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"I wonder if anyone feels the same"

I’ve been a gamer all my life, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a console nestling beside my TV and a controller planted firmly in my hands. What I can remember though, is a time when children would play the games intended for children, and adults would play something that suited them. Tell me…where did it all go wrong?

I work in a busy music/video/games shop and over the past few months I’ve become increasingly horrified at the games children bring to the counter. A child no older than 9 presented me with a copy of Onimusha 2. Now, I own this game and am aware of the level of blood, violence and demons contained within. I glanced at the box and realized that there was no BBFC certificate listed, just a pointless ELSPA age recommendation. Anyone who works in retail will know that this is not a legal rating and is merely there as a guideline, not enforceable. I had no choice in selling the game to the child.

Now I realize that there are worse games than Onimusha out there, in fact, that game in particular is mild in comparison to other titles on the market. There’s Vice City, the Getaway, the Resident Evil games, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, BMX XXX, Mortal Kombat, etc, all arguably unsuitable for a particularly young child. However what links these games is an enforceable BBFC certificate, forbidding retailers to sell the product to underage children. That’s all well and good, but what of Onimusha, Devil May Cry, Dead or Alive (no prizes for guessing the unsuitability there!) and games such as that. Nothing too severe I know, but would you seriously hand a small child a copy of Dead or Alive so they can watch the animated breasts bounce, or Onimusha so they can carve up some demons?

Ok, you may think I’m being hysterical over this, but my point is, it’s not so much what our children are playing now, it’s what children in the future could be getting their hands on. Playing violent games is in some ways worse than handing them a copy of Reservoir Dogs. Why? In a film, you’re merely a spectator, witnessing the horror onscreen. In a game, you control the whole thing. You’re the perpetrator of the violence. It’s interactive. Surely that has got to be more dangerous.

One thing I’ve noticed too, is that parents are more likely to buy an 18 game for an underage child than they are to buy an 18 film. For some reason, parents don’t view the games as harmful and often buy them on behalf of their children if their children have already been refused sale. What choice do we have? We can’t refuse sales to the parents even though we know the game’s going straight into the hands of children. It’s quite a frightening situation and something needs to be done to make parents treat 18 games the same way they’d treat 18 films.

I know I’m going to get a barrage of answers protesting that games aren’t harmful to children and that I’m just being hysterical, but is there anyone out there who thinks games are becoming unnecessarily violent? Not for adult gamers who are old enough to establish the difference between a computer game and reality, but for children who are still developing. There’s a huge adult fanbase out there, but computer games have always been predominantly for kids, and a huge amount of gaming mags are read by them too. Anyone else see the danger?

You want to move closer to Milton Keynes then....loads of cows...all plastic

**mobile phone beeps...new message...woo hoo**

Ah I see someone doesn't get out the house much.

*gets out a plastic cow*

You see Dougal, these cows are small, but the ones out the window are very....far.....away.

**Gets out his mobile phone and starts texting frantically**

You can't tell me they weren't works of genius.

"The maid greets you at the door. Her outfit is obviously a size too small, and her firm breasts threaten to burst out at any given moment"

> grab her breasts

"You reach forward, and take a handful, she doesn't resist. In fact she closes her eyes, opens her mouth and moans as she begs for more.

> *censored*


Sheer genius.

LOL...Ohhh kinky

Uh...I didn't say 'exactly right' to the previous message. Bad timing. Oops. You DUHHTY boy...

Exactly right, after all, some of the classic games that will be remembered as true landmarks in their genre are the subtle ones. Metal Gear will always be venerated but not because of it's weapons/great killing techniques. It's about tactics and brain power. Not suited for your average hack and slash player.

The best sex games were those erotic text adventures. Left everything to the imagination.

What's that? No, I never played them at all...

*looks around nervously*

Unbeliever wrote:

> So, developers will increasingly make games more and more
> violent...except the developers who know that you don't need to have
> violence to make a good game. Humour works just as well, if not
> better.

I'd have to say i'd far more prefer to play a game that'll make me laugh rather than one where i spend 4 hours beating the living hell out of some poor defenseless granny on a sidewalk!

I'm sick and tired of all these violent games. I think the "Mark of Kri" is the latest by Sony (of course) to depict extreme violence in a game. Violence sells and people know it. Sex in games doesn't sell as well as violence - maybe because you can buy a porno rather than play a game for kicks. The makers of BMX XXX learnt this the hard way.
So, developers will increasingly make games more and more violent...except the developers who know that you don't need to have violence to make a good game. Humour works just as well, if not better.