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Games - The Jury Is Out And Confused
Thanks to Blue's News for pointing to a New York Times article entitled 'On Video Games, the Jury Is Out and Confused' (registration required). It talks about the mixed messages being given to parents about video gaming, especially with regard to violent content, and its effect on their children: "In the face of contradictory, inconclusive or just plain confusing evidence, some parents... agonize over what limits to set." One concerned mother even has to keep her spouse in check as well: "My husband is a little hard to control. Sometimes he lets them rent games with little figures on top of buildings trying to shoot each other off." What limits do you or your relatives put on their children's gaming, and why?
The best guideline of any is to play *with* your children. Gaming can be a social event, if parents participate in it with their children. There's no need to let small children sit by their consoles/computers all day unsupervised.
As kids grow older, they need less supervising. If a parent judges their child to be mature enough, there's no need for any supervision. Now, the problem is that most people let the TV or the computer raise their kids instead of doing it themselves. Newsflash: Entertainment can never be a substitute for interaction.
How about parents actually act like parents and take some responsibility for their kids?
Which do you think would be more like a responsible parent:
a) Reviewing the games/movies/etc your child wants, and deciding if that's the kind of thing you want him/her to have.
or
b) Letting a bunch of people you don't (and probably never will) know tell you wht they think your child should be exposed to?
=Smidge=
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The article mentions a mother fearing that her sons will become socially isolated if they play video games, I think this is totally wrong. I just graduated high school and the majority of the guys all had atleast one gaming system and played them regularly. Those who didn't play video games were normally the kids that were in either the church group, or the alcoholic jocks.
It's great that video games improve your visual skills, but if you shelter your children then they'll never learn.
Another thing, I don't think there should be any laws deciding what I can and can not buy in terms of video games. On more than one occasion my mother has went out and bought the game for me because I wasn't allowed to. If you don't want your kids playing a game, then it should be your respondsibility to make sure they don't, not the governments/corperations. I feel the same way about movies, I was able to buy rated R tickets when I was 14 but for the last two years I couldn't. Thank you very much Tipper Gore.
Bugs are just features that have been fixed.
...little figures on top of buildings trying to shoot each other off
reminds me of that old qbasic game where gorillas calculated tragectories and tried to blow each other up with bananas. occasionally my middleschool math teacher let us play that game during class. i never heard any stories about students throwing banana pipe bombs at eachother, though.
this whole thing of blaming violent activities on games is just part of an endemic problem with passing the buck. little murdurers just need to be made to face the music and be responsible for their own actions. no virtual finger pulled the trigger.
the truth may be that violent and disturbed people are drawn to violent and disturbing games. most people people who play the games have a clear grasp of what is fantasy and what is reality, but there are some who are already messed up in the head and warped games just add to the problem.
They can play any game that they can't beat me at. :-)
Every time you prohibit a child of committing virtual violence you're somehow assuming that that's real somehow. Video game violence is _not_ violence, and if you put it in the head of the child that doing that is wrong, you're completely blurring the notion of what's real and what's not.
I think it's OK for parents to limit the amount of video game a child plays, but it shouldn't have anything to do with morals. Its more of health issue. Kids should be out and playing more...
For boys at least, 13 is the age when they start getting more competitive and agressive. I think that videogame violence helps them deal with those agressive tendencies in a positive way. Up until about 5000 years ago, if you didn't kill your food with your own hands, you didn't eat. Violence has been programmed into us, and we need to find a way to release it or bad shit start to happen.
I would argue that videogames are just as good as sports when it comes to relieving agressive tendencies. When playing online or with friends, gaming can not only be a social event, it can sometimes be an intellectual one as well (Civ III, for example).
So unless there's sadstic or explicitly sexual content, I think a little fragging will do your teenager good.
OK, so with the violence deal, the folks who blame violence on video games should take the fire hydrant out of their ass that's holding their head in. These fuctards who think video games cause violence aren't mature enough to figure out the difference between reality and a video game themselves. They are also people who don't really seem interested in raising their kids. "It takes a village", Bullshit! It takes time, your time, spend it with your kid and help them grow up right
I pay close attention to the games my son plays. I check them out with him, I help him play through the hard spots, and I don't let him play adult games.
Things will change as he gets older, and what I let him play will be determined by his level of maturity. I have friends and relatives who don't game who look to me for advice about the games their kids are exposed to. My cousin bought her third grader GTA Vice City, I could have smacked her when I found out, but she already knew at that point. That just isn't appropriate for kids in grade school. No, I don't think the one time he played it is going to make him go out and run someone over, but you don't give a little kid a game that they don't have the mature thought processes to handle, that's why it's rated M, mature, don't give it to your fucking grade school kids.
But there you go, she bought her kid a game that wasn't appropriate, but she sat down with him on Christmas day as he played it for the first time, and said "oh shit."
Another example, "War of the Monsters" It's a T rated game, but I let my four year old play it. I let him play it because we only play in two player, and we just run around and break up buildings. Good clean fun. He gets mad at me if I throw his monster around, and he doesn't like the normal single player mode because the other monsters are mean to him.
First, before I say this, it's worth noting that I am a hardcore video game fan. I own all major systems, and have been finding myself caught in front of a TV for hours playing games since I was about 10 (I'm 24 now)
Having said that, there is definitely a correlation between violent behaviour and violent video games. I know this, because I have felt them.
Last year, a close friend and I spent an entire afternoon/early evening inside playing Grand Theft Auto 3, stealing cars, passing missions, running around and shooting people. We blasted the jungle radio station through my surround sound system, laughed, smoked, and had a great time.
Later that night, we went out with some other friends clubbing. After last call, we were stuck about a 20 minute walk from home, so we decided to hike it on foot. About half way home, a cop car suddenly pulled up in front of us, and two officers got out and walked into a chinese restaurant. The window on the passenger's door was wide open.
I looked at my buddy Drach just as he looked at me and then I said "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" And he's like "My dear god... My urge to steal the cop car is ridiculous."
Of course, we're rational human beings, and we did nothing of the sort. But the fact is that after joy riding in cop cars all after noon, it sort of romanticized the idea. Now you could argue that because we didn't go through with it, video games are safe. And I'd agree with that, as I continue to play and just beat Return to Castle Wolfenstein : The Tides of War. But the idea here is that they can be just as suggestive (or moreso, as interactivity increases) as other media.
A game like GTA3, with it's violence and glamorization of criminal acts has no place in the hands of a toddler, or a young child. After that, it's the parent's responsibility to determine whether or not their child can handle it.
-RW