M-Rated Video Games:For Kids Too

I work at a Gamestop(W0000!~) and in our state, it's illegal to sell M-rated games to minors. Now we as video game retailers MUST ask that question: Is your kid mature enough for this game?

Most parents say 'yes of course he's mature, he plays GTA,' whilst I stare at a 13 year old boy. But there are those few that balk at the content and refuse to purchase it(HA IN YOUR FACE, KID!).
And do not get me started on that disturbing part Modern Warfare 2; I'm 20 and I couldn't sleep well for a few days after doing that in game.

But now we're seeing content that tones down the M-ratedness; in Brutal Legend you can filter out the blood and language and in MW2 you can skip 'that' part.

Now here's the question: if it's to gain a bigger audience(and money) with an M game, including kids, and features said content, would you be upset or unfazed by this change and would you still buy it?

Who the fuck cares. There are worse things in life than violence and nudity in video games.

I probably would still by it, but personally I don't really play "M" games that much.

My smallest brother plays all the "M" games, but I stick to the "E" or "T" games (for example. FIFA 10 or Tekken 5). I don't own many "M" games, and I tend to go for how playable and enjoyable the game is, not the rating. But then again, I AM overage, so I could decide where as the underage gamers do not.

Yeah like anything you might see on the news.

Kids nowadays are exposed to these things a whole shit load more and way the hell earlier then a decade ago. M-rated VGs are the norm for kids to play nowadays. Hell, my little brother plays Killzone 2, Combat arms, and COD....he's like 6. Is it acceptable to me? Well....I can't think of any reasons to say no to him, as I would've done the same thing. But, it's the understanding part that should be questioned. Do you know why it's bad for kids to know about these things? The implications on their future mentality is enormous....Hell, I should know. All I thought about in elementary was porn. Damn brother.....Ironic now that I think about it. Anyway, back to the point, No. I don't believe that a child should be able to play M-rated games unless their parent, their oldest sibling, and if they're knowledgeable or clever enough to either understand or do it without anyone noticing. Now the biggest question is, do we even give a shit until it actually happens? Most likely not. I don't even think people give any real reasons not to, besides the fact that it's Immoral or somethin along the lines of that, but we know that anyway.

I honestly don't give a damn about the ratings. My parents did give a damn when I was young, but I was always able to get around it and buy the games anyway. They soon stopped caring, as they saw that it didn't affect me in a negative way.

I believe kids should be able to play these games too, as I don't see any problem with it. We all know that the "little kid killed/raped/X someone because he saw it in a game blablabla can't tell reality from fiction blablabla" talk is bullshit. So why keep the kids from playing it? Let them have some fun, and learn a thing or two from it.

I believe they can play whatever they want, as long as they dont talk online, especially on xbl. stupid voices piss me off.

Hey! Having kids are like making new character in a game! It's interesting!

And me myself don't think about it so much because I also play M-Rated game when I still under age back then...

When I was under 18, my parents didn't care because they knew I was intelligent and mature enough to know the difference between a game and reality, they knew I could handle a 'representation' of violence.

lol I've been playing 'violent' games since I was 5 and you don't see me going around taking the guts out of people or scalping random people on the street. I think in terms of being affected by it, it all depends on how they were raised by parents. Pretty much, every thought and/or action is a result of what they learned or experienced from their parents.

Well, I think it depends on the age of the child and how far apart the age difference is. The problem is that children are pretty much like a sponge, soaking up every bit of information that they come across that fascinates them - in a good or bad way.
Now the main part is not only the violence, but, as you might have noticed, also the speech. As for the part of violence, the children get enough of that from the news etc. But you should try to teach children a proper manner of speech and politeness. Once they can "ignore" the speech in a game and won't go and copy it, I think it is okay for them to play "M" rated games.
Regarding the sexuality... let's be honest. In most countries children receive sexual education when they are 10 - 12 years old. Not to mention they get to know about the way things work in that age span, so I don't think it is a problem, unless of course the parents are trying to raise a sheltered, innocent child... which is (almost) impossible with all the modern media.

The violence in any school yard, or average family, or soccer match is much worse in what it does to a kid than the violence in video games. By the age of 13, any given kid has been exposed to such a sufficient degree to the realities of life that not many a video game, movie, graphic novel, book, newspaper, ... could do any more damage any longer.


People worry about the wrong fucking shit.

Which state is this? If memory serves, the ESRB ratings were created as guidelines for parents that didn't have time to do detailed research on a game before allowing their children to buy it. The idea that a law was created prohibiting the sale of such material based by a guideline seems kind of silly to me. : /

What scene are we talking about in modern warfare 2? The controversial one with the terrorist attack in the airport?

Yes.

TBH, I don't see why it had to be an option to skip it. I know people complained about it, but you never saw any skippable section in a GTA game because it was too violent...

I mean for crying out loud your fucking shooting, stabbing, and bombing people in this game, yet you can't be a spy among terrorists. There's even a section in the game where there is torture. You can't see it, but you know they are torturing a man for information. It's just so hypocritical...

I can see how parents would want the section gone if a child of theirs is playing it and might think that "it's cool" or whatever and then they try to do it, but why would they be playing the game in the first place? They should know better than to subject their children to such material, and if they do, teach them that it is wrong (or whatever their views are) and make sure they know the difference between a game and reality.

I think they shot themselves on their feet by doing that as well. They made it a big deal by making it optional.

Honestly, I haven't played the game - I went and Youtubed what scene was so disturbing, and it's not my kind of game, but if I were to play that game, and had no problems with those kind of games I wouldn't have been offended or hurt by that scene.

If there had been a graphic torture scene, or something much more intimate with one or a few people, perhaps children even - THEN I would probably of wanted to skip it.

In video games, when you're killing hordes of people, they're just a number, when you're torturing one or a few people, they're people. That's how I've always felt with video games, and it's very uncommon for video games to have only a few people that need to be killed (without a good reason).

I am against censorship in general.
I personally think that the rating system (when used as a guideline) is flawed. We need a PG13 midrange, where games like (good example here) Brutal Legend are considered different than GTA(whatever number). As a parent who cannot play every game for content, I think breaking things like this down further would help.

Government, even at state level, has no business telling people (even children) what they can and cannot consume.

The majority who play M-Rated Games are still the adults, so im against an censorship. Also the parents should decide or know if their child is allowed to play such games, because they know best how "mature" they are.

At MW2: Yes, its not some scene you find in every game, but you're still shooting pixels and i think there are more games which such scenes to come. Just look at how much attention MW2 get because of the airport mission.

I got to play violent video games and watch violent movies when I were underaged and it hasnt effected me in a bad way, so I say let them play.

The Modern Wartfare 2 scenes has been completely blown out of proportion. We've been killing innocent people in games like GTA for years so why are people still surprise by this crap?