What parents will do when their child wants a mature video game
What parents will do when their child wants a mature video game
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srsly, people need to research games BEFORE they buy them…alot of stores let you try beforeyou buy these days.
Ah yes the parental freak-out, absolving yourself of parenting responsibility since 1985! Thanks Tipper.
Parental Advisory: This graph contains vivid, lifelike depictions of things that are boring.
Add to the red portion: blame it entirely on the game store employees and try to return it once opened.
The green portion should definitely be smaller.
Don’t forget the amount of employees who warn the parent before hand and the parent ignores them flatly. Or listens to the employee but then lets their 8 year old somehow convince them that they know more about the game than the employee.
And said parent comes back in and does exactly as you say.
My girlfriend used to work at Gamestop/EB Games and yes, this happened ALL THE FREAKING TIME.
Do you work at Gamestop and/or EB Games? Because that’s pretty much the story of my life. I love yelling “Are you OK with the M rating for CRUDE HUMOUR/INTENSE VIOLENCE/SEXUALITY AND NUDITY/EXTREME GORE” as loud as possible so they feel absolutely *great* when they say yes.
Quite frankly if I was the parent, I don’t think I’d care. Unless my kid was like 4 or 5.
Each parent should judge it based on their own child or children. Some kids can handle those things, some can’t, and some just shouldn’t.
My parents wouldn’t let me and my bro get mature games until we were in our teens and ready to handle it. And even then, we weren’t ready for Eternal Darkness *shudders*
I’m still not sure what my parents would say if they knew my (now-grown) bro has a copy of GTA4…
12 year old Andrew has that game WTF?? I wouldt let them if i was in charge.
there are kids in my class that play GTA 4 in 5th grade.either they dont have responcible parents or they dont have any parents
Omg.. You americans are so conservative.. My seven year old cousin plays GTA and Saints Row. So what?
NOT READY FOR ETERNAL DARKNESS? Seriously, wtf?
GTA- great.
Saints Row- Ripoff. Lame.
Well garsh! And down here on the plantation, I thought that we was the rednecks! With our fancy electronic “Games” and such… Anyway, thanks for not being the moron who thinks that sitting on your arse watching Jersey Shore on TV is so holier-than-thou…
not all, lol. i’m 15, the worst m rated game i can play is gears of war, though i could probably play GTA. lol like my big bro has mass effect 2, and he won’t let me play it because he says it’s “inappropriate” lol, even though i’m 15 (wow, 3 years, what a difference *cough sarcasmo*) and he hasn’t played it for weeks
Ahhh, memories of Custer’s Revenge.
Best. Game. Ever.
Lol, fail.
The hell game are YOU playing?
Any Grand Theft Auto game since GTA3
This reminds me of the kid who shot his parents because they found out he’d bought Halo, and took it away.
Worst of all, he actually attempted to make it look like a murder-suicide perpetrated by his dad.
Link please? I’d like to know more about this.
Dont you mean “sauce plox?”
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/boy_killed_mom_and_shot_dad_ov.html
It’s actually true, they showed it on TV too. They even interviewed him and his sister and stuff. His sister said to throw him in jail because she knew if he had the chance he’d do it again. Sad isn’t it?
Did he shoot them both within three seconds of each other? Because I want to know whether I should shout DOUBLE KILL or not.
he should have killed the people nextdoor too and got a Monsterkill—kill—kill…
only difference is that the parents said the kid couldn’t buy the game and he snuck out and bought it anyway. what they probably did wrong was lock said game in a box with a GUN!
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn
So true, so true!
Truer words have never been spoken!
I mean, truer words have never been written!
I mean, truer graph has never been made!
Damn you Tipper Gore, damn you to hell!
Clearly, I missed something during the Clinton years – what’s up with the slamming on Tipper?
She is a prominent member of the PMRC, calling for the sensoring (/ban) of violent video games…
We also have her to thank for the “parental advisory, explicit content” mark on CD’s…
…And for the censored versions of songs that kids aren’t likely to listen to in the first place. “Waif Me,” anyone?
…..Ehh, slight rewrite, otherwise ripoff!
And just two coments above!
What an awesome game. The GTA series never fails to entertain.
Indeed.
hot coffee anyone??
I could never get it to work right. How exactly and I supposed to please that chick?
where’s the section for “buy it, let ‘em play, and don’t give a rats rear for how poorly you’re raising ‘em”? working at Wal-Mart, I saw a good few of those, and not so many on the return end
Who says that just because you child plays violent video games, you’re a bad parent? It depends on the child and their ability to tell the difference between real life and a video game. If the parent is doing their job properly, they should have nothing to worry about.
Or y’know, LOOK AT THE RATING SYMBOL IN THE TOP CORNER OF THE PACKAGING.
People annoy the fahacck outta me sometimes.
Yeahhh. If they’d bother to actually parent in the first place, the games wouldn’t be a problem. Our kid is well-behaved and pretty mature for his age, behavior-wise but at our local GameStop, they know us well enough they just hold the game up and go, “This is rated M but that’s okay, right?” He’s sitting next to me playing Call of Duty 4 right now, in fact. Parents who want kids without the responsibility of raising them annoy the hell out of me.
Exactly. I mean I’ve been watching R rated movies since I was 5 and I don’t have any violence issues or crude sexual behavior. Even if your kids don’t have a clue what they are watching, it still doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is if they think it’s okay.
So you watch it or play the game with your kids and reiterate that “now this might be fun in a game, or cool on screen, but it’s a horrible thing to do in reality”
Im in the same boat. My parents allowed me to watch R rated movies when I was young, they even recorded some R rated movies that were on HBO and stuff for me whenever I was young, like Robocop and such.
It all really depends on how you raise the kid, and if you think they are mature enough to play or watch such things. If you got a hellraiser for a kid, yeah, it makes sense not to allow them to play such games. If you got a kid that knows right from wrong, and understands its only a game/movie/etc., then allowing them to watch or play such things are ok.
I really hope your kid is above at least 12 or so…
Seriously~ would you get them porno?
Or a vaporizer?
Sheesh.
No test required to be a parent – just fertility or money to buy a kid. And what is this concept of responsibility……
Maybe the test would cut down on welfare spending?
It would cut down human population.
Probably not a bad thing either.
I think the test would be an excellent idea.
I get the impression that a large chunk of the people complaining about parental responsibility are those with none who have other vested interests (video games themselves).
Speaking as a father and video game fanatic, if you have a vested interest in your kids, you will do the research on what you’re buying for your kids, or playing in front of them. I have many late night Gears 2 sessions because there’s no way I’m playing it in front of my kids. It’s about priorities. If your kids are your priority, then everything else to do with them is also.
Amen! I don’t have kids yet, but when I do, all my heavy-metal CD’s, R-rated movies, and mature video games are going in a locked safe until they’re old enough for such things. If I decide to get cable, I’m using the parental controls.
IMO, kids need to feel, at least for a while, that the world is a generally nice and happy place. Sheltering can be taken too far, but it should be done to some extent, just to keep from scarring your kids.
I’m not necessarily that paranoid about locking crap up, but… I have the same attitude for the day when I become a parent. Children are born innocent. At some point, you have to learn about the world and the way the world is. However, I learned a bit too much, a few years too young. If a kid isn’t mentally and emotionally equipped to handle that reality, it hurts. You go from thinking the entire world is perfect to doubting everything. It didn’t take too long for me to snap out of that, but…
Even worse, you expose children to harsh reality too young, it is possible for a child to connect the inappropriate with normality.
Furthermore, right below the one I’m replying to:
“Duh.
A good chunk of us childless adult gamers are plenty annoyed at the folks with kids who want to remove OUR access to games. It’s not like WE’RE the ones responsible for the ten-year-old playing GTA4.”
Yep. Basically, you become a parent, you accept the sole responsibility for the well-being of your child. If you don’t do your research and let your child play an M rated game, the consequences are yours to deal with. Banning games with explicit content is robbing peter to pay paul. It’s catering to irresponsibility. Ban the games so the kids don’t get their hands on them, and you’re taking OUR entertainment away. Taking something that we responsible adults enjoy, to avoid irresponsible actions causing problems.
Doesn’t sound fair, does it?
Instead of penalizing responsible adults for someone’s ill-advised, or careless, or just plain stupid decision to hand a little kid a copy of GTA,
go give the parents who make that mistake an earful.
I’m sure I wouldn’t last long at a game store if I were hired on at one.
First time a parent walked in and pitched a bitch because their kid started having nightmares after playing F.E.A.R., I would kindly inform them of this: If they had the common sense to read the rating symbol and its meaning instead of being willfully ignorant, there wouldn’t be an issue.
That’s the issue with the world today, no middle ground. My view?
In the words of Ron White “You can’t fix stupid”. I have no intentions of catering to stupid either.
Duh.
A good chunk of us childless adult gamers are plenty annoyed at the folks with kids who want to remove OUR access to games. It’s not like WE’RE the ones responsible for the ten-year-old playing GTA4.
My big brothers grew up blasting the hlle out of each other in Quake and Doom but they never murdered me and they aren’t in the State Pen today. AMAZING! I admit there are some limits to video games (rape is NEVER funny\fun, for example), but video games are just a way sometimes to exercise our old primeval desire to just blast each other with big a%% guns.
That’s because “video games are for kids, so how bad could it be?” A lot of parents don’t realize that almost half of gamers are adults, and that video games, like movies, range from totally innocuous to “this has explicit sex and is gory enough to give an ADULT nightmares for a week.”
There need to be huge signs pointing out that game ratings are just like movie ratings, and have analogous content. For example, using US ratings:
E = G-rated movie
E10 = PG-rated movie
T = PG-13 movie
M = R-rated movie
AO = NC-17/X (if you get this for your 8-year-old, you have serious mental issues)
I mean, yes, there are signs about game ratings, but from what I’ve seen, they’re usually small and don’t include the tie-in to more familiar movie ratings.
The only problem is: People don’t read signs.
what griffin says.
No matter what you do, you put signs for that up, and parents wont read them. And even if they do read them, some of them are so whipped by their kids, they will buy the game anyway.
This reminds me of a parent that freaked out on me when I worked at Blockbuster over Mononoke Hime. He demanded his money back because it was too violent for a cartoon. He didn’t understand when I explained that is was Anime, and its a whole different ballpark from Disney or Looney Tunes. I also had to show him where the rating on the box was. It’s sad when you have to babysit the parents.
How about getting the kid to read a book instead of play video games?
….You bastard!
What’s the difference? Except for biographies, they’re both fictional (or non-fictional) stories meant to entertain you and take you away from your real life. Only in video games you have options and can play the same game through several times and make it a different story each time, using your own imagination. You challenge yourself strategically and develop your hand-eye coordination. A lot of games take about as long to get through as a book too, or much longer.
. . . ever hear of the term “learning”? Reading will benefit a child in the long run much more than video games will.
Because all books are non-fictional.
If you want your kids to do something they like, they would read fiction. That would build English skills, like spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. Movies, TV shows, video games, and even the internet generally do the same, depending on what you watch, play, or do. Books are just another medium, and they probably earned nerd points for not being able to turn the pages themselves.
Hrm… I never really had any of those happen to me. My parents were incredibly lax when it came to me buying video games (and I turned out fine… well, relatively fine); the only issue would be whether or not I could I coax them to drive to the store and buy it for me, haha.
To be quite frank, I was never intensely affected by M games.
Except for Doom.
Jesus Christ Doom scared the crap out of me.
My brother got in so much trouble after he asked me to drive him to Game Stop and buy him a game. Too bad I didn’t know it was Gears of War! I got in some trouble too for driving him there but my brother got grounded for 3 weeks! Finally I can use his games!! LOL!! Before I get a video game or movie, I look for it on youtube or on the internet and look for the reviews and comments. It helps! I almost got Viva Pinata but I asked one of my bro’s friends and he said it was stupid. I am a girl that can drive FYI.
VP isn’t a bad game. unless you hate things like simcity, then you most likely just wont like it.
YOU LIKE GEARS OF WAR??!!!???!!! Isn’t that against girl code?
I don’t care if you think I am weird for liking my brother’s games! I don’t actually PLAY them!!! I just mess up the progress or screw up the profile. LOL! I am not goth if that is what you are coming to. XD I am just a regular teenager that always gets tortured by her 12 year old brother… THAT is the reason why I like to mess up my bro’s games! I am not goth or emo. I just don’t like pink. (the color and the person) XP
If I was your brother, I think I’d strangle you. Mind you, I am neither twelve nor male. Messing up the game progress is a terrible thing to do. Imagine you’ve been working on a painting for a month, then your brother came and smeared paint all over it, making it unsalvageable. Would you think that’s funny?
i don’t, lol my friend tailor is a girl and she plays wow like me
. so yeah, there are some female gamers out there.
there is another, probably much smaller slice for ‘Argue with each other about the appropriatness of said video game.” Another graph could be made for ‘How often Mom/Dad win arguments about the appropriatness of said video game in relation to age of the child.’ The first nine years of the child’s life, mom always wins. Between the ages of 10 and 13, Dad wins about half the time. After 13, Dad wins most of the time.
Man, isn’t that the truth.
SO true I just got F.E.A.R 2 she looked at the ratings and said ok and after the first curse word she said ‘OMG TURN THAT CRAP OFF’!!
my mom does all 4.
My mom will be sitting next to me playing GTA IV and laugh hysterically when i kill a hooker… you know why? we know its JUST A GOD DAMN GAME lol
I successfully bought an M game at Target. I was 13. My mom saw it (after I bought it) and she dragged me to the return counter with the game kept at a firm grip. What was she worried about? “Mild sexual Content”. She asked to see gameplay of it before she let me buy it again. What did I learn?
If you successfully buy an M game while underage, be sure to hide it from your parents!
In Australia, the highest rating for games is MA (15+) which means we don’t get really gory or sexual games (manhunt anyone? They also nerfed the gore in left 4 dead 2)
I am a huge gamer/computer hardware nerd, they should create a R18+ rating for games, just like movies… it’s unfair to us gamers!
Uhh your so right
Not that I don’t agree with the numbers, but I would like to see some sources on the results.
that is, sadly, true
My moron sister-in-law lets her four-year-old play GTA San Andreas. My husband had borrowed it and when I babysat the four-year-old his mother said that if he asked he could play it. I said “not in my house. you’ll have to wait until you’re 14 to play this” and hid the game. We spent the rest of the day coloring and playing outside.
This is the same sister-in-law who buys her four-year-old kid lottery tickets and lets him stay up until 2am watching adult-oriented tv shows on comedy central. The kid is a total brat and acts like the whole world is his. I swear, if my son ever acts like that he’ll get the business end of a whuppin’ on his rear.
lawl sounds like your sister in law is a retard, CALL CHILD SERVICES NOW
what’s she gonna buy him next, crack, whiskey?
Thank You I totally agree
lol i remember one time my 3 year old nephew jason same to visit, and i was playing left 4 dead 2 and he got out of bed and walked over to me and said with a deep southern accent, (he’s from georgia) “Tannuh, what aw ya’ll doin’?” i replied, “Playing a big boy game, now go back to bed.”, to which he replied “but i wanna play! i wanna shoot stuff!” and i told him to go back to bed and he did. he’s also obsessed with guns and shooting stuff, since he’s georgian and he lives on an army base with his dad, and he’s only 3!!!