Important Questions

[Zorf]

Hello everybody! I'm currently doing a project for school this year and I thought I would interview everybody here. The project is for National History Day, and is about the violent video game controversy/controversies. As this forum seems to be of a semi-balanced group, I thought you guys would give plenty of material to work with.
If you do decide to answer these questions, please try to answer all of them. I reserve the right to quote any of you in a short documentary, unless you say otherwise. Please include any sources, if applicable

I NEED THIS BY THE 20TH OF JANUARY!!! GET YOUR ANSWERS IN QUICK!!!
Here are the questions, in no particular order:
1. Do believe that the government should create laws to prevent sale of “M” rated games to minors?
2. Would you or do you allow your children to play “M” rated games?
3. What are your personal criteria for a game to receive the rating of “AO” (Adults Only)?
4. Do you believe that violence in video games could be used to more effectively tell a story?
5. How do you think video games have changed society? Has society been changed forever?
6. Can video games teach violent behaviors to minors?
7. How often do you play video games?
8. How often do you play violent video games?
9. Should the government, stores selling violent video games, or parents work to prevent minors from buying violent video games?
10. Are video games worse for children than violent books, movies, or music? Why or why not?
11. Are there any benefits that could come from video games, violent or not?
12. Could violent video games prevent real life violence by allowing it to be done in a virtual setting?

 

[147]

1. Yes. However, this doesn't stop parents from purchasing them for their kids anyway. I've witnessed too many kids in Halo 3 to believe the law is working.

2. This is catch-22. I'm not naive. If I restrict them from playing them, they'll play them at a friends house. However, if I allow them into my home, I'm subjecting them to kinds of material that could have a negative effect on them. Knowing games myself, I could however restrict what M-rated games are played, and explain to my children why the ones that I won't buy are not being bought. I'm also not going to be a hypocrite. I spent my days playing Mortal Kombat as a kid. I don't want that conversation that most parents have about marijuana with my kids -- "but you did it too!"

3. The same as NC-17 movies.

4. Yes. Historical war games would be ineffective in storyline without violence.

5. It's double edged. We have created a bunch of loners with video games, but even still, with certain games, we have created social scenes. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen, but video games have had an effect on society.

6. I think video games create no more of a threat to promote violence than violent movies do. That said, both can create an influence in the most extreme, impressionable minds. I don't think Doom was solely behind the Columbine incident, but I don't think it helped matters at all. In that instance, you had two highly sociopathic teens, that were influenced by the media and their angst against the peers that outcasted them. Where a lot of people in their scenario would create art to release this angst, their sociopathic tendencies led them elsewhere through the things that influenced them the most. But this can't just spark these tendencies in the youth; impressionable, sociopathic adults would also be at risk.

7. Between daily and semi-daily.

8. I mainly play fighting games, they are however quite cartoonish and too fantastic to be considered impressionable in my view.

9. It's the parents job. The fact that the government is starting to intervene indicates a severe breakdown in the family system. This is the same problem as the fact that San Francisco will soon ban McDonalds from selling Happy Meals. The government is playing parent because the parents are failing at their job. How many 5 year old walk into a fast food restaurant by themselves, on their own volition, with their own hard earned money, and buy themselves a Happy Meal? The parents can pass up the restaurant, but choose not to.

Likewise with the parents that just throw Halo at their kids without even reading the label, and sit their kids on Xbox Live. The parents show less restraint than their children, so how should the child know any better.

Same can be said for parents who just slap a filter on their computers to try to keep their kids off pornographic websites, but don't realize the kids can easily figure out how to bypass it. Parents today don't monitor their children's activities anymore. They encourage bad eating habits. And when things go wrong, they blame the government, society, and media for their own parenting flaws. Which causes more censorship, more restrictions, more laws, more government intervention to take care of a generation of children with parents who maybe care, but just don't have any restraint to do anything about it except complain to the government.

10. I see no difference. All have an influence. Video games may take interaction from the audience, but all can engage and incite.

11. Yes. Watch the Moral Kombat documentary. Someone brought a good point that historical video games could teach kids as well as entertain them with the same violence as in your standard fare today.

12. Yes and no. I think some children could use it as an outlet. Same with adults. But it's twofold. Violence won't stop because of video games. The last 20 years have proven that. But I think part of the fact that there has been few school shootings recently has been because of games. I could be completely wrong though.

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

Sure, I'll bite...

1. Absolutely. Regardless of what either side of the spectrum comes up with in their "research", I fully believe that both violent video games and the usual content within them can drastically alter a childs mindscape whether through simple persuasion or influencing how people should behave.

2. Depends highly on age. I think once a kid reaches their mid teen years (15-16), then it's up to them to make that decision.

3. Mostly sex related content as it is now.

4. I do. I don't believe that a story, whether in book, movie, music or game format should be forced into being toned down against the artists vision or trying to show the severity or harsh nature of the story they are trying to tell. However, I do believe that there are stories out there that are not child friendly and should be held off till they reach majority.

5. I think it has certainly had a negative effect on today's youth as well as many other things have. During those years of childhood and into the teen years, we're still very vulnerable to influence and tend to mirror a lot of things we see and hear. Even as adults, we can be influenced by things, though it's much more prominent in childhood. I think you can see the changes very easily when comparing people today to people 30 years ago.

Nothing is forever though. Things are constantly changing.

6. I do. As stated in #5, I think that it can have a very large influence on a child's mental state.

7. Nearly every day.

8. Nearly every day.

9. I think they are doing as much as they can. Where the government fails is in the actions of ignorant parents who buy these games for their children anyway. In that aspect, not much can be done as I do not believe it is within the rights of the government to deny sale to adults as many countries are doing with complete bans on violent video games.

10. No, as stated in #5, influence can come from all forms of life. You are influenced by everything around you; all you see and hear.

11. There is always benefits in story telling, be it books, music, movies or games. It brings out imagination and has positive effects on the brain. Some stories just require the violence to get a point across.

12. I don't believe so. I think it more likely brings out negative behavior. While I don't for one minute believe that video games are responsible for violent actions taken by people who shoot up schools, I think it can make people more susceptible to anger or bad attitude in general within their everyday lives.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

1. Do believe that the government should create laws to prevent sale of “M” rated games to minors?

I don't think that the rating system and the way it's used by the public to get games should be different then any other media. The MPAA ratings are voluntary, it should be the same for games.

2. Would you or do you allow your children to play “M” rated games?

My son is 7 months old, so... However, he will not play video games of any sort until he is much, much, much older, M ratings or not. I was in middle school before I got to game, I think that's appropriate for him. I want him to be able to entertain himself with things that aren't the TV or video games. Studies have shown kids under 2 shouldn't watch TV or under 5 shouldn't play video games, and while I'm completely guilty of letting him watch TV, the video game thing I'm not going to flex on.

3. What are your personal criteria for a game to receive the rating of “AO” (Adults Only)?

Honestly, I haven't thought about it. I really don't pay attention to the ratings on games. I think graphic sexual content or violence that is to a degree that, if it were in a movie, it'd be NC-17.

4. Do you believe that violence in video games could be used to more effectively tell a story?

Sure, to a degree. There is a point, however, where the violence doesn't tell a story and is there just to be there and overly gory for the sake of being overly gory.

5. How do you think video games have changed society? Has society been changed forever?

Sure. Society changes whenever a popular form of media or entertainment becomes available to the general public.

6. Can video games teach violent behaviors to minors?

Yes and no. People aren't taught violence... My son is 7 months old and he throws toys or hits things when he gets frustrated. Expressing frustration physically is natural. It needs to be controlled because it's not appropriate, but it's not something a video game teaches. If you're talking about extreme violence, like what happened in Arizona, again, I don't think so. Those violent behaviors existed before games as did the tendancy paired with their lack of desire or ability to control it. I think people who are more prone to violence may be more attracted to violent things, but those violent things in and of themselves don't make them violent.

7. How often do you play video games?

Daily, for at least an hour.

8. How often do you play violent video games?

I play M rated video games regularly. Usually daily.

9. Should the government, stores selling violent video games, or parents work to prevent minors from buying violent video games?

I think that it should be exactly like movies and their ratings.

10. Are video games worse for children than violent books, movies, or music? Why or why not?

I don't think so. They all tap the same part of the imagination, and in those prone to violence, appeal to the urge in the same way. Studies have shown over and over that violent video games don't make people violent, neither do books, movies, or music.

11. Are there any benefits that could come from video games, violent or not?

Sure, depends on the age group and the game. I grew up doing counting games on the TI and I learned my shapes through those games. Now that I'm an adult, it serves as an inexpensive hobby.

12. Could violent video games prevent real life violence by allowing it to be done in a virtual setting?

Who knows, but marketing them that way would mean that we as a society or the industry as a whole think that video games cause violence. It's a silly can of worms to open.