So I was watching the news this morning as they announced the "Video Game Report Card" for the year and listed what games are to be avoided by parents and subsequently their children. The list did not amuse me. Thus, here's the list:

Parent Alert! Games to Avoid for Your Children and Teens:

1. Doom 3
2. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
3. Half Life 2
4. Halo 2
5. Resident Evil: Outbreak
6. Psi Ops: the Mindgate Conspiracy
7. The Guy Game
8. Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
9. Mortal Kombat Deception
10. Rumble Roses

Why the hell is Doom 3 listed as worse than GTA? I'm sorry, but Doom is a horror game, and a pretty graphic one to boot, but we've seen worse in the old 80's horror flicks of yore. But GTA, where one can have sex with a hooker and then beat her up to get one's money back in the game, is better than Doom 3 for kids? Do they even play these games before they rate them?

Honestly I can see why some of these made the list, yet at the same time I have no clue why others were even considered as like I said above the movies out in theaters that the kids in question are watching anyway that are the same as or worse than these video games. But I digress. Here's the full article if you're interested:

And if you think that's bad... Look for service annoucement commercials rallying against violent video games coming soon to grace your TV...

About the only three games I think should actually be on that list are Leisure Suit Larry, because that game is basically softcore porn (but dammit, that's the point of those games. They're being pretty redundant when they say "don't buy it for your kids." Duh), The Guy Game... even though I don't know what it is, it sounds along the same vein somehow, and...

Vice City. That indeed should be at the top. A friend of my room mate has it, and describes details about it to him every so often, which ultimatly get transferred to me. So, here's some food for thought.

You play as a black gangster. With no morals. Seriously. There's no moral ambiguity here. You're never like "well, I was supposed to rob this bank, but those kids need to be saved, though." You're more like "I'll rob the bank, AND kill those kids for shits and giggles." This guy is just bad. Not badass. Just bad. He calls his girlfriend(s?) a bitch and a ho and she's like "alright honey," and he runs around shooting cops yelling "blame society!" Quite frankly, my own morals couldn't withstand such a barrage of pure evil. Irredeemably bad main characters aren't my style.

So, what I'm saying is that worse than the blowing up cars or mowing down civilians or robbing banks or even screwing whores... is the complete and utter lack of any moral standing behind any of it. THAT is what would actually affect young and tender minds adversely. When a main character, a MAIN CHARACTER, the guy who is supposed to be good, does horrible things with absolutly no qualms about it whatsoever, THAT would just send kids wrong messages. Now, Doom. Doom is great. Fight the evil forces of hell for the good of humanity. Shit, I'm all over that. My kid can play that all day. Mr Marine would, if anything, teach my son/daughter that fighting for life is good. Where's the problem with that? Yes, the game may be graphic, but these Report Card morons seem to confuse graphic content with what really matters: moral content. It's not what the kids see, but what the kids LEARN that's important.

Plus, these guys probably didn't even play the games with real thinking gamers. They just took the cliche controversial genres of yesteryear and picked the most graphic games out of them... namely first-person shooters and fighting games. And GTA, cuz hey, it's GTA. At least there seems to be an ambient knowledge abound that there's something wrong with it, even if these guys don't know exactly what.

Well, that's all from me.

Yes, but Doom3 turns people into satanists. It has demons, you see. <_<

Well, I don't think children of all ages should be playing FPS's Darlos so I'll choose an arbitrary cutoff age of 13. As far as Doom 3 goes, the added scare factor is even more reason for a younger child say around 10 to not be playing it. I remember playing things like that when I was 10 and it scaring the crap out of me. It certainly didn't make me go gun anyone down though, if that's what parents these days are really concerned about. I won't be buying a GTA style game for my unborn children no matter what age they are. They'll have to buy that shit themselves if they want it. Killing the forces of Hell is one thing. Killing the innocent without any redemption is quite another. And anyways, if I want my children to be villains it wouldn't be street thugs. If I need villainous children, I'll make them play Final Fantasy Tactics and tell them to emulate the awesome, irredemebly evil Delita Hyral....

Well I understand that none of these games should be for young children, but come on - parents need to have some common sense when dealing with such things. Honestly, thanks to Darlos and Sol, I'll probably always be in the "know" about what video games are what, just like how my family stays on top of movie nonsense as we're all uber-geeks here... But for the parents who have no clue they should just walk into a Game Stop and figgin' ask the first geek who's in line to pre-order Half-life 3 what the game in question is about.

What I got annoyed at overall was that Doom 3 was rated as worse than a GTA title. Granted, Doom 3 could give a younger child nightmares, but overall it's no worse than the gore-fest movies out there one can rent for less than you can buy the game for. I just wish the idiots that make these fucking lists would actually 1. play the game, 2. give a comprehensive review with the list (so people know something about the games other than they're "bad"), and 3. remind people that the games alone aren't going to twist children into monsters. Knowing this society, they already are monsters anyway, video game or no.

Alright...I can see where they are coming from. But damn is the order skewed. Doom? Yep it's bloody and deals in the "darker" side of several religions. But then there's the slight issue of #8 in that list.

8. Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

That has to be the raunchiest game I've seen in a while, and while I applaud developers with balls, it would definatly be on the top of my list of "children under the age of 18 should not play this game." To put this in perspective, there's a directors cut version of the game that features full nudity. Now...this is a double edged sword. While for us guys, there's plenty of hot naked women (at least as hot as a "cartoon" can get) there's also the fact that Larry himself is naked...not good. Scarring in fact. Actually, writing that sentence has scarred me for life. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sign up for therapy now...


Anyway, my point is that Doom3, while a little violent, does not compare with the mental damage that something like Leasure suit larry can cause. To prove this point, I read a post on another forum in which a 13 year old described that she gave birth, and had no idea she was preagnant due to the fact that she was uneducated on the whole subject of sex. Granted this has nothing to do with games...but a game like Leasure Suit Larry only promotes such issues. Doom supports the idea of survival through violence...but I have trouble seeing that sex and child birth without education being any better...in fact, I find it much worse when 13 year old cannot take care of said child.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

-Sol

Thank Heavens for Gabe and Tycho. Where would we be without them?



:wink:

Well, as far as overpopulation goes, to solve that we'd either have to start executing people or just letting them die of disease and hunger. And we all know no one is going to do that.

I tend to believe that the reason violence/sex/(general low moral stuff) has taken a greater hold in American culture is the general populace's fault. At the same time however, a lot of blame has to fall on those controlling mass media. Morons aren't running mass media. These people are smart, and smart enough to know that they are catering to low human impulses. I don't think we can disregard the influence entertainment has on us. Personally, a lot (if not most) of my own morals and ideals are reflective of the fiction that I have consumed during my lifetime. While something like GTA will almost never make a kid go blow someone away, I'm sure, depending on their age, it could make them respect life in general a little less. And that my friends is bad.

You Know, video games are just like movies. They have their own rating system, which you think people would look at before letting their kids play them. These same parents will have a heart atack when they see their children playing a violent game, and later on that day they'll take them to see a movie that is just as violent. This is why I want to strangle all the hypocrites in this world. Feel free to join in!