Game Ratings; Are Combat Sims Worse Than FPSs?

Two separate articles on violent games today. The Toad pointed out a New York Times AP story on how AOL will start rating games; conflicting signals on whether "adults-only" games will be kept. And atomJack mentioned a metamute article which "compares how 1st person shooters have taken a lot of flak, yet sim games seem to be fine with everyone. The article argues that the sims are so realistic they are basically training kids for war and in fact some are used by the military for reference." Personally, I think the Mortal Kombat-style games are worst of all - but maybe that's because I don't play them.

Comments

Simulation games are so realistic..

[jlb]

I've played so many Sims now I'm a killing machine. I'm extremely violent and whenever anyone causes me any trouble, I run straight home to my garage to start building a few tanks. Once that's completed I hire some infantry and train a few medics, then assault their base.

You should see the artillery I have in my back yard.

Training for war!

[EightBitMonkey]

I know how to move my mouse and click a button.

Yet, for some reason, I have no idea of how to determine which ammo a given rifle uses, let alone how to load it, cock it, or disengage the safety. If it jams, I'm screwed. How do I adjust it if the sights are off? And I still have no idea where the mouse port is on my Mauser rifle.

One thing I certainly am not prepared for is the sore shoulder after firing a few dozen rounds from a .30 cal rifle.

How is everyone training for war and honing their weapons skills and accuracy (by playing Rainbow Six) except me?

The real question: Abstraction

[Christopher B. Brown]

The critical question is whether or not kids are really aware that what they are doing in the games is, or is not, actually like truly killing people.

It was "cute" when the two kids in Mars Attacks! used their 'obvious' skills at shoot-em-up arcade games to blow away aliens with their own ray guns; this is still merely a movie story, neatly separated from reality.

I suspect that we may be getting a confusing combination of:

• Games where graphics are, at least in some ways, so "realistic" that they may be increasingly confused for the real world, and
• Unusual, but well-publicized, cases of extreme violence that are so bizarre that they would normally be confused for fiction.

Concern comes in if this "breaks the abstraction barrier," and leaves kids having a hard time telling the difference between reality and fantasy.

My take on the violent games cause violence

[TheFitz]

I've noticed this trend, and I just want to know if anyone out there agrees with me:

Parents are looking for something to blame kids violence on.

That said, I don't consider violent games the problem, or even violent movies the problem. I consider the problem the fact that parents are not spending enough time with their kids. Parents want to plop their child in front of a computer or T.V. and forgot about it. If parents are so worried, why don't they spend some time with their child instead of letting him play those games and watch those movies? I've played violent games all my life, I even played games called demonic like AD&D. However, my father spent a lot of time with me, and those games were exactly what they were meant to be, games. I didn't look up to them as parenting figures. The only thing that came out of my time playing MUDS and other stuff like that was I learned a lot about computers.

Well, enough rambling, that's my two cents.

Re:Wrong Question

[remande]

People who play games on their computers are wasting time + resources (storage & cpu cycles) = money. If you aren't interested enough in computers to be doing something useful with them, then get outside, read a book, or earn a buck raking someone's lawn. Make it your point in life to use every ounce of your energy to help people out, and if after five years you hate yourself for it, I'll send you $100.

Egad!

I agree with the direction you are going. I disagree as to how far you are going in that direction.

Part of the Human Condition is the need to kick back once in a while in order to be able to do your best for the rest of the day. Computer games are a valid way to do that. This is not to say that playing them all day is a good idea; IMHO, that is indeed a waste of one's time. None of us are getting any younger. Believe it or not, part of the Human Condition is that you do need to kick back once in a while.