Stop buying M rated games for your kids

[Blitzkommando]

People used to die at 35 too. That's why they'd get married at 14-16 because, in those times, that was middle age. Just because you can get a girl pregnant doesn't make you mentally mature. Physical maturity peaks sometimes over a decade before mental maturity. Hell, I had hairy beasts of legs at 13. That doesn't mean I wasn't a self-centered teen, because I absolutely was. And, then there's the problem when you have more than one young kid on a public server. They tend to feed off of each other and cause even more problems, whether or not they were 'mature' in the first place, they aren't mature enough to not cause problems for a laugh from their peers.

[ljkkjlcm9]

No, you're missing the point. You're generalizing, and my points is that generalizing doesn't work. It isn't ILLEGAL for a kid to play an M-rated game, it's illegal to purchase it alone. As I stated it's legal for a kid to go to an R rated movie with an adult, and it's legal for an adult to buy an M rated game for their kid. No one matures mentally or physically at the same rate. And yes, some kids are mature and others are not. Hell "Chuck Norris" plays this game, PC/PS2, and until he told me his age I never would've guessed he was that young.

THE JACKEL

[Uncle_bob]

Nope, sorry. Do you have Garrys Mod? Seriously, I'll give you the IP to my server so you can see where I'm coming from. Kids don't need to be playing this game.

[ljkkjlcm9]

On 2008-05-18 20:08, Uncle_bob wrote:
Nope, sorry. Do you have Garrys Mod? Seriously, I'll give you the IP to my server so you can see where I'm coming from. Kids don't need to be playing this game.

Generalizing is horrible. I can agree MOST kids probably should not play M rated games. But not ALL.
Clearly the bad ones will stand out far more than the good ones. The people who complain and make noise always stand out. For example, these wonderful forums (lol) the people who don't like something are always more vocal than the ones who do like something.

THE JACKEL



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ljkkjlcm9 on 2008-05-18 22:16 ]</font>

[DraginHikari]

What laws are you people talking about here?

In the US there is no law that states that you a child can or cannot view a Rated R movie nor a Rated M game.

These type of rules are created by retailers and providers who use it to maintain an imange or a reputation. Video games and movies are protected speech and most of the laws attempting to regulate them has been declare unconstiontial.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DraginHikari on 2008-05-18 23:25 ]</font>

[Raine_Loire]

Jackel, you just don't get it. Really. It's ok, it's because you're a kid- mentally if not chronologically. You aren't a parent, and you're looking at things from "I remember when I was that age" instead of looking at it from the opposite, erm- an adult. Let me put it this way. My son is 5. He also seems a lot older to most people, and it's gotten us in trouble with the police, when my husband's ncos called the police to send truant officers after us, and I had to whip out his birth certificate. I can only assume that he will maintain the same level of maturity as he ages, and by 14 or 15 would be as mature as a lot of 18 year olds. There are such teenagers as this, I'm not denying their existence. Will I let him watch R movies or play M games? Absolutely not. Because he'll have plenty of life for nudity and sex, violence and gore. Plenty of time when he can buy the games for himself, why the f*** would I subject him to stuff like that at an early age and start the desensitization at an earlier age than necessary?

You have repeated the same crap over and over "Some people are mature enough," "don't punish the ones who are because of the ones who aren't," But you have yet to give ONE actual reason why parents SHOULD buy their kids Mature games. Because they can handle them? That doesn't give a reason why they should have them. I could probably survive skin cancer, but I keep my white ass out of the sun anyway. The bottom line is that if a game is looked at by the ratings board and rated such and such a thing, it's a pretty good guideline, and there is not ONE reason to buy it. And as Uncle Bob has pointed out, time and time again, teenagers with too much freedom show exactly why it's NOT a good idea. Yes Chuck Norris plays THIS game. It's also a T game, not an M game. Oh, and if you read his posts and didn't guess his age, you're not in a position to decide what "mature enough for M games" is. Seriously. No offense to Chuck... but come on, he's not really trying to masquerade as a 30 year old! His SN is CHUCK NORRIS!

Like Blitzkommando said, mental maturity is far behind physical. There are, in fact, still countries in the world with a life expectency of under 40 years. I'm fairly sure they don't hand the baby a controller the day it's born because it'll be middle aged in a few days and they need to get in as much needless gore and sex as they can. Yes, when lifespans were shorter, people married and had kids at earlier ages. However even the physical maturity didn't happen as soon as people seem to think- the childbirth was hard on the women, and a lot of the ones who survived having kids at 13 would be left barren from the trauma. Just because people are allowed to do something and they think they are ready to do it, and everyone else is doing it doesn't mean they SHOULD be doing it.

Hikari, while the rules do state that a child can't BUY a M game or a R movie ticket, it's hardly created by retailers to maintain their reputations. If that was true, it would be enforced more. The fact is that while the spirit of the law is intended to keep these materials out of the hands of minors, there are always ways to circumvent the law until it's spelled out to the letter.

[Blitzkommando]

On 2008-05-18 22:14, ljkkjlcm9 wrote:
Generalizing is horrible. I can agree MOST kids probably should not play M rated games. But not ALL.

Generalization is what every human in the world does every day. If you can't live with that fact you obviously haven't been out in the real world long enough. We generalize to make our lives easier. If it offends someone that they are a member of "X group" what are you going to do? Beat the shit out of the guy because his mind automatically puts them into "X Group"? We're always judging. You yourself do it so don't get high and mighty when others do the same. I'm sure there's people out there that you instantly generalize as idiots, probably somewhere to do with your personal beliefs and people that don't jive with them.

Clearly the bad ones will stand out far more than the good ones. The people who complain and make noise always stand out.

So, you finally get the point but still argue that it's unimportant. Good job.

Is it really worth it, as a server administrator, to put up with the thousands of bad cases in the off chance that he'll get two that aren't spawns of the devil? I've seen it more than just Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod. It was in UT2004, HLM, OpForM, PSO, PSU, and countless other games. In the vast majority of cases where there are kiddies on the server, they end up causing headaches to the rest of the players. Spamming props, spamming on the mic, yelling and cursing over the mic, and if it's enabled, team killing or general anti-team tactics because they think it's funny to ruin the game for others.

In the end, if parents don't mind their kids playing in violent games with foul-mouthed adult males constantly talking about sex, alcohol, and making crude (in any and every way possible) jokes, hey, that's their mistake. But, personally, I don't think a kid should be participating in that kind of an environment because it gives them a very poor view on how adults act and should act. Men get on games to get away from the real world, they let loose their frustrations and often times that means they can get really vulgar. These games are not designed to cater to kids that need parenting. And it shouldn't be our place, as server administrators, to have to clean up house and stop them from messing up other players' fun. So, it's not just the game itself, it's the other players that are reason to keep kids away from adult games. I've seen kids that talk like that in real life and my urge is to smack them upside the head because of the complete lack of respect they have.

[Chuck_Norris]

Wow! People are talking about me!

Anyway, I have a few things to add.

Raine, you ask why parents should buy M rated game for their children. With that logic, why should parents buy video games for their kids at all? Or movies for that matter? After all, they're all just wastes of time.

Truthfully, I really fail to see why gore and sex have such a tabuu anyway. They're parts of a human being. Religion has just changed our ideals so much, that we think anything envolving the human body is off limits.

I mean, look at Japan. They don't think much of blood and nudity. They have had little invluence of religion. They haven't been brainwashed into thinking that the human body is the apidomy of evil.

[DreXxiN]

I agree with Raine that seeing many kids growing up should NOT be playing M rated games (if anything, for maturity reasons). In that same aspect, I second Chuck Norris in that you might as well not let kids play games or watch movies at all.

For example, You can see Boobs in T rated games, PG13 films, and hell, sometimes even PG films, even if it's not completely revealed. Kids will see this, and think "Wow I like this, I want more!" and will try their best to see the stuff. Why? Not necessarily because it's cool, but most likely because the fact that it is "wrong" to do, which makes it more of a thrill, similar to high school drinking parties. So it's all a mindtrick from the media if you ask me, to lure kids to this kind of content.

Also, I'm not one to beleive kids shouldn't be able to play M-rated games until they are 18.
I stand by this because it's a bad idea to me to keep people in Dragon Tales & Barney....& Friends... Land until they are an adult, and then throw them into the world with no "preview" of the upcoming violence, sex, etc that they will be witnessing later on in life. M rated games can pose a decent problem for those who cannot differentiate what your objectives should be in a video game versus what should be done in real life. (AKA, A LOT of the population) If you ask me, this is much less troublesome than child sweatshops, throwing them into a sex slave position, or raising them as soldiers from birth. Also on a religious note, I'd much rather have my kid learn from himself (if I deem him qualifying to handle such content) rather than have him forced into Christianity, or any religion for that matter, and get fed lies and propaganda. In other words, I want him to make his own beleif in faith on his own.

Really, despite all restrictions on M rated games (or supposed attempts thereof), You are still going to walk outside, and see Gangs, guns, shooting, sex, Blood, swearing, and many other things that we would consider bad for children. No, don't let your 10-13 year old kid play Grand Theft Auto, but if want to follow that rating system that ESRB enforces, you might as well keep your child in a box in a small room somewhere.

[ljkkjlcm9]

No I get it clearly. I would not buy the games for my kids if I ever had any. But I'm not going to walk around and tell other parents what to do with their kids. You've missed that entirely.

Yes we all generalize, but that doesn't justify doing it either.

Yes I've argued the same points over and over, but so have all of you, it hasn't told me ANYTHING I didn't already know.

It appears none of you have actually grasped my point in this argument. All of you make valid points, and I'm not arguing that every kid should be playing M rated games. I'm only arguing that it is not your decision to make for other parents. Some parents feel their kids are mature enough. Some parents sit there and watch their kids play the games. Just because you notice and observe all the kids that can't handle it (quite obviously) does not tell you how many kids are out there playing it and behaving just fine. Voice chat can be turned off. I personally hate voice chat in games and never use it unless I'm only playing with friends. So go ahead, restrict your own children. But you have no right to order another parent what to do with their own children.

THE JACKEL

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ljkkjlcm9 on 2008-05-19 08:51 ]</font>