Mature Video Games in the Minority

Steve writes "Of the record breaking $7.3 billion in video games sold in 2004, only 18 percent of them were rated "M". This is surprising, considering some media watch groups have great concern over inappropriate video games landing in the hands of children, even claiming that 60-90 percent of video games have violent themes. Filefront uncovers the real trend and includes quotes from ESRB President Patricia Vance."

litle misquote...

[TheOnlyJuztyn]

The article claims that the watchdog groups say 60-90% of ALL games are violent, however what the page actually says is 60-90% of THE MOST POPULAR games are violent. This sounds more believable to me, when you factor in GTA and HALO's marketshare.

This is not to say I'm siding with the watchdog, because it's an even less useful point then the misquote. Video games that are popular are popular because people buy them. If people are buying violent video games more then others, that's not the manufacturer or retailer or anybody's fault but the buyer's. Manufacturers make what people want them to make, or else they'd make no money.

I definately agree with the article's claims that these watchdog groups are incredibly out of touch with what parents want. I worked in retail last christmas, and on one of our busiest days of the season a group of 6 or 7 'violent-game protesters' came into the store. They were all women, probably 60-70 years old, and they kept chanting about how video games make our kids violent. I kept wanting to remind them that it was their generation that participated in world war 2, korea, and vietnam, not mine. And it's their generation right now that's invading Iraq and showing us that, apparently, the only way to solve some problems is through violence. See? I can generalize too.

These 'watchdog' groups piss me off.

Re:Guns in Video Games

[Eddy Da KillaBee]

Not exactly true. One perfect example would be the Mega Man series. Since 1987 Mega Man's been shooting up other robots, and since the ESRB put ratings on games, Mega Man's gotten K-A (Kids to Adults, before it became E) and E.

Hell, Mega Man Zero, in which you see the robots spew out blood, oil, or whatever it was, is Rated E. I think that the ESRB guidelines are just plain retarded.

Some rateings are bs

[bird603568]

I know we have all played Diablo 2. Its rated M. I don'y know why it just is. Its recockulou, that a game wher you use magic to kill made up animals and save the world is rated M. On a side note, is Madden considered violent becuase you tackle people?

Defining violence and adult themes

[tod_miller]

R* games seem to revel in being the violent and edgy game company, whereas lucasarts are reknown for thier familyesque non-violence (non-human death).

Carmagedon the original sprite based version was banned in Germany, but I haven;t heard too many reports of games being banned now.

The huge ammount of FPS and RTS games being developed would make me question those stats - but I am not an advocate of violent games for children.

I realised that NO WAY in hell would I let my 11 year old nephew play GTA:SA. He plays soul blade and other fighting games, but this is different stuff.

Fighter against fighter, a match, a game, like boxing.

GTA:SA allows for free roaming and killing of innocents. I think it is hypocritical for R* to not place child models in the game, if somehow the proportional dimensions of the vertices makes a difference. They are walking a fine line. I do not see the peds in GTA:SA as innocent people, I just see them as utter bastards who would sooner steal my car as be mowed down by my gatling gun (nuttertools - cheat for nice weapons [gta:vc]).

Other adult themes (non-violent) are a little quaint in GTA:SA, and probably put in there as to say, hey, movies are violent, and movies contain sex, if we make our game contain sex, then you cannot complain about the violence.

People worry about the interactivity of violence in games, I did a small study into students attitudes, and those who thought games were too violent showed no more concern for violent games and children than those who didn't think games were too violent.

So, let games contain violent (yet fun) themes. I wouldn't particularly like a game that was violent but not fun, IMHO GTA isn't even violent, it is a depiction of violence on a non-realistic, joking scale. It isn't harmful (the other content is - I would happily let my nephew play a game where you could shoot people or accidentally run them all down!)

If you think about it, it makes sense.

ESRBs are there for a reason...

[Bret540]

I am 22 and was carded for buying a copy of Diablo 2 yesterday from wal-mart. (Rated M) Don't complain to the makers of such software if your son or daughter was playing a Mature game that caused them to commit violent acts. Blame the shopkeeper / store who sold the game to them.

Yo no entiendo

[jbich]

I've never really understood the take these people have on things like this.

Columbine happened because of violent video games? What? Kids become disassociated from reality because they come to believe that video games represent reality? What? It's the government's job to control media? What?

Most of the kids I've had interaction with, or have been able to listen to comments from believe that video games represent things we can NOT do in life, and therefore make a great escape.

Why is there no outrage AGAINST the people who lobby against the freedoms we enjoy in our media?

Ok. I'm ready to be modded down now.

NFS UG2 is E for everyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone explain how Need For Speed Underground 2 got an E "for everyone" (mild lyrics, suggestive themes). It is packed with Rap songs that I would not want my 5 and 7 year old daughters to hear. They love to watch me play, but the music is not suitable.

The songs are "blanked" every third or fourth word on most songs, but some of the others are *really* blatant. And the "don't play" feature doesn't persist between sessions.