A COMPUTER GAMES DEBATE

[Highlander]

Personally I've never been a fan, wouldn't even know how to load the damn things onto my PC BUT following the trial of those sick young punks who killed Gary Newlove there's been some debate about certain violent games leading kids to do things they wouldn't necessarily have do before. I'm thinking of games like Grand Theft Auto and there's a new one coming shortly called Bully features a shaven headed school hard nut who terrorises teachers and pupils alike. Aparently players score points for their more violent and psychological abuses.

 

Worries me that such games lead kids to believe that violence, death etc etc isn't so bad as no one actually gets finished off in such games, they're always around for the next play session unlike real life.

 

IMO such games must have been thought up and compiled by real sickos and should be toatlly outlawed (am I allowed to use that word on here?) but what's the forum think?

[Dunkield]

I think.

 

The people who end up killing, knifing and generally causing trouble would do it anyway.

 

Our son plays CoD4 and other similar games, but I doubt he will turn into a mass murderer.

 

I may be wrong of course.

[Mungler]

There is definitely something to be said about the desensitization of society on matters of sex and violence.

 

Dunno what the answer is.

[dunganick]

i did most of my A level media on this area, with things like the j bulger case and childsplay 3, there are links, but tbh i think there is more to do with the screwed up upbringing alot of kids get these days.

[Dunkield]

Highlander, there was a documentary on TV (isn't there always) called The Truth About Killing, or something very similar.

The upshot of that was most people, even some of those trained by the army, found it very hard if not impossible to kill another person.

If you 'wired' that way you are going to do it anyway, computer games, music etc have all been blamed without any real proof.

[JohnGalway]

Isn't that a bit like saying guns kill people? When we here know that the real answer is guns don't kill people, rappers do.

 

I've played my fair share, now square eyed, of computer games when I was younger. Violent and other types, not yet had the urge to sharpen up an axe and knock off a neighbour or thirty.

 

I figure people who do these kinds of things obviously aren't well, and do not have enough things in their life of value to make it worth living properly. Not being a softy there but I mean thye must not feel like they have anything worth living for, whatever that would be for an individual is up to them.

[flash]

well its a good thing i play world of warcraft instead of GTA then, atleast im not gonna be casting spells on anyone any time soon lol.

[Mungler]

What do you mean. Guitar Heros has turned me into a rock god.

[Cranfield]

There is definitely a different, more relaxed attitude to the violence that is available to youngsters via TV, films, comics, computer games , etc.,

 

If you remember the A Team came out in 1983 and despite the "violent" scenes of jeeps being blown up, shots fired etc., you never saw any dead, or wounded people.

It had to be like that to get on TV then.

Now, they probably wouldn't be anywhere as fussy.

 

Whether any of this could, or does, contribute to street violence, I am not sure.

I think the main problem is to do with a lack of parental control and a real deterrent for wrongdoers.

Other issues concerning underage drinking, few social amenities for under 18's, low education standards, etc., also contribute.

 

I get the impression that some of the numbnuts I have seen on TV couldn't turn a PC on.

[Axe]

I've always thought it was about the up bringing given to the children by their parents. The case regarding the boy that acted out a part of Gran Theft Auto, in the states, where he killed a passing driver. The game here is rated 18 but this kid was 13 and had been playing it for 2 years. Parents need to think a little more. Same goes for films etc. My daughter often comes home from school asking to play this or watch that as her friends have seen it. I simply explain that just because her friends have seen it doesn't mean its right. Then show her the age classification etc. I'm not sure f she fully apprecates it, but she does accept it.

[Ferret Master]

I think it all depends on the child and their moral view of right and wrong.

 

I stopepd having anything to do with computer games as soon as I started secondary school but played my fair share of gory games. Likewise my younger brother was playing some of the more violent games like Vice City when he was younger but he is also very level headed these days and not about to start acting them out. Hundreds of thousands of these games have been sold and at the end of the day these game induced killings are rare. Besides it's nothing that they couldn't watch on the television when parents backs are turned. In my opinion it is better to chow children what is out there but also install a strong sense of right and wrong from a young age.

 

FM

[eagleye]

I have to be honest we had to take away the computer/ playstation games with the boys when they younger because they got

so violent towards each other

the straw that broke the camels back was when one throw the other one down the stairs and put him in hospital

and the reason for his actions were its OK they just get up again in whatever game it was he will be ok and that was from a 12 year old who I credited with a bit more sense

that was just my own personal experience not all kids are like that i hope

[Griff36]

When I was young I played Frogger and I don't recall any urges to catch frogs and make them jump across the M6.

 

Its just another excuse for bad parents!

[J@mes]

as others have said, if you feel the urge to slaughter people after playing a game, you were no doubt going to do it anyway.

 

ban games? there's films, books, comics etc.

 

My parents wouldnt let me play violent games until I was 15, so I went to my mates and played them. I have never had the urge to drag someone out of the car and beat them (unless they cut me up lol) People kill and maim for all sorts of reasons, I expect that video games is a small portion of them.

[pin]

I grew up watching hammer horror, horror movies on video tape and playing violent computer games. To date I have not stabbed anyone, shot anyone or come close to it.

 

My view is there will always be people who can't handle situations and loose it, people who can't rationalise feelings or deal with jealousy or stress. These are the people doing these things.

 

That said I do think that the age rating system on computer games is very useful, however even in days long past I was able as a ten or eleven year old boy to find these tapes and watch them without my parents knowing. Long before the internet, long before computer games consoles in kids rooms and long before 200 channels of cage fighting and titty action on satellite TV.

 

I think there will always be people who do these things, there always were. We just didn't know about it. The mass media, new media, and the faster dissemination of information technology allows simply brings it to our attention where in years past you'd simply never hear about it. When my dad was a kid you didn't hear about serial killers in America, however they have existed for years - these days you simply hear about it or read of it on the net or someone emails you about it.

 

As we all know banning things doesn't help, so what solution? No idea, I just know that in this day and age people are quick to blame easy targets when it's the parents who should be taking responsibility for what their kids watch and play.

 

It's like banning knives, waste of time with every single household, almost without exception, has a small sharp knife for peeling potatoes easily accessible to anyone having access to the kitchen.

Edited January 21, 2008 by pin

[J@mes]

I think the solution is for parents to monitor behaviour more closely - if a child is playing violent games and becoming more aggressive as a result of this, then its time to remove them.