Video Game Violence/Censorship

[JedExodus]

Yup, with a new blockbuster video game comes blockbuster BAWWWING from all sides. I'm talking about Modern Warfare 2 of course (which if you haven't played is big, loud, dumb and nigh on impossible not to love)

In the UK we have pearls of wisdom like this

"Agony aunt Jenni Trent Hughes was disgusted after watching the controversial airport scene in Modern Warfare 2: "I started to cry," she recalled, "I felt sick to my stomach and I was frightened." She said she sat there with her 15 year-old son and he had to shield his face from the screen. "You and I both know - you more than I - that there's more children buying it,""

Of course the game is rated 18 by the British Board of Film Classification, so he has no business letting her 15 year-old son who she so gallantly defended from the onscreen viewing this kind of thing.

In the UK major and controversial games like GTA IV, MW2 and even Fallout 3 have BBFC ratings which are legally binding and the exact same ratings films recieve. And don't even start me on those ESRB ratings, do the people who even dish those ratings out take them seriously?

The problem lies with distributors and parents not taking any of this seriously, if i'd a kid and I hadn't already outsourced him to a couple unable to concieve he'd be playing no MW2, he'd be playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii and he'd bloody like it.

What think you?

tl;dr Don't come yapping on Christmas day when you hear little Freddie calling everyone queers and niggers on XBox live

[Icedhope]

Wow...it's parents like these, that I detest...I'm not a fan of most of censorship, but they do put ratings on a game for a reason, and they do have warning screens for a reason, so...you know what, it's due to the mothers own ignorance that her child is now scarred.

[Frogacuda]

I think the most important underlying point here is that youth violence has steadily declined as the popularity of videogames has gone up. If you want to make the argument that they are causing a problem of youth violence, you must first establish that there is a problem at all.

I understand the knee jerk reaction to the idea of kids seeing some movies or games or a lot of stuff on the internet, and I think it's good parenting to keep kids away from that stuff until they're old enough to handle it (varies from individual to individual) but seeing a disturbing dramatic scene is not going to cause real damage to anyone.

[roberttitus]

I will not lie... the scene is very graphicly violent & children should not be playing it. I just don't get why parents buy games that are obviously intented for adults (When the box says 17+ it means it dammit....well unless we are talking about a game like resident evil.... thats just good clean fun). If you put things into perspective however... almost all games can be considered violent. Mario kills like 50 koopas per stage & drops Bowser to his firey death in the first game.

*BTW* You may want to censor the word N*****. I know you didn't mean it in a confrontational way, but some people do not take to kind to seeing the word at all.

[Irishmile]

I cried the first time Mario stomped on a poor turtle minding its own business.

[Rather Dashing]

If I had a 15 year-old kid...honestly, I'd probably let him or her play. I seriously know people that watched far more violent and nihilistic things that turned out to be far more mentally stable than some people who grew up way too repressed and sheltered for their own damn good.

[Kaldire]

in the end.. this is a universal BS scham .. this whole system..
we shouldnt need ratings... we should just know... this is not good for my child or this is suitable.

my daughter loves stuff that most parents would NOT let their 10or even 12 year old watch or listen too
(my daughter is almost 10)

now my daughter knooowss what is good and what isnt (or well what is appropriate I should say)
she watches stuff that would say bad stuff but know when not to say or use it.. easy

all this is down to parents.. PERIOD.. .george carlin even did a bit in his last few months about it.. pretty good.
parents and kids.. not the companies... if you dont like it.. "CHANGE THE FUCKIN CHANNEL"

to me its like playing games like modern warfare and americas army ONLINE ... with people.. and going into servers where they DEMAND people dont type swearing.
THERE ARE FILTERS IN THE GAME.. so you cant see swearing .. yet still you can be banned for typing this.. all they see is **** and you get kicked.. .morons

entire structure of this system is brainwashing by plain ole stupid incompetent parents or rather "children raising children"
nothing more .. nothing less..
and my daughter.. loves modern warefare... and POSTAL 1 and 2 and SE
which are BRUTAL.. you can PEEE on people ... she just giggles... and NO she does not pee on people nor will she...

does everyone who watches family guy swallow people whole because peter does it.. nooooo

lol

rant over
parents 0 .. world entertainment industry 1

[Sausy Gibbon]

I agree with you when you say that the fault lies with the parents. Here in Australia we have no R rated games, purely on the premise that a little kid might play it and go on a rampage.

[JedExodus]

Originally Posted by roberttitus

*BTW* You may want to censor the word N*****. I know you didn't mean it in a confrontational way, but some people do not take to kind to seeing the word at all.

I was thinking that, then i thought that if anyone was upset by it then i'd just let em call me an alcoholic wife-beating Mick terrorist, then we'd be even

[Toothless Gibbon]

Originally Posted by Frogacuda

I think the most important underlying point here is that youth violence has steadily declined as the popularity of videogames has gone up.

Seriously? Is this in the US?

Youth violence is an epidemic in the UK (If you read The Mail anyway)

[Armand1880]

The government decided movies, music and games needed ratings to give parents information on what is contained in entertainment so they can make educated decisions on what their child engages their time with. Here, the USA is a free country, and freedom of speech and expression covers all forms of media. People who want the government to step in and censor things are effectively taking away their own freedoms.

You don't like it? Don't play/watch/listen to it. Don't let your kids play/watch/listen to it. That is what parents are supposed to do. Get involved, talk to kids about the games they play, movies they watch, etc. If some parents think kids are mature enough to handle a game - great! You don't think your kid is mature enough - don't let them buy it. Parents need to get old school and tell their kids "no" rather than wanting the government to tell everyone "no."

[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.