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BBC/Daily Mail/Stupid People begin to worry about whether GTA:Vice City will encourage violence amongst children.
Must be a slow news day.
How come nobody asks us? Because we'd laugh and walk away is why.
Altogether now kids:
Video games are evil, they warp my mind. I want to kill everyone because I played a computer game.
Here's what really makes me sick:
Stupid Parent "Grand Theft Auto will make my child evil!"
Normal Person "Take responsibility for teaching your child right and wrong then"
Stupid Parent "Little Timmy played it and he's going to worship Satan and rape people and snort drugs, I just know it"
Normal Person "Raise your child correctly then, spend time with Timmy. Stop expecting teachers to raise your children and you dump them in front of video games and tv with burgers"
Stupid Parent "But evil videogames baaaaah! Baaaaah! Baaaaaah!"
Normal Person "Why weren't you concerned when you let them go trick or treating by themselves. At night, alone? Why are you so worried about a game?"
Stupid Person "Because the paper says to be! Baaaah! Baaaah! Baaaaah!"
> Fact is, if you let your child play this kind of game, then it's your
> own fault. It's rated 18 for a reason, as our banner so succinctly
> put it.
That was GTA3...
Get with the times mate!
> My point, as Rosalind's is:
> The discussion about influencing kids is a silly one, as it's rated 18
> and kids shouldnt even be going near it.
My point is that it is not only kids who can be affected.
Most people aren't so foolish.
But then, most people have no allergy to peanuts. Doesn't mean they don't need to carry a fat health warning.
I would say 1 in 100 people can be affected by playing games. A combination of playing certain games too often, and having the sort of personality that can be easilly swayed to abstract and violent fantasy.
I don't believe that games MAKE you violent. But in SOME cases, it can amplify such traits. It certainly doesn't "let off steam".
Cue any violnece obsessed muppet demanding I am wrong, and that games don't change anyone, and claiming that they are "perfectly normal". Perfectly normal indeed.
My point, as Rosalind's is:
The discussion about influencing kids is a silly one, as it's rated 18 and kids shouldnt even be going near it.
Yet the press will harp on about the "damaging effects" and wheel out the same old tired arguments, yet not one paper will say "Rated 18 game Vice City".
Or, if they do,it'll be swept under with the usual "Well harassed parents buy the game to keep the kids quiet"
Then it's the slack parent who should be blamed, not Rockstar.
I like games that allow me to act recklessly, and I dont want that choice removed in case some spastic kid gets it into his cabbage head to try and act-out what he sees.
Or, if that is going to be the case, I'd call it Natural Selection, sympathies to the family etc but let's move on.
> It sickens me firstly thatso many people so readilly indulge in
> "letting off steam" in this manner, yet I hear far too often
> about people throwing their controllers around the room and
> threatening to throw the console out of the window. You're not letting
> off steam in these games, you're just trying to satisfy some sick need
> to hurt something. And while you've got games to play this may be all
> well and good, but what about when they aren't there for you? No
> pretend baseball bats to swing at someone you're imaging to be your
> boss, or your teacher. No fantastic series' of punches you can put
> together on a face you pretend belongs to your mother, your sister,
> your ex-best friend.
Let me point out first that I class this argument as a different one to the argument about underage gamers playing 18 rated games
Your way of the mark as far as I am concerned. I don't play Grand Theft auto in oredr to let of steam. I play it for an immersive experiance in the same way that I have recently spent 70 hours playing Final Fantasy 10 (not the most violent game ever known :D) I never imagine hitting anyone I know, but I do enjoy going around a pretend city hitting innocent passers by with a baseball bat and picking up whatever money and weapons they may be carrying. I don't have some sick need to hurt someone. I cry when I hear about something sad on the news. What I do have is the complete ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not. I hit the Ogre once when we were having an argument. I still feel bad about it. I do not and never will feel bad about using a controller to make a made up person on a screen hit another made up person on a screen, because It is not real.
> The fact is that there are too many lousy parents around who are too
> quick to blame games/films etc for their own parental shortcomings and
> the violent society we live in, when they should look at how they
> actually raise and teach their children instead.
The fact is that the fact they are allowing their children in contact with 18 rated products is part of their parental shortcomings. I doubt very much cases where this is only shortcoming will result in deviant children, but in my opinion it is a factor.
It is no matter if people agree or disagree with rateings the fact is that it is illegal to provide children under 18 with material rated 18. Therefor these parents are at least not proving a lawful rolemodel for their children
Because they are good? No, I have to disagree. The number of war games, and violence littered games that sell well massively exceeds the number of such games that can be called quality games.
So why then? Why do people so greatly feel the need to tear pixels, limb from limb? Why do they need the capacity to stroll the streets with a baseball bat in their coat, and beat seven bells out of random passers by?
Many of thse games, the GTA series included, have no substance, just sick violent appeal to people who like hurting things.
It sickens me firstly thatso many people so readilly indulge in "letting off steam" in this manner, yet I hear far too often about people throwing their controllers around the room and threatening to throw the console out of the window. You're not letting off steam in these games, you're just trying to satisfy some sick need to hurt something. And while you've got games to play this may be all well and good, but what about when they aren't there for you? No pretend baseball bats to swing at someone you're imaging to be your boss, or your teacher. No fantastic series' of punches you can put together on a face you pretend belongs to your mother, your sister, your ex-best friend.
No, when this time comes, it's entirely possible that some people may fuse gaming with reality.
It's a fact of being human. The more often you "let off team", the more steam you have to let off. Playing these absurdly brutal games breeds anxiety, rather than siphoning it away.
I'm sure I'll have a horde of teenagers jump on me now claiming I believe games make people violent, and some idiotic buffoon will say "What about movies?" etc. Well, all I will bother to say is that the movies experience is a) massively linear by definition and b) far shorter than a gaming experience, with the possible exception of a few Kevin Costner films...
end of rant
> " My son only stabbed that man because of the bad video games not
> my dreadful parenting "
Basically true.
The fact is that there are too many lousy parents around who are too quick to blame games/films etc for their own parental shortcomings and the violent society we live in, when they should look at how they actually raise and teach their children instead.