The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
The realism of games has clearly improved over the most recent of years. Think, for a moment about ‘Pong’ an ancient game now but really it was the first readily available console (that is to say the Pong console) Back then when the world was just being given its first addictive taste of gaming there was no one to blame suicides and thefts would not be blamed on consoles but on the parenting or peer pressure. So why now over 20 years later is the blame shifted on to games, of course it is a number of reasons the most obvious being that parents nowadays don’t want this ‘Un-caring’ image burdening them so they blame Virtual Reality but that is what it is and will remain. However we must see their point so here goes.
As the reality (In the form of graphics) improves so to does the false image that it is real. When you see real time crashes and ear piercing screams you may be pushed into the impression that it is real or at least based on reality. The problem with this next generation realism is that there are a high number of ‘Impressionable youths’ out there and with the pressure to fit in that is becoming more and more over powering doing some ‘Thug like’ act could be seen to ‘boost their street cred’
The games on the whole are fine but it is one or two games which cause the trouble. Of course that isn’t to say that they are bad games, quite the contrary in fact these games have now as I said above got to realistic for their own good. Following the success of the GTA series there has been an apparent boost in the number of street crime based games in our charts and with the raging success comes more blame.
It is not of course only games that are being blamed over the last few years, perhaps more accusation has been placed on the shoulders of music Rap, Hiphop and Rock the worst offenders. The lyrics in these songs portray the image of violence and crime and with the thrash style tune of the rock songs it isn't surprising. So in recent months Rappers especially have been trying to change their image or at least justify it. With the release of Eminem’s ‘8 Mile’ film in the pipes he is clearly trying this ‘New Leaf’ approach as the film shows his struggle to get to the top.
In the eyes of parents it seems there has to be someone else to blame but why blame games when for over 20 years they have happily entertained the world and music even longer. The important thing for them to remember is that it IS only virtual reality after all and so the question of what would make a teen that impressionable that he would copy games? Perhaps the ones to blame are you, if you are the parent it is surely your responsibility?
But hey why take the blame and try and fix it when it is easier to blame something else?
Colourless
The realism of games has clearly improved over the most recent of years. Think, for a moment about ‘Pong’ an ancient game now but really it was the first readily available console (that is to say the Pong console) Back then when the world was just being given its first addictive taste of gaming there was no one to blame suicides and thefts would not be blamed on consoles but on the parenting or peer pressure. So why now over 20 years later is the blame shifted on to games, of course it is a number of reasons the most obvious being that parents nowadays don’t want this ‘Un-caring’ image burdening them so they blame Virtual Reality but that is what it is and will remain. However we must see their point so here goes.
As the reality (In the form of graphics) improves so to does the false image that it is real. When you see real time crashes and ear piercing screams you may be pushed into the impression that it is real or at least based on reality. The problem with this next generation realism is that there are a high number of ‘Impressionable youths’ out there and with the pressure to fit in that is becoming more and more over powering doing some ‘Thug like’ act could be seen to ‘boost their street cred’
The games on the whole are fine but it is one or two games which cause the trouble. Of course that isn’t to say that they are bad games, quite the contrary in fact these games have now as I said above got to realistic for their own good. Following the success of the GTA series there has been an apparent boost in the number of street crime based games in our charts and with the raging success comes more blame.
It is not of course only games that are being blamed over the last few years, perhaps more accusation has been placed on the shoulders of music Rap, Hiphop and Rock the worst offenders. The lyrics in these songs portray the image of violence and crime and with the thrash style tune of the rock songs it isn't surprising. So in recent months Rappers especially have been trying to change their image or at least justify it. With the release of Eminem’s ‘8 Mile’ film in the pipes he is clearly trying this ‘New Leaf’ approach as the film shows his struggle to get to the top.
In the eyes of parents it seems there has to be someone else to blame but why blame games when for over 20 years they have happily entertained the world and music even longer. The important thing for them to remember is that it IS only virtual reality after all and so the question of what would make a teen that impressionable that he would copy games? Perhaps the ones to blame are you, if you are the parent it is surely your responsibility?
But hey why take the blame and try and fix it when it is easier to blame something else?