[Darth Marsden]

This all boils down to one very simple fact. People are idiots.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that a lot of video games are violent. Modern Combat 2 is merely the latest in a series of violent games that have gotten unfair bashing because parents are too lazy and stupid to care about what their kids are playing, and automatically blame someone else for everything that goes wrong, because lord forbid that they should admit fault with themselves.

There are three simple rules when buying a game, whether it be for you or someone else. They are:

1) Check the rating. If a game has an 18 rating on the front of the box (and it WILL be on the front of the box), then it has that rating for a reason. Chances are it's either extremely violent, there's a barrage of foul language, people get naked and/or have sex, or all of the above.

2) Read the back of the box. This should tell you what the game's about, in case the title isn't enough. Modern Warfare 2, for example, should tell you a fair bit about the game - in this case, it's got a lot of combat. Saints Row 2, on the other hand, will need a bit more investigation, which is where the blurb on the back of the box comes in handy. It'll generally tell you if the game's violent or not. There's also usually a couple of pictures which should help to inform you of what the game's like.

3) Look at reviews. Reviews are there for a reason - they not only tell you is a game is actually good or not, but they also tell you what's in it. If it's about the life and times of Ghandi, then huzzah, but if it's about a criminal making his way to the top of an urban city, then uh-oh.

Step 3 is the one that most parents really won't take, because it requires effort on their part. They really should do it though, especially if they're on the net (I hear you can even get it on your phones now, which makes it even easier). It takes 30 seconds to type '<GAME NAME> review' into Google, and another couple of minutes to read one of the actual reviews that come up.

Once someone has followed all three steps, they should be well-informed about a particular game, and as such can form their own opinion as to whether it's appropiate or not for either them or the person they're buying it for.

However, as we've already established, people are idiots, so they just buy whatever their snivelling little snot-nosed brats demand of them. And then they get all mad when it turns out not to be appropriate for them, despite there being plenty of warning all over the place. Woo.