05-23-2003, 09:30 AM
Quote:Originally posted by "Vicious"
I could care less. I've been buying videogames for my little brother since he was 5 years old. I'll go and get him whatever game he wants, except maybe DOA Beach Volleyball (I think that's what it's called). If some kid is dumb enough to go and reenact what they see in a videogame, that's just stupidity. My brother's never gone and done what he's seen in GTA3 or Halo or Resident Evil or whatever othe games they would consider M.
Then your brother is a fine, well-adjusted person.
Unfortunately, some kids are either unable to distinguish between reality and television/movies/video games or else give credence to that tired "Video games cause violence" argument.
The tabloids, particularly in the UK, leap at the chance to denounce video games. We've had the kid who set his friend alight after playing SFII (they didn't say if he was playing as Dhalsim or not); young offenders in institutions being allowed to play "bloody" games such as Tekken and Street Fighter and the Counter-Strike players (I think this was in LA) who finished their session and decided to shoot each other for real outside.
I guess these are isolated incidents and, thankfully, as posts have already mentioned, the video game industry is self regulating. I don't think (or at least I hope not) that governments will step in and enforce draconian measures although Germany did make sure that SNES Wolfenstein 3D had giant, mutated rats rather than Dobermans.
As Zagatto mentioned the best course of action is for parents to take an interest in what their children are reading/watching or playing rather than taking the path of least resistance. However, I'm not a parent and so cannot even imagine the rigours of bringing up a child.
At the moment (in the UK anyway) video game debate still mainly revolves around pricing.