are violent video games ruining the youth of tomorrow

[Wootsicle]

People who say that video games cause violence really makes me rather angry.
Video games are more of an anger outlet that allow the youth of America to get their aggression out. Violence (as stated before) has decreased dramatically since the release of the PS1. The correlation is there, and I'm not sure if you can say that one doesn't have anything to do with the other.

Of course, the media loves being able to blame video games, because games are something that can be banned/censored. You can't censor bad parenting, or mental disabilities, which leaves video games as a much easier culprit for violence.

[Dragula219]

Originally Posted by FatalRay

Currently, there has only ever been ONE AO rated game but that was changed to an M rated. The game was Manhunt. All in all, that is the truth.

You're wrong. There are MANY games rated AO, they just don't sell those kinds of games in EB games and such. But that's really off topic.

The instant you take blame off the child who committed a crime, then anything in the child's life can be blamed. The real truth is, nothing made the kid pull the trigger but himself. The media doesn't want to cover this kind of thing, because no American wants to hear about their kids being ****ed up in the head, but a lot are and if they commit a crime they should be punished just like an adult should.

[Relambrien]

Originally Posted by ouch123

No. Violent video games are there for our entertainment. Nobody in their right mind would act on anything they see in a video game.

Oh, and to the first poster, you\'re full of ****. Could you at least provide a credible source for that information? Or are you just talking out of your ass?

Ratings are there for a reason. Though I can look the other way if you want to play an M rated game, but you\'re only about 13 or 14.

I'm not sure if you're using the backslash intentionally, but you don't need an escape character here; apostrophes register just fine alone.

Originally Posted by Dragula219

You're wrong. There are MANY games rated AO, they just don't sell those kinds of games in EB games and such. But that's really off topic.

The instant you take blame off the child who committed a crime, then anything in the child's life can be blamed. The real truth is, nothing made the kid pull the trigger but himself. The media doesn't want to cover this kind of thing, because no American wants to hear about their kids being ****ed up in the head, but a lot are and if they commit a crime they should be punished just like an adult should.

This is completely true. For a game to be rated AO, it has to be insanely graphic (e.g. showing graphic sex scenes), and most stores don't want to have a reputation of selling such things. I imagine they would be easy to find on the Internet, however...

There was one game that got bumped up to an AO rating from M; it was one of the Grand Theft Auto games. It might have been San Andreas, but I'm not sure. Whatever it was, it was the one with the "Hot Coffee" mod; the reason it was bumped up is because this "mod" was actually programmed into the game, but didn't have a way inside the game to trigger it. At least, that's what I understand from what I've been told. Because it was in the game, however, the game was required to be bumped up (this "mod" was a sex scene).

Also, the part about taking the blame off of the kid and then placing it anywhere else is true. People are too quick to forgive children for their actions; I at least was able to know the consequences of all of my possible actions by age 13. And once you forgive the kid either because he's young and impressionable or because of something else, any negative influence can receive the blame. If it's well-known that the kid's parents were horrible drug addicts or something, then the blame may be placed on them. But, if there's nothing completely off-the-wall, things like video games get the blame.

[jewpinthethird]

Originally Posted by Dragula219

You're wrong. There are MANY games rated AO, they just don't sell those kinds of games in EB games and such. But that's really off topic.

The instant you take blame off the child who committed a crime, then anything in the child's life can be blamed. The real truth is, nothing made the kid pull the trigger but himself. The media doesn't want to cover this kind of thing, because no American wants to hear about their kids being ****ed up in the head, but a lot are and if they commit a crime they should be punished just like an adult should.

But why should we stand around and wait for kids to commit crimes when we can stop it at the source. I mean, if planes kept falling out of the sky because the wing wasn't bolted down right, you wouldn't go blaming the wing for breaking, you'd blame the mechanic whose job was to make the plane safe for flight. In this case, parents are the mechanics. It is their job to teach their children how to be obedient and the difference between right from wrong through discipline, if they fail to do this, the child will grow up social problems.

Or a better analogy: parents acts as a window to protect the child, while at the same time exposing their children to the real world. Parents who don't pay attention to their children are likely to have their window smashed, exposing the child to the elements.

Children can't comprehend why adults think and act the way they do because they have a different perspective about the world. For the first decade of life or so, a child is extremely egocentric. They don't realize that the other people have feelings, in fact, they are fairly oblivious to others. Children aren't little adults, they are stupid little adults who don't understand the consequences of their actions.

A child is a clean slate (to an extent) and the personality of that child largely depends on how good the parents are at their job. The better they are, the more likely it is that the child will turn out normal. The worse, the more like likely it is that the kid will spend the rest of it's life jumping in between jailhouses and methlabs.

[ouch123]

Originally Posted by Relambrien

I'm not sure if you're using the backslash intentionally, but you don't need an escape character here; apostrophes register just fine alone.



This is completely true. For a game to be rated AO, it has to be insanely graphic (e.g. showing graphic sex scenes), and most stores don't want to have a reputation of selling such things. I imagine they would be easy to find on the Internet, however...

There was one game that got bumped up to an AO rating from M; it was one of the Grand Theft Auto games. It might have been San Andreas, but I'm not sure. Whatever it was, it was the one with the "Hot Coffee" mod; the reason it was bumped up is because this "mod" was actually programmed into the game, but didn't have a way inside the game to trigger it. At least, that's what I understand from what I've been told. Because it was in the game, however, the game was required to be bumped up (this "mod" was a sex scene).

Also, the part about taking the blame off of the kid and then placing it anywhere else is true. People are too quick to forgive children for their actions; I at least was able to know the consequences of all of my possible actions by age 13. And once you forgive the kid either because he's young and impressionable or because of something else, any negative influence can receive the blame. If it's well-known that the kid's parents were horrible drug addicts or something, then the blame may be placed on them. But, if there's nothing completely off-the-wall, things like video games get the blame.

No, it was just a typo, the backslash is right next to the enter key, and sometimes when i'm typing fast I hit it without knowing.

But what you're saying is correct, by age 13 you should be able to tell right from wrong, and know that anything that is done in a game, is generally unacceptable behavior in the real world, especially for games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andres.

[kylehaas]

I let out my violence in games because I would never do such things in real life.

I blame rap and hip-hop "music" and bad parents.

[tobi14]

people who think violent games ruin kids, i personally think, are full of s**t. if u believe that they do, then just dont buy them.

[devonin]

You've connected two concepts that have nothing to do with each other. You've provided no link between "Video games are violent/not violent" and "You should/should not buy video games"

[tobi14]

i stated my basic opinion in the simplest form. i dont feel like going in depth at the moment, much less have an arguement online. online arguements are more pointless than trying to make a fish survive outside of water, so im not going to post further

[devonin]

online arguements are more pointless than trying to make a fish survive outside of water

You either didn't read the rules of this forum, or you did and simply have no intention of following them. Maybe not posting here anymore is a good idea for you.

[clashrocker7]

Its pretty simple.
Grand Theft Auto did not tell the kid to shoot people in reality.
The kid's sick twisted mind told him to shoot people in reality.
I play San Andreas every day, and I don't think about doing a drive-by....

[toxicninja]

Originally Posted by jewpinthethird

But why should we stand around and wait for kids to commit crimes when we can stop it at the source. I mean, if planes kept falling out of the sky because the wing wasn't bolted down right, you wouldn't go blaming the wing for breaking, you'd blame the mechanic whose job was to make the plane safe for flight. In this case, parents are the mechanics. It is their job to teach their children how to be obedient and the difference between right from wrong through discipline, if they fail to do this, the child will grow up social problems.

I don't think it's always the parents fault, sometimes people are born with mental defects.

[Dragula219]

You make some good points, so I'll respond the best I can. Just a note, whenever I refer to "blame" or "fault" in this response, I mean finding them guilty of the crime committed.

Originally Posted by jewpinthethird

But why should we stand around and wait for kids to commit crimes when we can stop it at the source. I mean, if planes kept falling out of the sky because the wing wasn't bolted down right, you wouldn't go blaming the wing for breaking, you'd blame the mechanic whose job was to make the plane safe for flight. In this case, parents are the mechanics. It is their job to teach their children how to be obedient and the difference between right from wrong through discipline, if they fail to do this, the child will grow up social problems.

Sure, in the situation you explained the blame could be on the mechanic, but that is a completely different situation from a child shooting someone. The problem with your analogy is that the wing is an inanimate object, not a person. If the wing could chose to not be bolted down right (for whatever reason) you would blame the wing. No matter how good the mechanic is, no matter how hard he bolted it down, if the wing has a choice you can't blame the mechanic. Same thing with a child shooting; No matter how "good" parents are, the child still makes the decision to shoot someone of his/her own accord. Now, don't get me wrong, I think that parents do play a major role in prevention of these kind of things, but prevention and fault are completely different things. You can't say it's the police's fault that a shooting occurred because they failed to prevent it.

Originally Posted by jewpinthethird

Or a better analogy: parents acts as a window to protect the child, while at the same time exposing their children to the real world. Parents who don't pay attention to their children are likely to have their window smashed, exposing the child to the elements.

Well, I guess you could argue that if they are at a young enough age to not understand the consequences of their actions (which happens to be one of the things that must be proven in court to be found guilty of a crime.) In that case, I believe it is nothing more than an accident. You still can't blame the parents in my opinion. Sure, they possibly could have prevented it, but you can't charge someone with a crime because they failed to prevent it. It's not like they told the kid to go shoot somebody (and if they did they obviously should be found guilty.)

Originally Posted by jewpinthethird

Children can't comprehend why adults think and act the way they do because they have a different perspective about the world. For the first decade of life or so, a child is extremely egocentric. They don't realize that the other people have feelings, in fact, they are fairly oblivious to others. Children aren't little adults, they are stupid little adults who don't understand the consequences of their actions.

That is an extremely general statement, you can't say all kids have no understanding of the world. You are also referring to a much younger age than most school shootings occur. As far as I knew, we were talking about early high school students, because that is the most common time shootings occur. Also, the same time everyone has been trying to blame them on video games and parents and whatever they want to. Honestly I believe even without the help of parents a child that age knows the consequences of his/her actions, and is basically a "little adult".

Originally Posted by jewpinthethird

A child is a clean slate (to an extent) and the personality of that child largely depends on how good the parents are at their job. The better they are, the more likely it is that the child will turn out normal. The worse, the more like likely it is that the kid will spend the rest of it's life jumping in between jailhouses and methlabs.

First, I don't necessarily believe that's true. I have many friends who came from broken homes and are just as functional as me or you, and I know many kids who come from secure homes and turn out to be crackheads (actually, it is a major trend at an expensive catholic high school near me. They have crazy coke/crack parties with lots of sex involved, I found it utterly hilarious.) My whole point is it doesn't matter, influence is not fault in my eyes. You can't find a parent guilty of murder because the didn't raise their child well enough. Not raising them well enough ≠ Putting a gun in their hand and telling them to shoot up a school.

[Shad_Zero]

Well, I may live in a crazy neighborhood and play violent games, but I never think on killing anyone. I think that it's not really much of the kid's fault, but the parents. To me, M rated video games is really a privilege and my parents only give them out to me at times. If parents would know how to lay their hand on these little kids and tell them that until you pay bills, I buy you whatever the **** I say. And that's how I think that if parents would tell their kids that video gaming is a privilege and not a right, maybe we might not have as much killings as we do now.

[Coolgamer]

The media will blame anyone from games to Manson to Luvox. Could it be that the kids were screwed up to begin with?

[Aa_Doodaa]

Originally Posted by Shad_Zero

Well, I may live in a crazy neighborhood and play violent games, but I never think on killing anyone

Originally Posted by Shad_Zero

And that's how I think that if parents would tell their kids that video gaming is a privilege and not a right, maybe we might not have as much killings as we do now.

Contradicting opinions in one paragraph. Smooth.

As for my thoughts, I think that violent games are more of somewhere for people to go TO kill people. They know the consequences of such actions in reality, and so fall back on the option of virtual slaughtering.

If a person wishes to shoot people in reality and at the same time not have to worry about criminal charges, there are other much easier ways to do so than getting a hold of a weapon and murdering someone. Paintballing, for example.

[Coolgamer]

I've done a lot of research on it since Columbine, and the thing is, there's school shootings where games haven't been a factor. Remember VA Tech? The shooter barely touched games in that case.

I remember when it was evil rap music we had to slap warning labels on and shield our precious kids from.

[MixMasterLar]

Ok, Here I go.

While I agree with most crimes not being related to Games, I will say that games can and have shaped children's thoughts. Ive known alot of little kids (10 under) who were simply messed in the head due to playing games 14+ hours a day. Now I know that's extreme, but even if a small kid only plays a game for, say, 5-7 hours a day then I guess the game will pretty much program the kid's thinking pattern.

I have no links or proof for the above statment, it is just a veiwpoint.

And so is the next one:

We, as gamers, have been pushing all the blame on perents for too long. BOTH parties are guilty for diffarent reasons: Perents for not teacher young children that games are just games ("He's just a boy, He'll grow out of it"), for not making them stop playing if it seems to be getting to they're head ("he just looooves that gun game") and for not following the ESRB at all; Gamers for Suportting that a game is OK when it's not (When Hot Coffee was found, every gamer it seems defended it), not making the ESRB rate the games better (They just randomly pick between T and M it seems), and by consently saying that only a game rated T or M is worth playing (No, FFR is not this bad, but it has happened) Sometimes, like Guido said, it's no one's fault but the kid's.

ALSO: Keep in mind that when we first started playing games, they werent as bad as they are now. It was mostly about gameplay, and today the story of the game itself is a sellpoint to kids. Even if we knew the story, it was 9/10 that you were the hero saving the girl/world from evil (Mario, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fight) and today that's not so true (Destroy all humans, GTA, Soul Calibur 3) even games like Jak & Daxter were Jak is protrayed as a ****y rebel who follows his own rules or the Crash games were Crash will team up with the "bad guy" if he's playing by the rules (regardless of what was done--adding to the "Notthing will come of it" thing) have put a big - on kids.

Note: I metion Soul Calibur due to even the "Heros" having some faults of they're own. Xianghua, Taki, Ivy etc, and even allowing you to play as the dark side (Nighmare, Tira, Rapheal, etc etc

[DeMoNpUpPeT]

Originally Posted by CobaltWire

I blame parents more than I blame the games. I feel it is the parents fault for not putting up more responsibilty into disciplining the kids. Though todays media does contribute to turning kids into brats too. Not just video games, but movies and music too.

I do agree that some parents have some take in this.
I don't agree that it's about responsibilty in diciplining the kids.
Sure kids need discipline, but parents can't control the media.
Kids shouldn't be disciplined for whatever is happening in the media.
They have no say in what there is out there.
I believe the parents can help with this by using restriction to their child/children not discipline.

It's true the media contributes alot to this more than anything else
I would blame the media.
And yes violent video games are ruining the youth of tomorrow.

[Zamiax]

i say that public schools are at fault not video games, in fact many video games were just made to further the intellect of the mind with several puzzles that are simliar to an IQ test.