| Author |
Message |
syd2002
Admiral
Joined: 25 Mar 2002
Posts: 8919
Location: Somewere in the world, makeing a difference
|
 Sat Nov 27, 2004 4:14 pm |
|
I agree, this is very true.
|
|
|
Link, the Hero of Time
Vice Admiral
Joined: 15 Sep 2001
Posts: 5581
Location: Kokori Forest, Hyrule
|
| Sat Nov 27, 2004 7:40 pm |
|
I'm sorry, but the Rating system is a big joke. I know many people here play "M" rated games and they aren't the "legal" age. He*l, I've been playing them since I was little. Contrary to the belief, Video Games do not make children Violent. It's been proven in Psycological studies and tests.
And besideds that, Kids see more violence in real life then they will in video game life.
Prime examples:
Ninja Gaiden: a game most everyone played as a kid, Amped up thanks to Microsoft and current technologies. You play as ninja Ryu Hayabusa Chopping, beheading and maiming all other bad ninjas and men who get in your way. Full fledged FANTASY game. there is nothing in the story that could even make it relate to anything truthful.
Halo and Halo 2: Fantasy war game where you play as the a*s kickingly cool Master Chief. Using military weapons, vehicles and anything else you can get your hands on, you riddle your ALIEN enemy full of holes, or just proceed to blast it into little pieces. The game is pure and utter fantasy. again, nothing links it to real life.
Devil May Cry: The fact that this game even called for a "m" rating shows how innept the rating system is. You play the super bad a*s, Dante. With his Swords, a set of Flaming boxing gloves and an asortment of weapons including the favored Ebony and Ivory, you proceed to whoop the ever living cr*p out of any and all ghosts, ghouls and bugs who get in your way. The game wasn't even Bloody as many others. A few cut scenes were a bit wierd but nothing in this game called for an "M" rating. Again, nothing in the game to base it on reality.
Perfect example of what I've been taklking about:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5083794.html
| Quote: | Kids give M-rated games an A
Paul Levy, Star Tribune
November 14, 2004 HALO1114
Angel Thomas, 11, loves to read, knit, play violin and soccer. But put her behind the controls of her new Halo 2 video game and this sweet little Angel -- daughter of a Brooklyn Park school administrator -- says, "I'll use any weapon to kill every alien in sight."
Angel didn't buy Halo 2 herself. She can't. Card-checking retailers are strongly discouraged by industry regulators from selling video games with "M" ratings (for mature) to anyone younger than 17.
But that hasn't stopped younger kids from playing Halo 2 or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, hot new video games rated M for violence.
"I don't really understand these ratings," said Angel, a sixth-grader at Breck School in Golden Valley. "Halo 2 is fantasy. In the game, I'm going after aliens or monsters to save the planet, but in real life I never want to even touch a real gun."
Brute, from the game Halo 2The much-hyped Halo 2 is the sequel to a popular sci-fi game in which the hero, Master Chief, saves humanity by destroying a floating world called Halo. In the new game, Master Chief fights a nasty alien collective called the Covenant. The game involves missions, battles and lots of blood and gore.
Halo 2 went on sale last week, selling 2.4 million copies in the first 24 hours, more than the new Grand Theft Auto, which sold 2.06 million copies in the first six days.
Yet again, parents have to decide whether the games are appropriate for their children -- and wonder whether they're being played at friends' houses or elsewhere without their knowledge.
Angel's mother, Dianne Thomas, vice principal at Brooklyn Park's North View Junior High School, purchased Halo 2 for her kids. She said she doesn't "necessarily approve of these games." So she allows them to play video games only on weekends, rarely for more than a half-hour at a time, and monitors her kids while they play --enough to know that son Rafael, 14, is "really good."
"As long as I know I'm teaching my kids appropriate values, they're good students, make good decisions, I'm OK with it," she said. "They see more violence on the evening news."
The Interactive Electronics Merchants Association (IEMA) can't control what kids see on TV, but can dictate which video games can be sold to kids. Members of the Connecticut-based group, which represents 29 of the nation's top 30 video-game distributors, decided 11 months ago to card customers who looked too young to buy. Minneapolis-based Target, an IEMA member, has been carding minors and restricting the sale of M-rated video games to persons 17 and older since September 2000.
It wasn't until a few months ago that Best Buy, the one major video-game retailer that does not belong to IEMA, began restricting sales of M-rated games to the 17-and-older crowd.
The average age of video-game players is 30 -- including those who play games on personal computers. For those who own and play games on a PS2, Xbox or GameCube, the average age is 24.
Halo 2 is available only for the Xbox; Grand Theft Auto is a PS2 game.
Only 11 percent of games in the $7 billion video-game market are M-rated, according to the Entertainment Software Association in Washington, D.C. The ratings, by the New York-based Entertainment Software Rating Board, are EC (early childhood), T (teen), A (adults only), E (everyone) and M.
Kids respond to ads
"These M-rated games are going to appeal to an older audience," said spokesman Brian Lucas from Best Buy's corporate office in Richfield. When the company's Richfield store held a midnight opening last week in anticipation of Tuesday's release of Halo 2, an estimated 300 people were waiting to buy the new Microsoft game -- and very few of those customers included families with children, Lucas said.
"The advertising for these games is geared toward adults," he said.
But kids see the ads and often are as excited about the release of well-hyped M-rated games as they are for annual blockbusters such as Madden Football.
"I couldn't wait for Halo 2 to come out," said Michael Mullin, 11, another Breck sixth-grader whose mother purchased the game the day it was released.
Jennifer Mullin said she researches the video games she buys for her children by consulting young salespeople at stores like the Minnetonka Best Buy "because I know the young salespeople play the games themselves, are passionate about them and are honest."
Michael knew all about Halo 2 and Master Chief and the Covenant because he owned the first Halo game and has seen the ads. "You kill aliens, but there's no blood, and it's fun," he said. "I don't ever want to hold a [real] gun, but even before we got the game, I knew Halo has violence and gore."
Robbie Fuller, 15, a ninth-grader at Breck, prefers Tony Hawk skateboard video games. He says he doesn't own any M-rated games but has played them at friends' houses. He's interested in another hot new M-rated video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
"From what I saw of it, you go up to a car, punch the driver in the stomach, throw him out and get in," Robbie said. "You're in a gang and some guys have guns, but I don't know if you actually use them. So, is that considered violent?"
John Michael Bores, 15, a sophomore at Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope, was playing Halo 2 with friends Saturday.
"Teens have enough sense to differentiate between reality and a video game," he said. "Killing people in a video game is fantasized violence. It doesn't make us more violent. It just heightens our sense of awareness." His friends know very well that real violence is another matter, he said, adding that many in his group of friends are knowledgeable about and strongly oppose the war in Iraq.
John Michael's dad, Russ Donahue, said he plays Halo 2 with his friends -- "the way my own dad used to play poker" -- and with John Michael, but does not allow his 9-year-old son Zachary to play it.
Donahue said he and his wife, Shirley Engelmeier, discourage the playing of Grand Theft Auto because they believe its realistic violence, set on city streets, "could promote antisocial behavior."
Ranee Holmboe of Maplewood, mother of 17-year-old Matt, agrees. "We look at games online beforehand, study them, before we buy them," she said. "Halo and Halo 2 were not just about violence. ... But with Grand Theft Auto, we're afraid of the effects on the kids, even though they'll say it doesn't affect them."
Matt Holmboe, a senior at Hill-Murray High School, said Halo 2 is more about strategy than violence. "You talk to your team and they talk to you, and it's all about camaraderie," he said.
His friend Ben Gonia, 17, agreed. "Video games are video games, not real," he said. "It doesn't affect the way we act."
He acknowledged that playing the games is a major part of teenage boys' life. "Most girls don't like them," he added. "They think they're stupid."
David Stoffer, 14, a Breck eighth-grader, said his mother bought him Halo 2, which, like other video games, he is allowed to play no longer than 30 minutes at a time. David said he and his brother, Robbie, 18, a sophomore at Cornell University, loved the first Halo game.
They always play games with kids their own ages. "Adults aren't very good at video games," David said.
The broader discussion
The arguments about video games are no different than ratings discussions concerning movies, CDs and even books, said Carolyn Rauch, senior vice president of the Entertainment Software Association.
"Ultimately, it's a parent's decision, because these games are expensive and kids don't have $50 in their pockets," she said. "Kids are going to see 'Kill Bill' or read Stephen King novels. It's a free society. Parents need to make appropriate decisions."
Andy McNamara is the creator and editor of Game Informer magazine, the Minneapolis-based monthly that he says has 1.6 million readers. McNamara, 33, said that some video games are indeed "outrageous," but that many of them are "easier for me to take than watching TV shows like 'ER,' which has too much blood for me.
"When you're talking about kids, video games are an easy target -- just like rock 'n' roll was once considered the devil," McNamara said. "You're going to get in a lot less trouble playing Halo than you are breaking windows."
|
|
|
|
PrankishSmart
Rear Admiral
Joined: 29 Apr 2002
Posts: 4779
Location: Hobart, Australia.
|
| Sun Nov 28, 2004 9:53 am |
|
| Lt.CmdrWorf wrote: | I heard a TRUE story (please don't ask me for my sources because I don't have any) about a young kid who played Grand Theft Auto, and when he was finished he somehow got some brother's (or was it babysiter's) car keys and took this car for a spin, which ended up in his injury or death (I can't remember which). Ask yourself this: Do I want to be on the road when a child has access to a car and is taking a joy ride? NO!!! THE RATING SYSTEM IS TO KEEP STUPID PEOPLE FROM DOING STUPID THINGS!!!  |
I think that was a very rare case and the video game was only a contributing factor, not THE factor.
For a kid to do even such a thing, you would think there would have to be some problem, something mental, surely.
|
|
|
lionhead
Rear Admiral
Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 4020
Location: The Delta Quadrant (or not...)
|
| Sun Nov 28, 2004 4:58 pm |
|
There are al ot of stories about children being violent and saying that they got it from a game... one kid even emptied a machine gun in his classroom, afterwards he blamed a videogame....Excuse me for laughing but that totally Bullsh*t. But like Prankishsmart sayed, thosechildren are already mentally disrubed(do you have any idea how much anger you must have too kill someone and not feel anything about it? A game does not take compassion, reason and sanity away from you)
BTW, Anybody here ever played Manhunt? Very violent and brutal game without any story or meaning, That game sucks!
-------signature-------
Never explain comedy or satire or the ironic comment. Those who get it, get it. Those who don't, never will. -Michael Moore
|
|
|
Jeff Miller
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 22 Nov 2001
Posts: 23947
Location: Mental Ward for the Mentaly Unstable 6th floor, Saint John's 1615 Delaware Longview Washington 98632
|
| Sun Nov 28, 2004 5:37 pm |
|
| lionhead wrote: | | BTW, Anybody here ever played Manhunt? Very violent and brutal game without any story or meaning, That game sucks! |
oh my god you think something sucks??? I didn't know you thought things suck *sarcasam*
I own the game its good, maybe its too hard for a simple minded person like yourself to figure it out.
-------signature-------
| ~Tony Montana wrote: | | You know what you need people like me people for you to snub your nose at and point at saying there is a bad man. Well guess what This bad man is leaving. Say goodnight to the BAD MAN! |
|
|
|
IntrepidIsMe
Pimp Handed
Joined: 14 Jun 2002
Posts: 13057
Location: New York
|
| Sun Nov 28, 2004 5:59 pm |
|
Tsk tsk tsk, please be nice.
-------signature-------
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
-Wuthering Heights
|
|
|
Jeff Miller
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 22 Nov 2001
Posts: 23947
Location: Mental Ward for the Mentaly Unstable 6th floor, Saint John's 1615 Delaware Longview Washington 98632
|
| Sun Nov 28, 2004 6:00 pm |
|
Sorry, Aaron well the game is good though 
-------signature-------
| ~Tony Montana wrote: | | You know what you need people like me people for you to snub your nose at and point at saying there is a bad man. Well guess what This bad man is leaving. Say goodnight to the BAD MAN! |
|
|
|
lionhead
Rear Admiral
Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 4020
Location: The Delta Quadrant (or not...)
|
| Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:25 am |
|
| Jeff Miller wrote: |
I own the game its good, maybe its too hard for a simple minded person like yourself to figure it out. |
Please don't make me laugh.
You are really pathetic you know that?
-------signature-------
Never explain comedy or satire or the ironic comment. Those who get it, get it. Those who don't, never will. -Michael Moore
|
|
|
Birdy
Socialist
Joined: 20 Sep 2004
Posts: 13502
Location: Here.
|
| Mon Nov 29, 2004 8:47 am |
|
I think it's the job of the parent to know what their kids are doing, and frankly, I think parents should do that way more often.
I don't know if the parents should just take those games away from the kids, imagine you're that kid? You'll hate your parents for that. I think each kid is different, and some are more mature than others. Therefor imo, some kids can play those games, even if they're younger. It's just a way of looking at things. If you're kid is not that mature and you see, as a parent, the danger that your kid may become addicted to the game, you should talk about it with your kid. See what he thinks. If you think he's incapable of making that decision for himself, you make the decision. Otherwise you may come to another solution by talking to your kid.
I don't think you can set a standard for this, for every kid is different.
|
|
|
IntrepidIsMe
Pimp Handed
Joined: 14 Jun 2002
Posts: 13057
Location: New York
|
| Mon Nov 29, 2004 3:01 pm |
|
| lionhead wrote: | | Jeff Miller wrote: |
I own the game its good, maybe its too hard for a simple minded person like yourself to figure it out. |
Please don't make me laugh.
You are really pathetic you know that? |
As I said: please be nice
-------signature-------
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
-Wuthering Heights
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
Star Trek �, in all its various forms, are trademarks & copyrights of Paramount Pictures
This site has no official connection with Star Trek or Paramount Pictures
Site content/Site design elements owned by Morphy and is meant to only be an archive/Tribute to STV.com
|
Search
FAQ
Log in
