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Parents!? Ok, enough is enough.
All video games are NOT like Trix cereal! All video games are not for kids!
Mature content in video games vary in degrees of severity much like in movies. It is ridiculously odd to me why in this day and age that so many parents do not understand or respect this fact.
As video games have aged as an industry, so have its fans. In the early days of the art, due to the cartoonish nature of the graphics, no one would care if an 8 bit or 16 bit Predator rip out the spine of a beige blob intended to be Arnold. For me, the first time the nation really got its shock treatment was when Mortal Kombat hit arcades around the world with lifelike (for the time that is) graphics depicting beheadings, ripping heads off, copious amounts of blood, and other gruesome fates. All of the sudden, the graphic quality in games brought the violent nature of them ‘to light’. I suppose the FPS’s Doom and Castle Wolfenstein also ruffled a few feathers but not quite like MK.
In a way, the games of the age were mimicking the content boundaries of the popular movies of their age. As movies like Robocop, Predator, Total Recall, all attempted to push the envelop of accepted Hollywood violence and gore for Rated R movies. At that time, video games had no such ratings so they would go to the levels that movies couldn’t without receiving an NC-17 rating. Of course, when Mortal Kombat made its way to consoles, that’s when the caca hit the fan and the rating system was birthed.
Since then, parents were forced into repeated debates and discussed various controversies about the violent content of games like the Grand Theft Auto series, the notorious airport scene in Call of Duty:MW2, and Postal 2. Every where you turn in the gaming industry, there are new first person shooters with realistic weaponry or supreme savagery. Games like Gears of War and their chainsaw guns or God of War with his perpetual bladed rage and dismemberment state of mind seem to dominate the sales charts as well as the marketing. As a result, many of these Mature rated blood fests tend to be the titles that a majority of the young gamers gravitate to.
Now I’m a gaming parent of 3 young boys (8,8, and 10) and a daughter that is barely a year old. I constantly have debates and arguments with my mother and my wife on how often and how long I allow my sons to play video games as well as the kinds I allow them to play. As it stands, they only have a Wii, the original Xbox, and a few 3DS’s. I let them play the different Halo games and a few other shooters but I try to limit their exposure to too many FPS games due to the violence. The last thing I want is for my 10 year old to start a random conversation out in public with his grandmother about how he ‘sniped this other guy in the head’ and how he enjoys assassinating people or ripping monsters apart. Not cool, baby Bunneh. Not cool.
Now that violence in video games is an accepted aspect of many modern games, the visual quality is also leading to the emergence of more sexual content. After hearing stories of Gamestop employees who gave in to their young kid’s ‘peer pressure’ and bought them Grand Theft Auto V, it really makes me wonder if some parents have become a bit desensitized to gaming content, again. Now don’t get me wrong. Parenting is one of those things where it is a case by case basis. Some parents are close enough to their kids where they trust them enough to recognize or understand the graphic, obscene, and adult content featured in games like GTA V is nothing to mimic or emulate in real life. Still, I’ve got a sinking feeling that a majority of these parents simply don’t know or care what their kids ‘get into’.
Here’s the scene.
Sneaky little 8 Year Old: – MOM! You’ve got to get me this new Grand Theft Auto 5 game! It’s going to be so cool!
Oblivious Irresponsible Mom: – Oh really? But isn’t that game rated M for Mature?
Sneaky little 8 Year Old: Yeah, but so was Halo 4 and you bought that for me!
Oblivious Irresponsible Mom: Ok, deary!
Don’t get me wrong though. I don’t fault the gaming store employees one bit. Their responsibility ends if the purchaser of the game is over the required age for purchase. Good employees who care will mention the game’s adult content but I’m certain most either did not or would not.
It’s kind of like letting your kids hop on YouTube or Netflix without some kind of supervision. Any and everything can be accessed on YouTube if you are crafty enough. There are enough questionable movies that are R rated and NR (not rated) that I’m sure most parents wouldn’t want their 7-11 year old watching. I feel as if the same goes for video games despite how much or little of certain content is in the game (optional or otherwise).
The interesting catch is and will be with the rise in digital purchasing, how will unknowing parents be able to police their kids and what they purchase. I guarantee that most parents don’t or won’t utilize the parental controls. There will probably be a decent amount of those who do that would still manage to let games like GTA V slip through the cracks.
Either way, I don’t think the gaming industry needs to do anything more. They shouldn’t be crucified for creating the content and shouldn’t be responsible for policing who purchases. All other art forms (music, movies) have the same challenges.
All I’m saying is this… once the Oculus Rift hits and becomes a popular gaming accessory (which I think it will), watch out for the porn related content. THEN I’m CERTAIN topics like this will come up again!
In the end, it is us as parents who much stay on top of the media that our children are exposed to. While video games are NOT the cause for the ills in our society, exposure to certain things before they can handle it sure does contribute. We must all be careful what they take in.
Bunneh3000 out!
BJ Brown, a gamer since the days of Texas Instruments PCs with cartidges, I embody the 'casual' gamer moniker. RPGs, turn based strategy, hack n slashers, NBA sims, shooters, Space flight combat sims, and mech combat sims are my forte. If you need a Battlefield commander, I'm your Cylon... I mean... um... man.
Republished from gamingprecision.com
