An interesting report coming from CBS-Portland around the holidays. The video shows a small crowd standing in front of Toys ‘R Us, demonstrating against violent video games and offering alternatives- games that promote non-violence and are socially or politically conscious. You can actually see the list of these games on the demonstrators’ signs. I swear we had nothing to do with that…
This reminds me of the Prohibition Movement! Did it work back then (NO! It started organized crime in America). Video games do not cause violence (people were violent well before video games were around). Actually, many of these violent games that these morons (not you guys, the people that were in font of Toys r Us) are thinking of are more survival games (half life, resident evil). After basting scary aliens on Half-Life for a few hours, no one wants to shoot people in real life, duh! Want my advice? (probably not because I’m just some random college student), post links that promote your game, not links that bring other games down. I think PeaceMaker is a great game and a great idea and will have a good impact in the middle east(I’m taking a game development class and we talked about it.), but don’t loose your reputation by posting stuff like this. These people are IGNORENT! They don’t play video games, they just point fingers about what causes violence.
@Stephen
My post was objective, never meant to say that I support or oppose this activity. In fact, I myself play violent video games (including titles you mentioned) and so are other members of the team. Beyond the violence debate, I still believe that the video game industry should be challenged and we all have to work harder to change the public perception about games: mainly that they are meaningless and shallow.
We are still far away from being perceived as a mainstream medium that appeal to females and males, to all ages and to all tastes just like movies, TV and books do. And it’s pretty cool that a bunch of indie games (5 in this report but many more in real life) succeeded in becoming icons in this public debate. So perhaps people like you, a college student who studies game development, will join this movement and not design into the standard “templates”…
“and we all have to work harder to change the public perception about games: mainly that they are meaningless and shallow.”
That isn’t the public perception of games, thats YOUR perception of games.
@Ferret
Not true. You are welcome to visit my video games rack on Facebook, some of these games are masterpieces:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=559056356
Saying it’s not the public perception seems to me like the easy route.
Violent video games should be banned because children might begin to imitate the characters that are in the game. It allows young children to engage in serious simulated violence which is wrong because then they could end up in school violence or in gang related violence.
Video games are fine. It all depends on how the PARENT raises their kid. For example, if a 10 year old spends most of their time playing video games, then theres something wrong with the parent! I come from personnal experience. I am 17 years old and spend most of my time playing video games. there is not a chance in hell that im going to go and murder someone because i did it in a game. If the child has been watching and playing violent videogames/movies then chances are they are going to learn violence. Thats where the parent has to step in. The child will be fine, unless the parent doesn’t show the child how to not be violent. 😛
Oh boy here we go. I’m so tired of games constantly getting beat down for the violence.
When will we ever be able to have a game like Manhunt or Grand Theft Auto come out without controversy the same way that a Saw or Hostel movie can come out.
The double standard that movies and television can have as much violence as it can (while having a rating that kids should not watch these) can be played in theatres without worry but the second an M rated game comes games are considered the devil.
The problem here is that adults still think this is the 80s and that games are still for children, so when something like Manhunt hits shelves it causes fury. As you can see I obviously think this is very unfair.
What is the point of having ratings if we have politians and parents getting angry. Do they not look at the game and check the rating first? What ever happened to researching before you buy?
In response to EveLyN’s post I have this to say:
If violent video games get banned then shouldn’t TV, movies and music be banned too? If they were so violent then kids should not be playing these games in the first place. I think video games are just as a legitimate entertainment medium that television and music are, meaning that they can appeal to many different ages.
We all know that children are very impressionable and will imitate what they see, what is important is that there are parents around who will teach them what is right and what is wrong, and what the diffrence is between reality and fiction.
I am considered a young adult now, and I think that I (and many others) should buy what suits our tastes, just as if I were to buy an R rated DVD, I want to be able to buy an M-rated game.
i think you shopuld alll shut up:)
this is a ridiculous arguement, how dare anyone think that it is right to persuade children to become ugly characters, just extremely inappropriate. i believe that you should also stop telling people how to manage their kids.
over and out.
i totally agree with my twin, were from america and we believe that its wrong althoug if you want to get fat then you should just get fat outgrowe your sweat pants.
over and out.
Personal opinion on this whole shindig would be that it’s absolutely ridiculous. Protesting “violent” video games is not going to change one thing about the gaming world. Also, replacing the violent video games for the peacemaking and pleasant ones is going to have no effect on the way the world is today. If someone where to play violent video games about war it would be exactly what is going on in the world today, and if someone were to play a peacemaker game it would also have no effect on the things in the world today. You cannot tell parents how to raise there kids and not to buy things for their kids because it’s bad for them. The world today is at war and no matter how many ‘peaceful’ things we do nothing will change it, not even changing the types of video games we play.
These people are protesting against something that is not even related if you really think about it. The ESRB gives games ratings for a reason, to show parents what they should get for their kids. I believe that if the parents who buy the violence for their kids just to shut them up are the real problems. Giving the kid a game and telling them not to try this at home isn’t helping. Playing GTA since I was 8 can say that violent games don’t make people violent, but instead their ability to separate life from fiction. I was an above average child, so I knew not to walk down the street and beat the crud out of some guy so that i could get his money. Before I end my rant I will say that games aren’t the only things getting more violent as time goes on, take a look at movies and music also, and please stay unbiased, even though I was a little, and beautiful.
video games are a great way to relive stress and make people less violent. it all depends on how their raised and what they take away from the game. like army of two your two guys going through areas killing everyone for money. but when you look at it their brothers in arms fighting to stop the bad guys from winning. just food for thought