A Plea To Game Makers To Act Responsibly? 136
Thanks to AVault for its editorial discussing the responsibility videogame makers have to use their powers for 'good'. The author expresses concern about games' influence on the young: "My love of digital maiming is tempered by the fact that, at this stage of my life, I can tell right from wrong. I have a fully developed set of ethics. I wouldn't say my nine-year-old nephew has quite had the time to develop these tools." The article ends with the exhortation: "Developers and publishers, hear my plea: start injecting a strong sense of right and wrong into your stories. I don't want you to pull back on the gibs, I don't want anything more than a stronger sense of ethics and perhaps a small dose of moral fiber. Take into account the fact that kids are playing, no matter that they shouldn't be."
Nine-year-olds know (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but unless the kid is retarded or something, he knows the difference between right and wrong, at least when it comes to blowing people up and stuff.
I Have A Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Gee, maybe your 9 year old shouldn't be playing Grand Theft Auto. It's more the parent/guardian's responsiblity to ensure that their kids aren't playing violent games than it is the game makers.
I don't think this is reasonable (Score:5, Insightful)
So, should Quentin Tarantino take into account that kids are watching "Kill Bill", and Playboy similarly tailor itself to be kid-friendly? I don't think so.
Blah, parents, yawn (Score:3, Insightful)
What the hell are the parents doing?!
Article: -1 Redundant/Flamebait (Score:5, Insightful)
"It is the parents' job to teach their kids wrong and right, not the video games."
All these articles are good for is getting gamers upset. Call it Flamebait or a Troll or whatever, but these articles are getting Redundant.
Arrgh (Score:4, Insightful)
That said, I really don't have a problem with developers and publishers making violent games. Similarly, I don't have a problem with publishers who distribute violent books. I don't shun museums for displaying various garish incarnations of St. Sebastian on their walls. I am one of the vast majority of people--young and old alike--who can distinguish fantasy from reality, and are able to appreciate that the character being crushed by a tank on the game screen is not a real person.
You'll find no lack of people here on Slashdot who played games like Smash TV, N.A.R.C., and Doom as a kid. Staggeringly enough, the vast majority of us are perfectly well aware of the fact that in the Real World, one does not drive a Ferrari at 100 mph on a bridge whilst mowing down junkies, firing rocket launchers, and gathering cash and drugs.
I'm tiring of those who advocate solving the problems of the few by restricting the options of the whole. Let us use our own judgement, for Pete's sake.
Start in the right place....... (Score:4, Insightful)
Then the international corporations.
Then we might start childing games manufacturers.
games - stories (Score:3, Insightful)
games aimed at adults.. well, most of them have very basic plot settings aboug good versus evil as well. sometimes it's just the evil that triumphs over the 'good', but that's just reversed roles of stereotypes(basically what it is most of the time is that it's just a matter of skinning, wether the guys trying to slow the player down are cops or mafia).
personally, I'd hope there to be more character in the characters in games and not always be so black and white, THE WORLD ISN'T JUST GOOD VS. BAD. most of the time the 'BAD' guys have solid motives for their actions as well as the good guys can and have 'bad' motives (imho best, or worst depending on if it's real life or not, tragedies stir from a setting like this. everyone is doing the 'right'/'necessary' thing from their viewpoint but the events lead to catastrophe anyways).
Ever read old fairytales in their original forms? the "bad" getting what's coming to it is usually chopping the head off or something similar(and heck, the 'good guys' play very, very dirty sometimes). public executions and all that jizz.
Re:Article: -1 Redundant/Flamebait (Score:2, Insightful)
They already have those, they're called Nintendo games. I'm sorry, but I just don't care about your, or anyone elses kids. I treat people bitching about violent videogames like people that bring children into bars... I don't drink at the playground, please don't bring your kids into a bar. Likewise, don't let your kids play GTA and I won't try to dictate the content of the next Barney Teaches Reading. Deal?
Re:I Have A Solution (Score:3, Insightful)
> It's more the parent/guardian's responsiblity to ensure that their kids aren't playing violent games than it is the game makers.
Yes but your kid has a friend who has an older friend with this REALLY EXCITING game...
Parents, no matter how diligent, can not watch over their children every second of the day.
That said, I'd like to see a parental block code of some sort on games like Grand Theft Auto. Don't stop making those games and don't take away the amoral fun for us adults. Just include some sort of unique ID verifed code on the inside of each box. And since no one will sell these games to kids [cough cough] that would help prevent the young ones from playing it. They didn't buy it, and therefore don't have the box w/ unique passcode on it.
Oh and don't abuse my privacy, just give me a kid blocking code. Thanks.
Re:I Have A Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
No, but when the kid comes home from playing GTA at the friend's house and says "Parent, I really want to get this game": Parent says "No."
The author of the article presents this situation, with his nephew now wanting to get this game that he played at a friends house. However, rather than take it the final step (i.e., parent saying no), the author goes into "hey game makers, change your games" land. Obviously parents can't be there 100% of the time, but when they are there they have to be a parent. And being a parent means saying no, quite frequently. Why the author doesn't see this, I don't know.
Kids are exposed to all sorts of "bad" things and parents do their best to mitigate any real or supposed damage by setting barriers, guidelines, rules and having discussions with their children.
It this author wants a better target to go after, why not start with soda / junk food vending machines at our schools. Kids spend more time in school than they do anywhere else (including playing video games). And childhood obesity is, without any doubt, a bigger problem than violent video games.
Sigh! Death of our children, film at 11. (Score:3, Insightful)
Superman comics were going to make children tie bed sheets around our necks and jump off the garage roof. The A-Team was going to make children turn violent. Rock music was going to turn us into Satanists. Sweet alcoholic drinks were going to turn the young into alcoholics. The ice-cream man was really a slipping LSD into their ice-cream to turn them into addicts, but only if the punch given to them at Halloween didn't do it instead, and don't forget about all the pedophiles that were just waiting for children in every chat room.
In other words everything that is even remotely popular is somehow going to absolutely destroy the lives of children everywhere.
Articles like this are good for quiet news weeks. In a year or 2 they will be about something new that is also going to end life as we know it. (The evils of golf or something)
I would also hazard a guess that people who came from homes way too poor for them to have ever been exposed to DOOM, GTA etc, commit most of the violent crime.
Re:Nine-year-olds know (Score:2, Insightful)
nothing's cooler to a kid than doing the wrong thing.
Re:I Have A Solution (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I Have A Solution (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I Have A Solution (Score:2, Insightful)
Parents, no matter how diligent, can not watch over their children every second of the day.
This is called being a responsible parent, or at least it was when I was growing up. My parents wanted to know where I was going, with who etc... Usually my parents had met my friends parents as well.
All that aside, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a lockout code as well. Not on the side of the box though. Give kids credit, if you hide it, they will find it.
Kids know? (Score:2, Insightful)
But of course, it's the parent's job to teach the kid a sense of moral responsibility before they give them access to violent video games. I don't have kids but my brother has 4, and I know that before they get to the point of playing video games more controversial then "Reading with Froggy" or whatever, they have a strong understanding of right and wrong.
If this isn't the case, it's the parent's fault, not EA's.
Re:I Have A Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was growing up, my parents never even knew where I was most of the time. I went out to play on a typical summer day, and wandered around the neighborhood hanging out with friends. I wasn't expected back until dinner time.
Somehow, I managed to come out of it OK. Sure, I saw the porno mags Timmy Smith had stolen from his dad's stash. I smoked a couple cigarettes when I was 12. I saw my friend's brother smoke dope (never tried it myself until I was well past the age of majority). But my parents had done their job in educating me pretty well in their sense of what was right and wrong. Even when I did things I knew they wouldn't approve of, I was able to consider those things in the moral structure they thought I should be educated in. I could ask myself "Why is what I'm doing wrong? Should I not be doing this?". I developed the ability to make my own decisions, and I had enough common sense to not get in over my head.
This is, to me, the only way to go. Don't try to control your kids. Don't make other people responsible for that task either. Do the best you can, take advantage of all the times your kids are with you to point out the moral issues of life and provide your perspective. Accept that they will make mistakes; if you think it's appropriate, administer discipline when they go against "the rules", but understand that this is all part of the learning process too.
Please, people. Produce thinkers, not mindless drones who have to be saved from themselves constantly. Insist on personal moral responsibility and accountability. Anything else is a cop-out. Even a very young child is capable of understanding "right" vs. "wrong" and knowing when they are breaking "the rules".
Our Contribution To History... (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, I defintely feel there is something wrong with the amount and vugarity of violence in games, especially when considering that this is an ongoing trend. Are we kidding ourselved that the same human instinct that drove the Romans to kill people for sport in an arena is not the same one which keeps me glued to the screen playing Far Cry?
Perhaps as a species we are cursed that whenever a society reaches a level where we no longer have to struggle, people turn to ugly and vicious pursuits.
A different viewpoint (Score:2, Insightful)
Now then, I don't necessarily agree with the author, but his article has sparked my interest. Not so much in the way of what content should be acceptable in games or that games need to have a clear set of what is right and what is wrong and focus on the 'right'. But in the way that the majority of games out there already *do* have this present...it's just subtle. They don't come straight out and say "This is good! Do this!", "This is bad! Don't do that!", but the elements are all there.
Take GTA... there is no doubt that what you do in this game is bad. It is unethical, it is unmoral, it is just
A better example might be Ninja Gaiden. You play Ryu, a *good* bad ass who is avenging the death of his family and putting a stop to evil in the world. Ultimately that is what is happening in the story. On some level does this not say: "Fight for what you believe in. Don't let bad things happen." Granted the way you carry this out in the game is purely fantasy...but can't the values be applied to life?
The trick is making the connection to what is already present in the games and applying it to real life situations. Let's think who would do this? The parent! If the parent is doing their job they will know the content of the games their child is playing. All it takes is sitting the kid down for 15 min to discuss what is being said / done in the game and why this is or is not acceptable in reality. Kids are smart, they'll understand.
With all that said, could game producers emphasise this more in their games? Absolutely. It would be wonderful to clearly define what is right and wrong. In an ideal world there would be no gray area.
Is it up to game producers to do this? Absolutely not! We don't see this in movies, or books, or TV...why should video games be different. It is the parents job to educate the child, not the rest of the world.
I apologize if my thoughts came out all broken, but I'm in a super hurry...
Re:I Have A Solution (Score:1, Insightful)
Thinking that making every part of the world child friendly is the solution to anything is rediculous in any case. I don't care if we're talking the evening news, mainstream movies, your religion of choice, the adult toy store downtown, or video games. You can't expect the entire world to have soft rounded edges so you can keep your child naive and innocent for a few more years. You have to develop a parenting strategy that does not rely on sheltering your child from reality for compliance or safety.
Your comment is right on. People who expect the rest of the world to conform to their idea of appropriate are the cause of most of the world's conflict, and they don't even realize it.
Re:I Have A Solution (Score:3, Insightful)
The same way it's been done for centuries: when you're old enough to make the decisions yourself, you can make that decision. *I* am mature enough, *I* can play this immature game. *You* have to earn that right.
It's worked for centuries, why should it stop now? I mean, this is the same as the stereotypical smoking parent telling his/her child not to smoke (or drink, or whatever).