Games...

[Lord Lothar]

If games were treated the same way as movies, we wouldn't be having these debates.

You mean the ratings? They're never enforced on movies or games...I've rented and watched R rated movies many times but the movie stores and theatres don't care. It seems to me that they're happy as long as they're making money and don't really care about what children could be exposed to.

Edit: Always double check your html...

[ 08-27-2003, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: Lord Lothar ]

[True_Moose]

They're not as effective anymore, but a lot more parents would be loathe to let their kids watch an R movie with *gasp* nudity than, say, Grand Theft Auto or Postal III (which actually looks decent.) [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Lord Lothar]

That's true. Maybe if someone enforced the ratings that games have sorta like they enforce tobacco sales, kids wouldn't have access to violent games at a young age. Although that would have prevented me from experiencing many great FPSs and Diablo...

[True_Moose]

I don't know if that sort of thing is the answer - for example, Arcanum was rated "M" because you got to go to a whorehouse. Really, that was the only reason why. Maybe have required parental permission, like when you go and buy the game? That way, they could tell the parents what the game was all about, and they could make an informed decision.

[Lord Lothar]

Hmmm, from my experience that wouldn't work. My mom watches me play Baldur's Gate and says that I should stop playing violent games where all I do is walk around killing stuff (and she hadn't seen me paly D2 yet) and my dad (played Wolfenstein 3d back in the day) says that RTCW's controls were too complicated and I should get simpler games so he can play them too...so a child might not be able to play games that are perfectly fine because their parents don't see it the same way they do.

Edit: Nice avatar Moose. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[ 08-27-2003, 06:34 PM: Message edited by: Lord Lothar ]

[True_Moose]

[img]graemlins/offtopic.gif[/img] Thank ye, Lothar.

I can see that. Actually, I had a friend whose mom wouldn't let him play BG2 because - get this - there is magic in the game, and that encourages witchcraft. Talk about 16th century. Anyways, my point is, it should stay in the hands of the parents. In the end, if the parents don't care, the kids can play the game anyways. It's up to the parents to be better informed, and rational, about what their kids are exposed to, IMHO. Otherwise, as a society, we can't do anything about it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Lord Lothar]

True, true. A well informed parent in the end is a better parent.

[Niadh]

An often made complaint is "My child is playing a violent game". A reason this happens is parents buying it. A few months ago I was in a games store browsing titles. I see a kid of 6-8 run over to his mum. "Can I have this?" he asks, holding Vice City. His mum says it is fine, and buys the game. It has an 18 rating, not suitable for under 18. You don't take your 6 year old to see an 18 horror flick do you?

And I have played games, some very violent for a good bit of my life. But I don't have a criminal record. I don't go around thinking about mindlessly killing people. I don't think about breaking into cars or houses. Many people don't. Most violent people come from a voilent background, with it being almost expected for them to continue that way as that was the example set to them.

/rant

[/)eathKiller]

as a Psychology major I must say that through my own studies I've learned that playing violent video games can actually have a positive effect on a child's willpower and determination. especially in comparison to poor sheltered kids who just depend on their parents all the time and turn out to be social zombies... especially the one's who were made to read "non-violent" books all the time...

[Nerull]

Originally posted by Niadh: You don't take your 6 year old to see an 18 horror flick do you?

You must not have gone to an R rated horror flick lately. I see all ages anymore regardless of the rating of the movie. I went to see Hannibal and saw almost as many kids under 10 as you see going into a rated G movie. In fact, I almost walked out because they were just letting their kids run around like we were at McDonald's or Chuck E Cheese's.

In other words, parents wanted to see the movie, they didn't want to deal with someone to watch the kids, so they took them into a movie where someone's skull is graphically cut open and parts of their brain are pulled out and fed to him. I can't count how many movies I have gone to where I have seen this, and it has gotten me to the point where I really don't want to go to the movies anymore (if I have to see another one of these morons letting their kids loose on everyone so that they will have more managable kids once they get home, I'm going to bring my shotgun with me and make sure they never have to worry about it again).

It is the same with games. I swing by Babbage's on a regular basis (couple times a month, at least), and almost every time there is some 10 year old talking his mother into buying something that they have no business having (big time M rating games). Not only do the parents buy the game, they don't even bother to look to see anything about the game in most cases. It's just like they buy it so their kid will shut up about it.

I think it ultimately comes down to a lack of parenting in those families. I know that parents have to work hard, ultimately working 2 jobs if you include raising the children. However, it doesn't help matters if you come home and just plant your children (unsupervised) in front of the TV or computer. Nor does it help if you just give them whatever they want so that they will leave you alone (hey, I was young once, too; you always push the boundaries to see what you can get away with).

And actually, my mother took me to some horror movies when I was younger (10+ years old). She also took the time to sit down and explain that it was all make believe (i.e. there is no Jason out in the woods), and the things that were right and wrong about what I saw. I see many of the parents that are bringing their children into R rated movies these days, and I can tell that they do nothing of the sort.

Well, I'm sure I may draw some flames from that strong opinion, but I am really just getting sick of seeing it all the time (people dragging their children into fancy restaurants on Saturday night, someone on the movie screen getting decapitated to the backdrop of crying children, etc.).