex to sell their products. I think there should be regulations, because it is impossible for a parent to keep track of every game a kid plays. Kids play what they can get ahold of whether a parent knows or not.

I think instead of the ESRB, the games should have a detailed list of everything questionable in the game. It should say there is swearing, sex, violence, gore, and whatever. ESRB does this to an extent, but parents should have a better idea of what a game contains. I don't know if we should have T or M rated games, but parents should look at what a game contains, and decide if they want their kid to play that.


Those of you who claim violent games have no effect on kids have got to be joking. I myself a gamer, recognize that certain games have either hardened me against certain things or made me get angry easier. I have seen this in fellow gamers as well. Gamers have a tendency to learn lose their temper, especially those who like violent of competitive games.