ARCADES!!!11! The perversion of young minds.

[Lordstar]

now I went to check out the updates of system 16 today. Love the site (more so than KLOVG) and i read this

The other day my mum took my kids out for the day, during this they went down to a seafront arcade to play on "the machines" as she calls them. Now bear in mind my kids are 3 and 6, she was horrified to see what I figured out was a house of the dead 3 or 4 sitting next to the motorbike game they wanted to sit on. I’ve never really thought about it as it’s never affected me before, but why are 18 rated (or at least extremely gory) games allowed in an area where anyone can see and play them? If this was a film then it wouldn’t be allowed and I don’t want my very young kids seeing someone’s head blown off piece by piece, even if it is a zombie.
If arcades are trying to push themselves as family entertainment nowadays to survive then I think they should probably sit these machines at the back in the 18 rated area each arcade has where the large payout fruit machines live. /rant

Now My opinion of this is no one actually cares what there kids get up to until something goes really wrong or an adult knocks on your door and starts shouting at you, some dont even care when you do that. So you know back in the day one of my friends accidentally broke another one of my friends noses after playing final fight in the street (picking up stick instead of lead pipes and doing punches like Cody was super fun back in the day) The parents came to the conclusion that Final fight had perverted there children minds and banned them from entering an arcade for a while ( a few months i recall until I convinced her he had learnt his lesson ) thing is she wanted us out of her hair and gave us money for credits while she did the shop. Some parents are responsible some are not you have to ask yourself if your child is mature enough to be playing GTA4 me at 6? No **** way me at 14? Yeah i can see that ( obliviously i was not 14 this year so dont correct me on the time line of the game its just an example) I mean i know the difference between right and wrong and I know when i pay a hooker for sex that beating her to death to get the money back is very wrong. I had a BB.Gun at the age of seven and i never shot a living creature (hornets/wasps nests on occasion but that was just stupid) because i know between right and wrong. Would I let my kids play house of the dead if I ever had any at the age of six if they were mentally balanced then yeah I would. I think its fair to say GTA is a no no until they are a little bit older.

A lot of us here have kids. some old enough to have there own kids. But whats your opinion on this?

Did/do/would you let your kids play gun games? beat em ups? carmageddon? GTA?

Discuss!

[Checen Rebel]

would you let your kids play gun games? beat em ups? carmageddon? GTA?

Gun games yes. Well, HOTD definitely - my daughter knows it's OK to shoot zombies but she is never to pick up a real gun or to shoot people.

I live in an area with quite a bad gun problem, I've seen the damage they do to communities. I want her to learn from an early age how dangerous they are - shooting zombies seems the perfect introduction to that (coupled with the fact that she loves zombies/monsters). Lately she has taken an interest in time crisis and other shooters when we are out anywhere - I've been fooling her into believing you shoot zombies in that too. =]

Beat-em-ups without a doubt - at least until she tries to spinning bird kick me. :>

Carmageddon, again it is zombies and she knows that to run over people is wrong. Saying that carmageddon is dire - I prefer The Zombie vs. Ambulance on PS2.

GTA, no chance - I'd disown her if she played that junk. Boring, repetitive, boring, repetitive... (you see where I'm going? ;> ). When she's older she can play it if she wants, but almost definitely not before 12 (unless she was incredibly emotionally/mentally mature).


BUUUUT, I do have to agree with the guy. Maybe not in the over-18's section, but they should definitely be stuck at the back of the normal section so that parents who don't wish their children to see/play it can keep them away. If operators want to go more mainstream (which is a bad idea IMO) and to be seen as more responsible (which can't hurt) then it's the sensible thing to do.

[pubjoe]

Gun games like house of the Dead? - to be honest I have seen HOTD very little, but I imagine it's probably very unsuitable for kids to easily see and play.

I do pretty much ignore game ratings though when allowing my Boy (6 next Month) to play games, but this is because I play enough games to make an experienced decision myself. For example, Kameo is rated 12, I wouldn't let him play it a year ago, but he's been playing it lately (and has reached the last boss now btw) and I think it is a fantastic game for a boy his age, and just about the ideal level of difficulty too. He's seen a little of Zelda Twilight princess, but the darker parts of the game later on I think would frighten him so I keep that game at bay at the moment (which he HATES as he is a big zelda fan).

I've also played my streetfighter games with him on my arcade machines and I think it is another example of fantasy violence that is no worse than many cartoons aimed at children his age. I wouldn't leave him to play a game like streetfighter on his own though and I do explain to him that the fighters in the game are "karate experts" and people are not to fight in real life - My boy takes karate lessons btw (I don't want to patronise, but if anyone doesn't already know this, child karate lessons, if led by a decent teacher, are amazing for the control and discipline they teach, and do the very opposite of promoting violence)

Generally, as a parent, you have to go off your own experience. If you fell like it didn't do you any harm then you will probably permit your child to do the same thing.

I confess to being a bit of a 'Mary Whitehouse' when it comes to some of the glorified violent games like GTA / Manhunt though (although in the most part because they're usually a bit crap).

I am a pretty passive person and despite the "fantasy violence" that I do allow my boy to witness, he very much takes after me. To be honest, I'm more concerned about the terrible parents I see at the park encouraging the little bully brats - And my child has amazed me on many occasions by his comparative maturity when dealing with some of these kids while still making his point that they are "bad" or "unkind" - sniff! He makes me so proud.

To sum up, if you carefully consider what your child can and can't do, then whatever decisions you personally make, whether people agree or not, you are being a responsible parent. If you just leave them to it without a care nor interest then you are being irresponsible. This applies if you are a parent who want's to shut your kid up by sticking him in front of a video game without a clue what he's doing, or if you are an arcade op without a remote clue what your machines even do and mixing games like house of the dead up with games aimed at the little ones.