Game violence again

[sArA]

I played 'violent' games as a child. But when i was a teenage the violent games were hings like Doom (Thats number 1 not 3 ) and to be honest if game can make you do something violent then your already messed in the head. All this shit about he kid who killed someone becuase he played Manhunt. What the papers failed to tell you was that the boy was not killed for no reason but was killed in a robbery. The killer stole nearly half an Oz of cannibis from the boy before killing him. Last time i sa Manhun didnt tell the boy how to skin a joint, or steal from people. If both kids were involved in drugs then that must have affected there mental wellbeing in some way or another.

My younger brother recently was sold a copy of GTA SA from GAME. He's 14 and they asked for no ID or anything. However after himplaying GTA 3, VC and SA he's not violent (past just being a young boy).

People blame videogames but fail to even look at the other aspects of the persons lives. Sure some kid played a violet game and killed another kid, but he was also involved with drug use.

I feel sorry for the parents of the children who have been hurt and killed as they have lost a loved one but i think they are blaming to much of it on videogames and not looking at the other parts of their relatives lives.

I have to agree with you here peerzy.

My son is 9 and has played GTA for years, since no 1. He is the most non-agressive kid you could ever meet, never swears and has never even hit his sister! I honestly believe that there are many many factors that can make someone violent and that games are merely a minor element in a much bigger picture of nature, nurture etc.

One of the biggest problems imo is that people are too quick to place the blame for bad behaviour onto anything except the individual. The sooner each person takes responsibility for their own actions the better. Passing the buck is so easy, but as the buck is rarely the reason for the behaviour, anything that is done to prevent the buck from being available has absolutely no effect on bad behaviour in general.

What I am clumsily trying to say is that I think that society needs to stop trying to place the blame for its ills onto someone/something else, and to face up to the fact that most bad people are bad because they choose to be bad, they are to blame and should not be able to divorce personal responsibility to avoid feeling bad about themselves. They should feel bad, they have been bad, it is 'their' fault no one elses.

[TheDave]

whats wrong with your kids playing gta? i understand it can make you feel uncomfortable but you dont have to watch them on it. games aren't a bad influence

[Jon L. Obscene]

Oh the underage playing thing you talk about, I did altho did'nt have puter til 10y/o and that was a Spectrum +2
But I been watching movies for years, I got bought American Warewolf in London on my 9th birthday, but I also had guns and plastic knives, in most parents nowadays they don't allow that either, I personally think if you're gonna beat your best friend to death with a baseball bat after playing gta or something then there's something wrong with you in the first place.
Having said that kids will emulate what they see and play and sometimes it will go wrong, but does this mean banning things like WWE?
Tough call but if a parent is pissed about it then it's upto them to check the certs and content.

@Nikki... Re ads on tv, yeah they do, they are trying to sell a product and it would seem as tho it's aimed at kids, but Nate has a Scream mask does'nt he?
Thats an 18 cert film with lots of adult stuff in it, also the amount of kids who own freddy krugger gloves or Jason masks or Robocop , terminator toys, these are all violent adult films with 18+ or equivilant and if you play down the line, kids should not even know what these films are about, let alone copy them. Yet we don't care if they are advertised in the shops or on tv do we.
Having said that it may be different in Canada but here they will advertise horro films etc durin the day same as games.
I seriously lay 0 blame on the games companies and squarly at the feat of the stores and parents/guardians.
If we blame the games companies then we must start on the movie companies too, and any other company which advertises adult products/services durin the day.
However I do agree with you, I'm simply saying it can't just be games companies targetted.

Jonno

[NikkiD]

Oh the underage playing thing you talk about, I did altho did'nt have puter til 10y/o and that was a Spectrum +2
But I been watching movies for years, I got bought American Warewolf in London on my 9th birthday, but I also had guns and plastic knives, in most parents nowadays they don't allow that either, I personally think if you're gonna beat your best friend to death with a baseball bat after playing gta or something then there's something wrong with you in the first place.
Having said that kids will emulate what they see and play and sometimes it will go wrong, but does this mean banning things like WWE?
Tough call but if a parent is pissed about it then it's upto them to check the certs and content.

@Nikki... Re ads on tv, yeah they do, they are trying to sell a product and it would seem as tho it's aimed at kids, but Nate has a Scream mask does'nt he?
Thats an 18 cert film with lots of adult stuff in it, also the amount of kids who own freddy krugger gloves or Jason masks or Robocop , terminator toys, these are all violent adult films with 18+ or equivilant and if you play down the line, kids should not even know what these films are about, let alone copy them. Yet we don't care if they are advertised in the shops or on tv do we.
Having said that it may be different in Canada but here they will advertise horro films etc durin the day same as games.
I seriously lay 0 blame on the games companies and squarly at the feat of the stores and parents/guardians.
If we blame the games companies then we must start on the movie companies too, and any other company which advertises adult products/services durin the day.
However I do agree with you, I'm simply saying it can't just be games companies targetted.

Jonno

I didn't say that I thought it was acceptable for kids to be running around in Freddy or Jason masks.

Yes, he owns a scream mask, I didn't buy him the Halloween costume, my mother did. I had the argument with him last year that it was inappropriate. He hasn't seen the movie (as far as I know, alas, his father lets him watch pretty much anything). He may have watched the edited for television version which shows about as much gore as an episode of Law & Order.

And yes, I do lay blame on movie companies too. They make movies with content that is not suitable for children, but then make ads that target children. Half the teen flicks out these days are rated towards adults because of sexual content, language, violence, etc. Yet I don't know many adults who want to sit and watch the crap. I'm not paying to go to the theater to see a bunch of post adolescents pretending to be adolescents. I may watch them on television, but I'm not paying to see them. Who wants to see them? Mostly kids the age depicted - who can't because of the rating of the film.

I'm not saying it's totally the game companies fault. I'm saying that if they truly do not intend for kids to play their 18+ games, then they shouldn't show the commercial during a PG rated television program at 1pm in the afternoon. That's irresponsible marketing. That may be the television station's fault as much as the game company. Movie companies do the same thing. Besides that, the rating system for films has become increasingly lax over the past few years. What would have been rated R 10 years ago, now gets a PG13 or a 14A, and what would have gotten a 14A gets a PG nowdays.

I'll repeat, as far as I'm concerned, it's the responsiblility of the parents to judge what their kids can and can't watch/play. If they go out and buy a game for their kids that has an 18+ rating, they have absolutely no basis on which to blame the game companies when they discover it's violent. I don't let my kids watch/play anything until I've seen it first or had a review of it from someone I trust.

[Jon L. Obscene]

Ok so shall I now argue with you about dissagreeing but agreeing?

I'm just gonna say I agree, cos you addressed all point how I thought you would, I was just trying to make it clear, pisses me off that Games get so much shit for doing what we want, you love Doom 3 right? You said Nate did'nt like it, freaked him out?
But you don't want them to stop making games cos of kids etc (not saying you do, just mean that people blame the game co's as if they want them to stop)
The content of a game is on the back of the box, if it says.......Ok having just looked at the back of the Vice city box there's nothing to actually say it's as violent as it is, simply says They want Tommy dead and he will take over the city, so I'm actually turning my argument on this to completely side with you Nikki, my brain missinforming me again. Apologies.

I bow down

Jonno

[NikkiD]

Ok so shall I now argue with you about dissagreeing but agreeing?

I'm just gonna say I agree, cos you addressed all point how I thought you would, I was just trying to make it clear, pisses me off that Games get so much shit for doing what we want, you love Doom 3 right? You said Nate did'nt like it, freaked him out?
But you don't want them to stop making games cos of kids etc (not saying you do, just mean that people blame the game co's as if they want them to stop)
The content of a game is on the back of the box, if it says.......Ok having just looked at the back of the Vice city box there's nothing to actually say it's as violent as it is, simply says They want Tommy dead and he will take over the city, so I'm actually turning my argument on this to completely side with you Nikki, my brain missinforming me again. Apologies.

I bow down

Jonno

I let Nate play Doom 3 for a total of 3 minutes, because he wouldn't drop it, and he wouldn't believe me when I said it was too scary for him to play. It did in fact, scare the living crap out of him. He hasn't mentioned it since.

I do agree with you that it is a parent's responsibility to judge what is suitable for their own child. For that matter, what is okay for one child, might disturb another. What I was disagreeing with you about was that we don't care what movies are advertised on television, and pointing out that I do lay blame on movie companies for being irresponsible in their marketing.

Now lick my boots.

[TheDave]

he could have found out it was too scary for him his own way. you think if you hadn't told him no he would grow up to be an axe murderer?

[NikkiD]

No, I don't think he'll grow up to be an axe murderer.

What I do think is that there is a time for children to just be children. To play with their friends and build snow forts, to ride their bikes or skateboards, to watch cartooons, to play Super Mario and Spyro the Dragon, to just be kids. They are in enough of a hurry to grow up and they do grow up fast enough without me pushing them by allowing them to do things that are designed for adults. They are already faced with enough violence in the media just because of the world around us, I don't see a need to expose them to more of it than they have to see.

When I'm talking about this, I'm not talking about 16 or 17 year olds. When my kids are that age, they probably will be allowed to play some of the games mentioned (probably not all), at least in my own home.

[Jon L. Obscene]

Now lick my boots.

Sounds good to me

What was this thread about again?

Ok

What I do think is that there is a time for children to just be children.

I totally agree with that statement 100%

Jonno

[TheDave]

"pushing them by allowing them"

telling em what they cant do is pushing them. if they play a game they like, they play it. if they try a game and dont like it, they dont play it.

i dont think a game can have any psychological effect apart from maybe a sleepless night and an image you wont forget. let em learn from their own mistakes