Mature rated games and underage gamers.

[Switch]

If a 14 years old wuld be mature enough he wuld say i dont need to play 18+ rated games joust becouse every one on the world talks about it, but insted i will play a game that is rated 13+ and still have lots of fun playing it, he vuld say i dont need a geme full with violance, gore and inapropriate language to have fun in playing games, and only then is someone mature enough to play such games.

Then do I count as mature o3o? As I said earlier I've played the two American McGee's Alice games, L4D, Fallout, Prototype (all but one of which I played when I was 11) and I've seen playthroughs of some others, but at the same time I enjoy Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak, Animal Crossing, and Harvest Moon. I consider myself a bit of a fan of the macabre, but I also love cute things. I have such conflicting interests. @3@

 

I've certainly never felt the need to play M rated games. I can go through a corrupted Wonderland twice, slashing at creepy little demented monsters with a big knife and at the same time enjoy my stupid little baby games that involve making cutesy anthro animal villagers happy, repairing friendship between talking hamsters, and caring for farm animals in a quirky little village. :L <3

 

 

Also Zovesta I agree 100% with everything you said. There is just... nothing I can add to that. x.x

Edited August 2, 2012 by Switch

[Lythiaren]

Here is my example. I was sitting in IRC and some nice person (tween to young teen) asked me in a message if I had a fursona I wanted to have drawn or whatever artform. I proceeded to yell at that person and let them know I do not appreciate being solicited for sexual fetishes and used very harsh language to let them know that if they ever spoke to me again about anything relating to Furries or sexually related topics I would report them to a Mod. As you would expect, the poor person was really upset and had no idea what I was talking about and had no idea why I flew off the handle much less why I would want to report them for indecent behavior.

Uh.

 

They were completely right to be upset and confused if you flew off the handle like it was on fire at the mere mention of the word "fursona". If you equate all furries with sexual fetishization there's something... kind of really wrong with your thinking. There's nothing indecent about creating an anthropomorphic fantasy character in your imagination and it's extremely judgmental and narrow-minded of you to assume that they only do that to get their rocks off. I mean most people on DC are doing exactly that minus the anthro part, and I assure you most are not doing so for the sake of some fetish. Or are we not allowed to enjoy Disney's rendition of Robin Hood without viewer discretion?

Edited August 2, 2012 by Lythiaren

[Tazzay]

I honestly don't mind violent games, I have played them before. But what really bugs me is when parents let their 4 year-old play Halo, or some other game like that. I have played it before, as well as all of its sequels, and I know how horribly VIOLENT that game is.

 

My parents let my 5 year-old brother play Black, COD and Halo 2. They wonder why he's so violent towards them?

 

It's actually pushed me to the point of actually splitting the game disks in half infront of all of them, then throwing them in the bin.

 

So, in my opinion, no youngster under the age of 13 should play video games with violence in them, unless the person is MATURE enough to know that it's not exactly "fun" in real life, and they have responsible parents that allow them.

[Natayah]

1. One of the main points of the post is that what is a "mature" topic discussion is very subjective. I used an example that most players here would be confused about on purpose. During my conversation, it became quickly clear we were discussing two different intentions and the younger person had no idea why I was so upset. Because I am not the world's biggest jerk, If I did not make it clear, I obviously apologized profusely to the younger person and asked for clarification from an IRC mod (and actually still do) so I understood going forward nor repeat such incident. Nor did I go on a long tirade to illuminate what the heck I had been talking about to a younger person. Otherwise I would still wonder why this game allowed such degenerate minds to converse about such topics. (That was a joke.) And I don't mind putting myself or this example out there because I think it applies to this topic. If I don't understand what is normal for a particular age bracket, how can I then be the one to dictate what is Mature or not Mature. Which leads into point 2.

 

2. I feel "Mature Ratings" are there more for the adults than the "kids". Because I know when I was a tween to teenager, if I felt uncomfortable with the subject matter, I would not have played it. I would have been a much better judge of what I was personally mature enough to handle than many parental figures or "adults". And I do not believe video games and movies make psycho or socio paths. In war torn and/or impoverished 3rd world countries, teens and tweens perform horrifically violent or unspeakable actions every day. They are certainly not doing it because of video games. In first world countries, we play video games every single day and do not have nearly the same statistics. I'm just saying...

[angelicdragonpuppy]

It depends on the game, honestly. Skyrim's rated M, but I think a younger teen can handle it. Whereas something like Grand Theft Auto... nooo.

 

More than mature games, though (most of which I feel fairly deserve the M rating), I feel bad for kids who can't play T rated games, as most of those are pretty harmless. I'm the eldest child in my family, so I got the overprotective parent syndrome when I was little. I got Jet Force Gemini taken away because mom didn't like the guns and was always nervous about playing .Hack because of minor swearing in voice acting form. Now, though, my much younger siblings can play them as freely as they like... provided that T rating is still just coming from things like infrequent D-word's use or unrealistic alien guts, haha.

 

Which leads back into my original statement: the reason for the rating is more important than the rating itself.

Edited August 2, 2012 by angelicdragonpuppy

[lightbird]

If a kid is so impressionable that they play games where they kill people, think "hey man that's totally cool", and later murder people/start becoming violent *bags because of that... Sorry, dude, I'm afraid not all the Sunday school, banning of bad language, and lack of violent video games in the world could have saved the little prick.

 

I honestly hate that argument so much. If someone is that impressionable, chances are they are going to grow up to be a complete ** anyway, doesn't mean we have to lock all of the toys away because of them.

 

Some people like M rated shows. Some people like M rated games. I watched Drawn Together when I was younger, and my favourite game was Resident Evil 4 (but I watched my sister play that one, so). It depends on the person. Just because you're 18 doesn't mean you magically have the maturity for these kinds of things. Same with people below that age who apparently don't.

 

It's all a matter of preference, is what I'm saying. I think the limits we have on it now are good enough. This shouldn't be such a controversial topic lol. If a kid wants to play a mature game, chances are they're going to find a way to do it. And, um. Bully for them. =U

This.

I watched The X-Files since I was 9 (officially the show is what, PG-13-rated at best, many episodes R-rated for horror and violence), played the old Doom games around that age, Diablo games when I was 12-13 (iirc, those are M-rated) and knew about the existence of pornography as a kid. Did that make me want to kill someone (whether people or animals) or have sex at that young age? No. Because I understood that all of those things are unrealistic. At the same time, I also used to enjoy strategy, puzzle and your run-of-the-mill cute adventure games, watch cartoons and read children's novels.

 

And while I don't play video games nowadays (mostly because a lot of games aren't designed to work on Linux-bases operating systems; and I also wouldn't want to get sucked into them), my taste for entertainment is still quite varied - I like books, movies, series of both the "adult" and "childish" varieties, i.e., I don't believe necessarily sticking to entertainment that's made for your supposed demographic group.

 

Of course, I also think that kids who have shown to be sensitive and impressionable should be kept away from violent media, not just video games, INCLUDING news reports about killers, since for some kids it makes the association "if I kill people, I'll be famous".

Edited August 2, 2012 by lightbird

[rainpeltstar]

My opinion on the 'violent games makes kids violent' deal is that it depends on the context and kid. I've played/watched various games such as L4D, Amnesia, Halo, and others without any problems. Amnesia actually helped cure my fear of the dark, ironically.

 

Those who say that people around 12 shouldn't be playing mature games, again it varies from person to person whether or not they can handle the stuff in the game.

[Princess Artemis]

My opinion on the 'violent games makes kids violent' deal is that it depends on the context and kid. I've played/watched various games such as L4D, Amnesia, Halo, and others without any problems.

Here's a blow for your mind: How do you know you haven't been affected and are not even a teensy bit more violent for having played violent games? By what rule are you judging yourself against?

 

Speaking as a person who takes a medication that does give her violent idiation if she takes the recommended dose and discovered this on her own, it isn't easy to recognize when one's thoughts have moved into a only slightly more violent frame.

 

So: How do you know?

 

Also? Apparently this thread is once again forgetting that the ratings are not there to protect the young and innocent from growing up to be mass murderers because they played an M-rated game. It's because a lot of young kids really and truly cannot handle playing M-rated games without becoming confused, upset by things they don't yet understand, or skeeved by the content.

 

Diablo 3, for example, is not rated M because it is a game about killing unrealistic demons in bloody splendor, which might cause Little Bobby to mistake Little Timmy for a demon in school the next day. It is M-rated because five entire levels are devoted to lovingly recreating torture devices and decorating the background with dismembered and mutilated human bodies, and an additional five levels have several very large tortured figures in it and a spider lady narrating to the player how she is enjoying their eternal agony. If anyone here is so insensitive as to assume that the only issue anyone has to worry about in recommending such a game to a 6 year old is whether or not it will make them grow up to be violent really needs to start having a little consideration for their fellow humans.

 

I'm courting 40 and that game is effin' skeevy as all hell (it's also extremely fun, I'm just glad I didn't play those parts at night the first few times >_O). It would have had me awake all night cuddled under my blankets if I played it as a child. THAT is why games have the ratings they do!

Edited August 2, 2012 by Princess Artemis

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Well, Artemis, seeing that the rate of violent crime has gone down in recent years while movies and games with violence are a lot more prevalent than they were 30 years ago, I'd say they don't really influence people that much. Plus as others have said, if someone is going to go on a killing spree someday, they'll take inspiration from everything from classic literature to news stories as their source of 'inspiration.'

 

That being said, I agree with you that the rating system is there to keep kids from seeing stuff they can't handle as opposed to keeping them from becoming psychopaths. I have a sibling who I actually made scared for a few days by showing him the silly Shia LaBeouf cannibal thing, so I don't think he's ready for any horror games yet!

[Princess Artemis]

Well, Artemis, seeing that the rate of violent crime has gone down in recent years while movies and games with violence are a lot more prevalent than they were 30 years ago, I'd say they don't really influence people that much. Plus as others have said, if someone is going to go on a killing spree someday, they'll take inspiration from everything from classic literature to news stories as their source of 'inspiration.'

I didn't say they affected people. I asked rainpeltstar how they were certain they had not been affected. Two different things there.

 

That's a good way to judge about whether or not a kid is ready though, isn't it? When your sibling insists they are, remind them; they might change their mind : )

Edited August 2, 2012 by Princess Artemis

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I didn't say they affected people.  I asked rainpeltstar how they were certain they had not been affected.  Two different things there.

 

That's a good way to judge about whether or not a kid is ready though, isn't it?  When your sibling insists they are, remind them; they might change their mind : )

Well, the statistic I mentioned is proof enough that they don't make people (and thus herself) more violent, no? Granted it's a tricky thing to measure, but in general, those facts say the population as a whole isn't affected and thus we can assume the same here.

 

And indeed, haha! Poor fella, I felt so bad after...

Edited August 2, 2012 by angelicdragonpuppy

[Princess Artemis]

Well, the statistic I mentioned is proof enough that they don't make people (and thus herself) more violent, no? Granted it's a tricky thing to measure, but in general, those facts say the population as a whole isn't affected and thus we can assume the same here.

 

And indeed, haha! Poor fella, I felt so bad after...

Trying to answer a question only rainpeltstar can answer by quoting statistics isn't "proof enough", no.

[rainpeltstar]

Here's a blow for your mind: How do you know you haven't been affected and are not even a teensy bit more violent for having played violent games? By what rule are you judging yourself against?

Though I don't have solid proof that I've not been disturbed mentally, now that I think about it I can admit that certain games have made me a bit more skittish or sensitive to some things; such as the fact that I can't stand to see large amounts of gore for too long. But the thing is, games with high amounts of blood aren't the only thing that contributes to my fear. Like someone said before, life is M-rated itself.

[Kestra15]

Like someone said before, life is M-rated itself.

And yet society generally tries to keep you away from the more disgusting, sordid, disturbing etc side for as long as possible - and in some cases you have the options to (mostly) avoid it altogether. So why stop that general censoring? Why not maintain it in media?

 

There will always be those who can cope before others. I have seen some rather nasty things long before many of my peers - and I know of people who have been through things that I can't imagine. But they all generally leave a mark, and sometimes it is a negative one - so why take that risk?

[Sorrowgrave]

You also have to understand that there are self censors,

Things that a kid or person knows their not old enough to see

I can't play Resident Evil even if I wanted to because it's too gorey for me, I prefer silent hill, it still scares the outta me, but it's less extreme .

 

I tend to go for games that are 16+ on ratings other than violence

 

Yet I also enjoy E or T rated games, sims

 

 

[Kestra15]

You also have to understand that there are self censors,

Things that a kid or person knows their not old enough to see

I can't play Resident Evil even if I wanted to because it's too gorey for me, I prefer silent hill, it still scares the outta me, but it's less extreme .

 

I tend to go for games that are 16+ on ratings other than violence

 

Yet I also enjoy E or T rated games, sims

And what makes your self-censor - or any other - accurate?

[angelicdragonpuppy]

And what makes your self-censor - or any other - accurate?

Because I imagine if they're wrong about what they can handle they'll stop playing as soon as they get mildly traumatized? I don't really understand what you're saying. ;3;

 

There've been scary movies I thought I could handle and then quickly realized I couldn't, so I stopped watching. Thus via adjustment my own self censoring is accurate for me.

Edited August 2, 2012 by angelicdragonpuppy

[NightLovesFantasies]

not all of life is M-rated. unless you choose to live that way, or around where it happens. cursing isnt as bad because those are words and the kids will hear them sooner or later. but they dont have to see all the nudity and murder, let alone being the one doing it. even if it is a game, it might rub off on them. even if its just a little bit it changes them. whether it be violence or realizing violence isnt all that good.

 

and both of those can take a turn for the worse.

unless they know how to, again, realize a game from reality and they were taught that its not good behavior and it isnt real. mabye just a little bit more violent, but not so much as to be doing it in real life.

[Kestra15]

Because I imagine if they're wrong about what they can handle they'll stop playing as soon as they get mildly traumatized? I don't really understand what you're saying. ;3;

 

There've been scary movies I thought I could handle and then quickly realized I couldn't, so I stopped watching. Thus via adjustment my own self censoring is accurate for me.

And yet sometimes just a few seconds exposure is enough - and if you advocate you will always know by self-censoring, how do you know where your limits are until you overstep them? I would rather people were given a more gentle introduction then overstep the line from the start.

[Moonbeam22]

I have no real desire to play M rated games. I just wouldn't enjoy them. T rated Star Wars stuff and World of Warcraft are enough for me. Heck, Minecraft is "violent" enough for me.

 

It is pretty bad that third graders with older brothers are playing Call of Duty and Zombies, but it is up to their parents. I don't think that violent video games have really any influence on a child's personality either.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

And yet sometimes just a few seconds exposure is enough - and if you advocate you will always know by self-censoring, how do you know where your limits are until you overstep them? I would rather people were given a more gentle introduction then overstep the line from the start.

Oh, wait, I think I misunderstood what angle you were coming from. I agree that ratings exist for a reason, and self censoring or not I'm not about to let my little siblings play M rated games until I know a lot about them. So I do believe we're on the same side

[Sorrowgrave]

And what makes your self-censor - or any other - accurate?

Because the games I prefer are actually for my age group vs some little ten year old.

[demonicvampiregirl]

I honestly don't mind violent games, I have played them before. But what really bugs me is when parents let their 4 year-old play Halo, or some other game like that. I have played it before, as well as all of its sequels, and I know how horribly VIOLENT that game is.

 

My parents let my 5 year-old brother play Black, COD and Halo 2. They wonder why he's so violent towards them?

 

It's actually pushed me to the point of actually splitting the game disks in half infront of all of them, then throwing them in the bin.

 

So, in my opinion, no youngster under the age of 13 should play video games with violence in them, unless the person is MATURE enough to know that it's not exactly "fun" in real life, and they have responsible parents that allow them.

The reason why he's so violet to them is probably because they don't smack his butt enough and take his games away when he starts up. You start doing that and punishing and disciplining the kid when he needs it sooner or later he'll get it. Quit pointing the finger of blame at Halo or some other video game. If the kid was actually TAUGHT how to behave properly chances are he wouldn't be like that.

 

 

Ratings for games are there for a reason, and it is not there to mess up or piss up kids or tenages, if it says the game is 16+ it is becouse it has a lot of violance, gore and inapropriate language, so it is not apropriate for someone under that age to play it. There is tons of good age apropriate games out there for every one so i dont understand why some 12 years old kid needs to play GTA or any other games that are rated 18+ or M. Even if som kids and tenagers are mature enough to handle games that are not ther age apropriate, they are still not mature enough to realize that they dont need to play such games even if those games are the best in the world.

If a 14 years old wuld be mature enough he wuld say i dont need to play 18+ rated games joust becouse every one on the world talks about it, but insted i will play a game that is rated 13+ and still have lots of fun playing it, he vuld say i dont need a geme full with violance, gore and inapropriate language to have fun in playing games, and only then is someone mature enough to play such games.

 

Because maybe they find those little kiddie games that they have rated for them to be completely boring? I could not handle half the games they got out now at those ages. I didn't wanted to be treated like a kid who couldn't handle anything. I could watch the Alien movies at 5-6 and knew it to be fake. I watched Predator and things like that. I wasn't being treated like a kid who had no common since and couldn't figure out what was real and what was fake.

 

If they can handle it give them the game and let them try. If they cannot handle the game take it off them until they can. To me being mature is being able to handle things people say you're not ready to and being able to handle any and all things something may throw at you. People can have immature moments but some kids can handle things that are rated higher than their age.

 

I really appreciate my parents for not trying to hide everything from me. Somethings they did and I do appreciate that but over all I'm glad they wasn't always PC and trying to hide everything so I couldn't handle it at a later date if it came up. I think thats part of the problem. Everyone wants to hide EVERYTHING from every kid. If you actually showed them what was right/wrong, real/fake maybe they'd actually understand it better instead of finding out the wrong way and then doing something stupid.

Edited August 2, 2012 by demonicvampiregirl

[KageSora]

2. I feel "Mature Ratings" are there more for the adults than the "kids". Because I know when I was a tween to teenager, if I felt uncomfortable with the subject matter, I would not have played it. I would have been a much better judge of what I was personally mature enough to handle than many parental figures or "adults". And I do not believe video games and movies make psycho or socio paths. In war torn and/or impoverished 3rd world countries, teens and tweens perform horrifically violent or unspeakable actions every day. They are certainly not doing it because of video games. In first world countries, we play video games every single day and do not have nearly the same statistics. I'm just saying...

I don't believe they make violent people, either--at least not as a sole factor. They may push somebody who ALREADY has tendencies towards certain action, but if a person cannot tell fantasy from reality or if they already had the desire to cause harm/death, then it was likely just a matter of time anyway even if games were not in the equation. Books and movies could do the same thing. They're clearly not the deciding factor.

 

HOWEVER, they CAN influence people if they aren't receiving proper influenced in the rest of their lives. And little children ARE more easily influenced to trying something they shouldn't. I mean, they have the "Kids, don't try this at home" disclaimer for a reason. As a little kid, I'd do some stupid stuff imitating cartoons and stuff I saw on TV, and that was kid-friendly stuff--but my parents would intervene and teach me that it wasn't real on TV and that I couldn't do that in real life. So I turned out mostly okay, I like to think. But some of these kids aren't having parents who will do that, the parents just give them the game and then later complain that the kid is imitating the violence or language without realizing that they failed to teach their kid what is or is not acceptable.

 

 

Also, Artemis brings up some very good points. Personally, I can usually handle violent games because so long as the violence is contained to the realm of fantasy, I'm usually okay with it. But even as an adult, I do encounter situations in games that I do find upsetting. Sometimes it's a horror-aspect and I get spooked when I turn around and OH GOD THERE'S SOMETHING KILLING ME AUGH MAKE IT STOP KILL IT WITH FIRE THAT WASN'T THERE THREE SECONDS AGO AAAAAAAHHHH!!!

 

Other times it's like "Oh, oh god that's just... Holy that is uncalled for violence, oh wow that's massed up WHY WOULD THAT NEED TO HAPPEN." (Even if it's not graphic, just the idea that something so over the top would be considered by a character can be kind of upsetting)

 

And other times still it's something that isn't even considered with rating, it's the story of the game playing with your emotions due to possibly controversial subject or a character story that hits close to home.

 

Plenty of adults avoid that kind of thing because it's upsetting to them--much less a child who might have nightmares for years because of something horrifying they saw in a game.

[wonton55912]

I'm an underage gamer.

For me, the "video games cause violence" thing is really invalid. I've always been really violent, being around people who play the games, but, as much as I can get angry and want to, I'm not going to grab a gun and start shooting random people just for existing. I can do that in the game. I would probably end up killing myself if I killed someone IRL, even accidentally.

 

So basically, my violence caused me to play the video games

 

And I just don't feel comfortable playing sexual games, which is why I've only played GTA IV once. Never again.

 

First M rated game I played when I was 11. I haven't had required therapy since.

Edited August 9, 2012 by wonton55912