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We’ve had the issue of censorship raised on these boards more than once. In nearly every instance people have said that they actually don’t take any notice of the age rating that has been put on a game.
Now, I’m not going to go into what I believe about the censorship issue, because that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ll save that for another time.
However, what I am going to rant about is the way adults (mostly) defend censorship.
How many times have the younger people here heard the phrase "But it’s rated 18…" I’ve heard it many times, but I can always argue my way out of things like that. Anyway, it’s all fine and good for adults to try and protect their children but what really gets on my pecks is the way in which they defend it.
I totally accept that I’m still young and may be impressionable and that my parents are only trying to protect me. That’s fine, I have no problem with that. But if they’re trying to protect and shield me away from violence and general horror then why oh why do they let me watch the news? Why do they let me read adult books? Why do they let me read the newspaper?! All of these forms of media contain stories of violence, murder, rape and general nastiness from one human being to another.
I read a book called Stone Cold, it’s about how this mad ex-army person decided to clear the "riffraff layabouts out of this country" by that, he meant kill all the homeless people in and around London. It’s a vile concept and the book goes into disgusting detail on the status of the "recruits" as the mad guy puts it.
Is reading that kind of material really any worse for me than playing Max Payne? They both depict gore, violence and overall bad stuff but do my parents mind me reading Stone Cold? No, do they mind me playing Max Payne? Yes.When I ask them why I can read books like To Kill a Mocking Bird but can’t play Max Payne they reply that Max Payne actually shows me these things in picture form. To that I say "bollards" I’m a 13 year old, whatever my imagination can conjure up when presented with details is far far worse than what a game can show me. On the whole it’s probably safer for me to play violent gams than it is for me to read violent books. Yet my parents still condone me playing Max Payne.
OK then, what about the news? On September the 11th my local news station showed the poor people in the World Trade Centre jumping out of the windows to their death. They actually showed it. And I didn’t want to watch. But my parents didn’t mind me watching; they do mind me playing Grand Theft Auto 3 though. The scenes I saw on September the 11th are worse than anything in GTA3. Yet my parents still encourage me to watch the news, but discourage me from playing GTA3. That day, the news showed worse images than any game could ever create. Yet I’m still allowed to watch it.
And then we have newspapers. Recently, there was a story run about the Americans releasing images and videos taken from the cameras strapped to bombs. There was one video that showed not only 2 vans full of people being blown up, but the bomb actually hit a man, dead on, and blew him to pieces. The paper showed three pictures taken from that video. One of the man being targeted, one of the bomb hitting him and one of him being blown apart. I was shocked to see these pictures in a newspaper. After all, it’s adults that write for newspapers and yet it’s adults that complain about the damaging effect that video games may have. It’s adults that complain about the kinds of things that are being put into games. Damn Dirty Hypocrites!
If they want to shield children from horror then the first thing they have to do is remove all violence from the media. But what would that leave newspapers and the news to report on? Nothing. Exactly. So why do people still complain about horror in games? If mankind can sort itself out enough to rid violence from the media, then maybe I will listen to complaints about violence in games but until that happens, I’m still going to carry on playing GTA3, Max Payne and Perfect Dark no matter what complaints I hear.
RBS
Now, I’m not going to go into what I believe about the censorship issue, because that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ll save that for another time.
However, what I am going to rant about is the way adults (mostly) defend censorship.
How many times have the younger people here heard the phrase "But it’s rated 18…" I’ve heard it many times, but I can always argue my way out of things like that. Anyway, it’s all fine and good for adults to try and protect their children but what really gets on my pecks is the way in which they defend it.
I totally accept that I’m still young and may be impressionable and that my parents are only trying to protect me. That’s fine, I have no problem with that. But if they’re trying to protect and shield me away from violence and general horror then why oh why do they let me watch the news? Why do they let me read adult books? Why do they let me read the newspaper?! All of these forms of media contain stories of violence, murder, rape and general nastiness from one human being to another.
I read a book called Stone Cold, it’s about how this mad ex-army person decided to clear the "riffraff layabouts out of this country" by that, he meant kill all the homeless people in and around London. It’s a vile concept and the book goes into disgusting detail on the status of the "recruits" as the mad guy puts it.
Is reading that kind of material really any worse for me than playing Max Payne? They both depict gore, violence and overall bad stuff but do my parents mind me reading Stone Cold? No, do they mind me playing Max Payne? Yes.When I ask them why I can read books like To Kill a Mocking Bird but can’t play Max Payne they reply that Max Payne actually shows me these things in picture form. To that I say "bollards" I’m a 13 year old, whatever my imagination can conjure up when presented with details is far far worse than what a game can show me. On the whole it’s probably safer for me to play violent gams than it is for me to read violent books. Yet my parents still condone me playing Max Payne.
OK then, what about the news? On September the 11th my local news station showed the poor people in the World Trade Centre jumping out of the windows to their death. They actually showed it. And I didn’t want to watch. But my parents didn’t mind me watching; they do mind me playing Grand Theft Auto 3 though. The scenes I saw on September the 11th are worse than anything in GTA3. Yet my parents still encourage me to watch the news, but discourage me from playing GTA3. That day, the news showed worse images than any game could ever create. Yet I’m still allowed to watch it.
And then we have newspapers. Recently, there was a story run about the Americans releasing images and videos taken from the cameras strapped to bombs. There was one video that showed not only 2 vans full of people being blown up, but the bomb actually hit a man, dead on, and blew him to pieces. The paper showed three pictures taken from that video. One of the man being targeted, one of the bomb hitting him and one of him being blown apart. I was shocked to see these pictures in a newspaper. After all, it’s adults that write for newspapers and yet it’s adults that complain about the damaging effect that video games may have. It’s adults that complain about the kinds of things that are being put into games. Damn Dirty Hypocrites!
If they want to shield children from horror then the first thing they have to do is remove all violence from the media. But what would that leave newspapers and the news to report on? Nothing. Exactly. So why do people still complain about horror in games? If mankind can sort itself out enough to rid violence from the media, then maybe I will listen to complaints about violence in games but until that happens, I’m still going to carry on playing GTA3, Max Payne and Perfect Dark no matter what complaints I hear.
RBS
Page:
Sibs wrote:
PS. you are only 13!?!
Heh, yup.
Ant's only a year older than me though.
PS. you are only 13!?!
Heh, yup.
Ant's only a year older than me though.
I agree with you on that RBS. In truth, anything we do in a videogame that is considered 'bad' as it's violent or whatever, has in reality been done, and likely things hundreds of times worse been done as well. Why not censor life?
PS. you are only 13!?!
I imagined all Notables as in their late teens with fluffy beards. (except Grix... I imagine him much older than that)
;-)
PS. you are only 13!?!
I imagined all Notables as in their late teens with fluffy beards. (except Grix... I imagine him much older than that)
;-)
We’ve had the issue of censorship raised on these boards more than once. In nearly every instance people have said that they actually don’t take any notice of the age rating that has been put on a game.
Now, I’m not going to go into what I believe about the censorship issue, because that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ll save that for another time.
However, what I am going to rant about is the way adults (mostly) defend censorship.
How many times have the younger people here heard the phrase "But it’s rated 18…" I’ve heard it many times, but I can always argue my way out of things like that. Anyway, it’s all fine and good for adults to try and protect their children but what really gets on my pecks is the way in which they defend it.
I totally accept that I’m still young and may be impressionable and that my parents are only trying to protect me. That’s fine, I have no problem with that. But if they’re trying to protect and shield me away from violence and general horror then why oh why do they let me watch the news? Why do they let me read adult books? Why do they let me read the newspaper?! All of these forms of media contain stories of violence, murder, rape and general nastiness from one human being to another.
I read a book called Stone Cold, it’s about how this mad ex-army person decided to clear the "riffraff layabouts out of this country" by that, he meant kill all the homeless people in and around London. It’s a vile concept and the book goes into disgusting detail on the status of the "recruits" as the mad guy puts it.
Is reading that kind of material really any worse for me than playing Max Payne? They both depict gore, violence and overall bad stuff but do my parents mind me reading Stone Cold? No, do they mind me playing Max Payne? Yes.When I ask them why I can read books like To Kill a Mocking Bird but can’t play Max Payne they reply that Max Payne actually shows me these things in picture form. To that I say "bollards" I’m a 13 year old, whatever my imagination can conjure up when presented with details is far far worse than what a game can show me. On the whole it’s probably safer for me to play violent gams than it is for me to read violent books. Yet my parents still condone me playing Max Payne.
OK then, what about the news? On September the 11th my local news station showed the poor people in the World Trade Centre jumping out of the windows to their death. They actually showed it. And I didn’t want to watch. But my parents didn’t mind me watching; they do mind me playing Grand Theft Auto 3 though. The scenes I saw on September the 11th are worse than anything in GTA3. Yet my parents still encourage me to watch the news, but discourage me from playing GTA3. That day, the news showed worse images than any game could ever create. Yet I’m still allowed to watch it.
And then we have newspapers. Recently, there was a story run about the Americans releasing images and videos taken from the cameras strapped to bombs. There was one video that showed not only 2 vans full of people being blown up, but the bomb actually hit a man, dead on, and blew him to pieces. The paper showed three pictures taken from that video. One of the man being targeted, one of the bomb hitting him and one of him being blown apart. I was shocked to see these pictures in a newspaper. After all, it’s adults that write for newspapers and yet it’s adults that complain about the damaging effect that video games may have. It’s adults that complain about the kinds of things that are being put into games. Damn Dirty Hypocrites!
If they want to shield children from horror then the first thing they have to do is remove all violence from the media. But what would that leave newspapers and the news to report on? Nothing. Exactly. So why do people still complain about horror in games? If mankind can sort itself out enough to rid violence from the media, then maybe I will listen to complaints about violence in games but until that happens, I’m still going to carry on playing GTA3, Max Payne and Perfect Dark no matter what complaints I hear.
RBS
Now, I’m not going to go into what I believe about the censorship issue, because that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ll save that for another time.
However, what I am going to rant about is the way adults (mostly) defend censorship.
How many times have the younger people here heard the phrase "But it’s rated 18…" I’ve heard it many times, but I can always argue my way out of things like that. Anyway, it’s all fine and good for adults to try and protect their children but what really gets on my pecks is the way in which they defend it.
I totally accept that I’m still young and may be impressionable and that my parents are only trying to protect me. That’s fine, I have no problem with that. But if they’re trying to protect and shield me away from violence and general horror then why oh why do they let me watch the news? Why do they let me read adult books? Why do they let me read the newspaper?! All of these forms of media contain stories of violence, murder, rape and general nastiness from one human being to another.
I read a book called Stone Cold, it’s about how this mad ex-army person decided to clear the "riffraff layabouts out of this country" by that, he meant kill all the homeless people in and around London. It’s a vile concept and the book goes into disgusting detail on the status of the "recruits" as the mad guy puts it.
Is reading that kind of material really any worse for me than playing Max Payne? They both depict gore, violence and overall bad stuff but do my parents mind me reading Stone Cold? No, do they mind me playing Max Payne? Yes.When I ask them why I can read books like To Kill a Mocking Bird but can’t play Max Payne they reply that Max Payne actually shows me these things in picture form. To that I say "bollards" I’m a 13 year old, whatever my imagination can conjure up when presented with details is far far worse than what a game can show me. On the whole it’s probably safer for me to play violent gams than it is for me to read violent books. Yet my parents still condone me playing Max Payne.
OK then, what about the news? On September the 11th my local news station showed the poor people in the World Trade Centre jumping out of the windows to their death. They actually showed it. And I didn’t want to watch. But my parents didn’t mind me watching; they do mind me playing Grand Theft Auto 3 though. The scenes I saw on September the 11th are worse than anything in GTA3. Yet my parents still encourage me to watch the news, but discourage me from playing GTA3. That day, the news showed worse images than any game could ever create. Yet I’m still allowed to watch it.
And then we have newspapers. Recently, there was a story run about the Americans releasing images and videos taken from the cameras strapped to bombs. There was one video that showed not only 2 vans full of people being blown up, but the bomb actually hit a man, dead on, and blew him to pieces. The paper showed three pictures taken from that video. One of the man being targeted, one of the bomb hitting him and one of him being blown apart. I was shocked to see these pictures in a newspaper. After all, it’s adults that write for newspapers and yet it’s adults that complain about the damaging effect that video games may have. It’s adults that complain about the kinds of things that are being put into games. Damn Dirty Hypocrites!
If they want to shield children from horror then the first thing they have to do is remove all violence from the media. But what would that leave newspapers and the news to report on? Nothing. Exactly. So why do people still complain about horror in games? If mankind can sort itself out enough to rid violence from the media, then maybe I will listen to complaints about violence in games but until that happens, I’m still going to carry on playing GTA3, Max Payne and Perfect Dark no matter what complaints I hear.
RBS
Page: