Video games

[AllenETreat]

This is about as "off topic" as I've strayed.

I know there's alot of you who have these new video games &
players like the "X" box, Play Station 2, and the rest. I've got to admit
video games have come a long way since Space Invaders.

I couldn't even get that protagonist in Grand Theft Auto to
move around the screen! :eek: So, to get to the matter at hand,
do you people think these games promote violence? I for one don't
think they promote violence anymore than Hollywood does. A politician
out to make a name for themselves take a few isolated incidences and
suddenly there's a "rating system" for the games and now talk of banning
some of them.

Frankly I think the MADD mothers have gone too damn far.

What say the augurers?

AET

[i.v]

people, as indivisuals, are mostly quite intelligent & in todays world they learn the difference between movies\video games & real life at very early ages.

exposure to violence in virtual recriational activities does not encourage violent behavior unless there is already something wrong with the person playing\watching, in which case they are a ticking time bomb anyway & that is how i explain the recent "GTA" case for example.

[Fisher of Men]

I used to play stuff like Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike. CS was a fave of mine. I was pretty good, ran my own server from my home (a dedicated with AdminMod, StatsME, and other stuff). I had to give it up. I gave it up by my choice. It was taking up too much of my time and it didn't do anything for me. I don't play computer games now. I don't even have a console. Well, I have an N64 because I like to play Mario Cart sometimes. That's the only game I have :)

As far as games being too violent... Here's my take.

I don't think that the violent game makes a kid violent. However it does make you less sensitive to the real world (I think). I think stuff like Counter-Strike where it's just sort of like "cops and robbers" is not a bad thing in moderation. I however think that stuff like HL2 and Doom3 are just too gorey. Why the need for so much blood. I cannot play a game like that because it makes me feel uneasy when I see all that blood and nasty stuff. I can't even stand how in the old UT it would say "killing spree" or "headshot". All that is unneeded.

I think GTA is funny....kind of ...just because of how the people act. It has just gotten out of hand however. With GTA3 and all the different ones it's just too much. You should not be able to pick up a prostitute in a game that a 14 year old kid is playing. The original GTA was kind of funny, and the newest ones seem like they are just about gang bangin, the mob, and sex. Gee what a nice game for a teen :rolleyes:

I would have no problem sitting down with my child and playing Mario Cart or something like Blinx for the XBOX. Why do we have to have such gore? I don't know.

That's my take folks :)

Good day,
Fisher of Men

[Senate]

I'm in favor of a rating system for video games/films but banning seems too much. As I.V. said it, the problem is in the people not what they watch/listen/play. The "System" attacks movies/music/games because it's the easiest way and they don't want to see their failure in term of education, poverty etc...

[UK KEN]

Allen!

A good question. Without over simplifying my answer, I feel that if a person is going to offend it is in their nature and they would do it with or without the "influence" of video games.

Some people out there are too quick to blame video games, the media, films, the “permissive society” and even Rock'n'Roll. I know you remember that far back Allen ;) Each generation has attributed what they consider deteriorations in behaviour to countless new developments in society. It is easier to do that than take responsibility for our own shortcomings where teaching and directing our children is concerned.

As a parent it is my responsibility to provide a safe environment for my kids to develop in. Without stifling their creativity or rushing them into adulthood I still have to give them enough information, guidance and love to help at least point them in the right direction. I believe that interaction and education is the way forward.

So, where my son is concerned he plays video games but he knows that they are games. When he watches the television he knows the difference between a movie and the news, these days both equally graphic! When he reads something he is aware which is fiction and which is fact. Even so, there is nothing to guarantee that he will not do something crazy in the future. Parenting isn’t an easy job, I have made mistakes and I’m sure that I’ll make more as I go along……blaming video games is a cop out! :)

Regards, Ken

[Simon G]

I think I'm going to open myself up here but I believe that violent/gory vid games, in conjuntion with other social factors, contribute to a more aggressive society.

Coupled with TV/movies and a particular individuals take on reality, some will be influenced in ways that are not morally acceptable. violence is then de-sensatised. I will stress, it is not vid games alone that cause this, but the whole general dumbing down of western society.

Having seen active military service and faced violence more often than not in my current job, the level of violence offered by the antagonist seems to be becoming more severe.

I personally notice the change in attitude with my teen nephews once they became fully submersed in a "game". I don't believe this was their latent personality.

Just my take.

God Bless.

[Scotch]

Ive played CS for 5 years. since beta 3

[Hannibal Lecter]

Each generation has attributed what they consider deteriorations in behaviour to countless new developments in society. It is easier to do that than take responsibility for our own shortcomings where teaching and directing our children is concerned.

As a parent it is my responsibility to provide a safe environment for my kids to develop in. Without stifling their creativity or rushing them into adulthood I still have to give them enough information, guidance and love to help at least point them in the right direction. I believe that interaction and education is the way forward.

So, where my son is concerned he plays video games but he knows that they are games. When he watches the television he knows the difference between a movie and the news, these days both equally graphic! When he reads something he is aware which is fiction and which is fact. Even so, there is nothing to guarantee that he will not do something crazy in the future. Parenting isn’t an easy job, I have made mistakes and I’m sure that I’ll make more as I go along……blaming video games is a cop out! :)

Regards, Ken

A voice of reason here on a hot topic. :) Thanks, Ken.

I have a six-year old daughter. My child knows the difference between fantasy and reality, and her education will continue indefinitely guided by my hand. She has been taught the reality that something must die so that we might live. She has been taught that it is incorrect to harm others, but that defending herself from harm by others is mandatory. I monitor what she watches, and if she sees something on television that I can tell she doesn't fully understand, we talk about it. Yes, we sit down and take the time to discuss it.

I take the time to monitor her, listen to shat she says and pay attention to what she is doing. Not like a warden; more of a guardian angel of sorts, for lack of a better perspective.

I recall that at least one of the Columbine shooters had a Nazi flag hanging in his bedroom well prior to the shooting. Folks, I am here to tell you, if I see something like that in my child's room there will be an immediate intervention; I won't wait for the "How To Make Stuff Go BOOM! 101" pamphlet to appear on her bookshelf.

Rant off.

---
Ta,

Hannibal

[Hannibal Lecter]

I think I'm going to open myself up here but I believe that violent/gory vid games, in conjuntion with other social factors, contribute to a more aggressive society.

Coupled with TV/movies and a particular individuals take on reality, some will be influenced in ways that are not morally acceptable. violence is then de-sensitized. I will stress, it is not vid games alone that cause this, but the whole general dumbing down of western society.


I agree that society on the whole is becoming more desensitized to violence, but I don't personally believe it has much if anything to do with video games. There might be a correlation, I admit, but proving causation is just not going to happen. There are too many other factors to isolate just one. Such assumptions just aren't based on sound scientific principle, though they make for sensational front page headlines. :p

As you pointed out, my child can see too much violence any given night on the evening news. :(

---
Ta,

Hannibal

[ghostrider]

I also agree with the idea that video games/movies desensitize. It seems the rating system would work more as a tool for parents rather than any amount of prevention. I think that desensatizing can have an effect to a certian extent, but it is only one factor of many.

[boxer93]

As a parent it is my responsibility

Regards, Ken
Enough said. Influences come from everywhere. From video games to a grandmother that smokes. Kids have to learn from someone, I hope that my values stuck first.
Chris

[dialex]

Thanks for the topic. Computer games are part of my life for a long time. Though I seldom get any time to play nowadays, I like to be in touch with the latest releases. I agree that they have a major impact upon the new generation. Helas, they had a major impact upon older generations, like mine :(
And I'd like to state a few things. Not all games are violent. Of course, there are violent ones that are well known and I think it could be a marketing issue involved here as well. There are the FPS (first person shooters), more realistic (like Delta Force or Rainbow Six) or just imagination exercises (starting with the Serious Sam, which is like a movie of Quentin Tarantino - there is so much gore, blood and violence that it becomes grotesque, and ending with the amazing Half Life 2, which IS the next level in FPS). But FPS doesn't mean only shooting. And I advice everyone to try at least one of the Thief series, where you are NOT a muscle packed macho with lotsa guns. And there is very little shooting involved there (in fact, the less people you kill, the better rating you have).
There is also another sort of games that involves little violence, and this would be the construction games. Take the SimCity, or the Transport Tycoon series or even the Caesar or the Pharaoh (and there are many others). The aim of those games is to manage a city, or a transport network, or even a province. It's true that in Caesar and Pharaoh you need to train an army and a local militia, but I think the combative part is definitely not violent.
They speak much of the GTA. It has a lot of violence, indeed. What they don't say is there are many other driving games without any violence inside (except bumping the car in a tree or in the opponent's). There are dirivng simulators, plane simulators, even train ones. I actually find them pretty educative. Educative could be considered the so called adventure games (anyone remembers Larry?) Some of them are considered real works of art (Myst, anyone?). But my favorites remain the strategy games. Either turn based, like the ordinary chess or backgammon, or the more sophisticated Civilisation (the first one still is on my computer), but especially the real time strategies (Warcraft, C&C aso.). not to mention my very favorite Dungeon Keeper 2.
And I realize I forgot a very important category, the "dumb" computer games, where everything started. Do you remeber Supaplex? A game where you had to drive a smiling dot (named Murphy) inside a computer, where it had to eat a number of crackers (called "infotrons"), avoiding in the same time all sort of boulders, scissors aso. Frankly, when I reached the level 70 (out a number of 110, if I remember well), I was feeling half of a pound smarter ;).
Oh gosh, looks like I let myself slide on the memories slope :o Better stttop now, before I install that Half Life again (oh, how I miss sometimes those places form Xen) ;)

[dialex]

I think I forgot to emphasize what I think is the major danger of computer games. First, they are addictive. I've seen people who spend most of the time with the favorite game and literally forget to have a life :( It's like a drug sometimes.
Second, they are time consuming. I know of someone who spent over 100 (one hundred) hours :eek: in front of the computer, playing Warlords (or something) in order to get himself an "epical armor" (whatever that is). And when I talked with another guy about how someone can spend such an amount of time just to get a useless item after all, do you know what he replied? "Useless? You have no idea what you can do with an epical armor!" No comment. :rolleyes:

[LONE WOLF]

My favorite Videogames are:

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto Vice City

Grand Theft Auto 3

Max Payne

Max Payne 2 The Fall Of Max Payne

Dead To Rights

[DAYWALKER]

Aloha Allen!

Good to see you bro!

Sorry, but I do not play these video games...my job is like a video game in itself!!! :D

Take care and God bless :cool:

[Slvgx]

I work at a movie/game rental store. I see that most parents do not care what the rating system is anyways. Kids will bring up GTA so I ask them to go outside into the parking lot and get their parents out of the mini van and come inside and OK the game selection. So many parents get so annoyed by this that they change the status on their account to make it so we do not ask for ID, essentially meaning that they allow their kids to rent anything in the store regardless of rating. This says quite a bit more about the parents rather than video games though.

I grew up on video games. Mario was my babysitter! I have no problems with people playing GTA and the gory FPS games out there. I hardly ever play anything along those lines though. I am 21 and I still love Mario. Aside from your typical platform games with cute mascots I mostly play RPGs. I am a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. I will agree with the statement of games being addictive, especially online gaming. I quit FFXI a little while ago and it was extremely difficult to do. I spent many many many hours online gaining levels and gil and all that good stuff to no end.

I've been trying to cut back on video games myself, I spend a lot of time on them. I decided to stay away from online gaming for a while and go back to console gaming. I dug up my old FFVI and started a new game....BEST GAME EVER!

[silverback]

Good topic.

Video games are a medium like any other and the influence they have is not more or less IMHO. Adults will not be influenced by them, if someone is violent or prone to go amok :eek: it's because he is somehow screwed up to begin with. Blaming video games vastly overrates their importance. :)
It's suspiciously easy to do the violence=violence math while ignoring the countless cases where extensive britney-spears collections were found. :D
On the other hand it's more logical to assume that someone with a violent predisposition will not buy a cute jump-and-run video game. You get my drift... :rolleyes:

Video games, like movies or literature, are a changing and developing medium. The initial target-group is growing up, so many games are targeting a mature audience, too. This is a natural development that offers exciting possibilities.
Of course parents have to monitor this like they should supervise everything their kids do. You'll never let your child watch porn or zombie movies and you won't give it books of that kind. Same with video games. If a child is exposed to the wrong media content the parents went wrong.

[liltemp1]

OOOOh yea, the long awaited Sony playstation portable will be in the hands of owners Thursday 3/24/05. got to check it out real good at my favorite game store last night.