Damn You, Game Boy! (For the cop-killing game!)

Melin, I can’t understand why you thought it would be appropriate for your kids if it had a Teen rating. I’ll admit that the rating system is seriously screwed up but generally the rating are less harse than people think they should be so you should have assumed that your kids should have been at least teens before they were exposed to it. One notable exception to this was when Doom and Simcity 2000 had the same violence rating because both depicted animated beings that died. In Simcity they are killed out of view by such things as tornados whereas in Doom you stand face to face with them before hacking them up with a chainsaw. But recently the rating system has been getting better and you should look to it as the minimum requirement to playing the game if you lead a conservative life.

Personally I feel that this type of game isn’t as bad as people make it seem. I’ve been playing video games since I was about 8 and I’ve grown up to lead a normal, nonhomicidal life. My father introduced me to Wolfenstien when it first game out and though I don’t really like that type of game I’ve played almost all of them upto Quake 3. I’ve played GTA and my only real problem was the overhead view(it really pissed me off). But I could see that it wasn’t real life and I knew better than to try such stuff when I got my liscense. Another game of that type is Driver. I like it better than GTA but though the content is much the same you don’t see any people getting run over. All the destruction is to cars and miscellaneous street stuff.

You said that we couldn’t change your mind but I hope that maybe you could be a little less harsh on the games and spend more time making sure that your children realize that they are games and that you can’t actually do that stuff in real life. And next time you go to buy a game come talk to the people here first b/c at least one doper is bound to have played it and be able to explain it to you well.

Of course, rule #1 should be that if you are truly afraid that your kids will be doing things in a video game that you wouldn’t want them to do in real life, don’t purchase a game for them whose title is the name a major felony!!!

As advice for next year, don’t buy your kids the award-winning games “Mail Fraud 2000” and “Aiding and Abetting a Criminal for PC”


If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I’d be at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.

Hey, I’m in a hurry, so all I got to read was the OP. So sorry if I’m repeating what’s been said.

I’ve played the game at a friends house. And its a great game, fun as all hell to let out those aggressions that, as a level-headed adult, you would never act upon.

Would I let my (theoretical) children play the game? HELL NO!!! I wouldn’t even let them as much as SEE the game for a brief instant. I think you should go back to the store and take them to task for recommending the game for your children. Ignorance is no excuse, if they didn’t know, they should have said that they couldn’t give you advice either way.

But as far as contacting the manufacturer, why? They’re not the ones who recommended the games to your kids. The Playstation is more geared towards adults, so they are well within their rights to design and distribute said game which is geared to the adult market.

On an aside, I must ask this: Just what did you expect from a game called Grand Theft Auto? A wholesome, fun-filled, family game?

Wasn’t for Playstation, was for Game Boy, which is very much marketed to the younger set.

Was marked “for teens” and the clerk told me it was basically car chases, that sort of thing. Admittedly it was the 9 year old playing it when I heard the “killed a cop” line, but I wouldn’t consider this game appropriate for the almost-15-year-old either.

Y’know, I actually thought, if I thought of it at all, that just possibly the game player might be the good guy instead of the bad guy . . . .

-Melin

Actually, the phrase “banned in over 14 countries” is printed in plain view. It shows up on the outside of the jewel case (aka CD cover) on the Playstation CD. I was not aware that it was actually on the Gameboy as well. That surprises me because Nintendo typically caters to the younger audiences insofar that it changes games such as Mortal Combat and Killer Instincts so they won’t contain blood or finishing moves (the gory finale to those type of games). In fact Nintendo relies almost entirely on its cartoonish creations to sell its products. Playstation, however, does not do that. Playstation markets to all audiences and is not afraid to make games with adult content (there is a stripper game that I have seen, but not played). Most of the other game companies won’t do that. As I posted earlier, www.gamefaqs.com is a good source to research your games beforehand. As a parent who sounds responsible, it is your duty to research the games, not the computer stores. They have ratings on the games for a reason but as stated earlier, they are rarely completely accurate. Do your own research on the game before buying them and you will find out what it is about. Read the walkthroughs of the games that are available on the gamefaqs site and you will discover which games are appropriate for which age group. It sounds like you are more interested in getting a game that is playable by all of your children, so you should pander to that lowest common denominator. For the gameboy (black and white) I would suggest one of the micromachine racers and for the gameboy color I would suggest the Star Wars pd racer game. The Star Wars racer has as much violence as Pole Position (a very old Atari game) which means the player can die. Not knowing your parenting style but seeing a line of over-protectiveness I thought it would be nice to warn you. Read the faqs about the games, they are available and don’t bitch when you buy a game in bad choice without doing the requisite research.

Sqrl


Gasoline: As an accompaniement to cereal it made a refreshing change. Glen Baxter

Sqrl, most of your post was informative, and I appreciate all of the people here who have pointed me to websites and such where I can get information about games in the future before they come home. Obviously it was naive of me to think that a clerk in a video-game specialty store could be relied upon for accurate information about the product he was selling.

That said, I think you are WAY off base with your comments about “lowest common denominator” and “over-protectiveness.” I don’t think cop-killing games are appropriate for ANYONE.

-Melin

Dang - replying to my own post!

After I said

I meant to add something, to make the whole sentence read:

I don’t think cop-killing games are appropriate for ANYONE, anymore than I think that games of “Nazi Germany” which would involve killing Jews or gays would be appropriate for anyone.

-Melin

Are people born cops? Nah, I didn’t think so.


“It’s my considered opinion you’re all a bunch of sissies!”–Paul’s Grandfather

So that makes it okay to kill 'em, eh Phil?

-Melin

Any cops actually being killed by this game, Melin?


“It’s my considered opinion you’re all a bunch of sissies!”–Paul’s Grandfather

Virtual cops are killed in this game. Would it be all right to have a game killing virtual Jews or gays?

-Melin

Would I like it? No. Would I give it to my nephews? No. Would it be “all right”? I suppose for people who want to play that kind of game, it would. Seems to me you’re a little defensive over the fact that you figured a game named after a felonious crime would be “all right” for your kids and people called you on it.

And, FTR, I never trust anyone who wears a plastic name tag to give me accurate product information, especially in electronics stores.


“It’s my considered opinion you’re all a bunch of sissies!”–Paul’s Grandfather

Not a good comparison. The wholesale murder of a group of innocent, helpless people and the killing of cops which are armed and fight back is an altogether different animal. I agreed before that this game isn’t for kids, but if you can have cops being killed in the movies, TV, and reality, why can’t you have cops killed in video games made for adults?

First of all, the game isn’t specificly about killing cops. You CAN kill cops, but you can kill everybody else too. Sometimes its a whole group of Hari Krishnas or a Boy Scout troup, but usually its gang members and assorted criminals that you’re killing. You don’t HAVE TO kill any innocent people if you don’t want to, but its kind of hard to avoid running over the occasional pedestrian or two. The way the game is setup, there are consequences for all your actions. If you kill innocent people or cops, the cops will come after you. The more people/cops you kill, the more cops come after you and the more aggressive they get. If you live through that, they send the SWAT teams after you. If you live through that, they send the FBI after you. If you live through that, they send the National Guard after you which includes tanks and machine gun wielding jeeps. (Yes, you can also car-jack a tank. Yippee!!)

There are also rival gangs, and you can work for any one of them. If you kill members of a gang, that gang will be after you, and the other gangs will start to like you. Most missions, center on working for a certain gang against another gang. Although there is the occasional mission where you have to carjack a cop-car, which is difficult but not impossible to do without killing the cop.

But what the heck, video games have always been about killing and destruction, this one just took it a step further. At least the game holds you accountable for your actions. (Unless you put the cheat codes in) :wink:

I agree with you, Melin. I think the game is wholly and entirely inappropriate for children of any age. I don’t think you’re being over-protective in the least.

I also think you are right in that the store personnel should know what they are selling. For them to tell you “it’s just a car chase game” had to be the understatement of the millenium. If they didn’t know, they should have said, “I don’t know”.

Of course, everyone else is right in pointing out that it’s the parent’s responsibility to know what they are buying for their kids. But I do understand how Melin was lulled into a false sence of security by the rating system. I was never in favor of ratings on music, videos, etc., and I think this makes a good case for scrapping the entire system. If they’re inacurate, they will do more harm than good.


“I should not take bribes and Minister Bal Bahadur KC should not do so either. But if clerks take a bribe of Rs 50-60 after a hard day’s work, it is not an issue.” ----Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Current Prime Minister of Nepal

Lucky- I do agree with you that the ratings system for games- as it stands now- sucks. However, I think ‘scrapping the whole system’ would be the worst possible thing to do.

The average computer game player (according to surveys) is a guy in his early '20’s. I’m not sure the average age for other systems, but I know quite a few people well out of their teens who enjoy their Playstation or N64.

Unfortunately, to the generally unaware masses out there, computer games and console games are “kid’s games.” Only pre-teens and teenagers, in their humble opinions, play with those games.

I worked in software retail when the first ‘rating systems’ were being developed. And I was thankful for them. Why? Because computer game designers had a tendency to tone done their games because of the general impression that they should be ‘for kids.’ Violence, mature themes, and foul language tended to be excluded (or, as far as the violence went, either detached (not really seeing the effects of your actions) or cartoony) in order to keep ‘parent’s groups’ from picketing the hell out of a game developer who wanted to write a game for a mature audience.

Once the ratings system came in, game developers were free to push these boundaries. After all, by labeling a program ‘teen’ or ‘mature’, you could side-step the issue of ‘kids’ getting a hold of these ‘corrupting’ games. If we lose the ratings system, then game developers will need to censor themselves and produce more pablum-esque products in order to keep from being targeted as the Great Satan Who Killed Our Kids At Columbine.


JMCJ

“John C., it looks like you have blended in very nicely.”
-UncleBeer

I can only make general comments, as the last video games I played were the space-type shoot 'em ups of the '80s, and Mario Bros.

But as far as being over-protective—geeze Louise, these are her kids. If she doesn’t protect her children from what she feels are inappropriate influences, then who will?

Deciding that a video game where part of the goal is to kill police officers is inappropriate is hardly the same as never letting the tykes out of her sight.

I’m not a parent, but even I can see that it would be impossible to know beforehand the specific situations a child may face while going about daily activities. I may feel the latest Ah-nuld or Willis gun-fest is all in good fun and any kid would have a ball seeing it. Certain parents may not agree.

Certainly, part of a parent’s responsibility is to run interference in these types of situations. But oftentimes, a parent can only react after the fact, based on new information coming to light. Sometimes one has to rely (at least at first) on the recomendations/opinions of others. If those then turn out in opposition to what you consider acceptable according to your own set of values, well, then, a reassessment is in order. Based on the OP, this seems to be what Melin has done.

So, defend the game all you like on whatever merits you feel it possesses; I won’t quibble. But insinuating that questionable parenting is taking place in this instance I feel is not warranted.

The point has been made that it was Melin’s fault for buying a teen-rated game named after a felony for her 9, 11 & 15 year old.

I couldn’t agree more.

Parents need to exhibit a bit more responsibility than that. Don’t dare blame the game-designers, marketing firm, retail store, and sales rep for your failure to pick up on the telltale signs on the game box.

I do have to give Melin some credit for confiscating the game, though. Those children shouldn’t be given this game. I don’t mind the cops being killed, but innocent pedestrians - that’s just evil!

That said, this game sounds pretty damn imaginative - I’ve got to go buy it now. I think you just became one of their biggest sales reps!


Hell is Other People.

I’ll be happy to sell it to you, Sake.

Sounds like for you it might be an attitude improvement.

-Melin

Nothin’ personal, Melin! I’m sure you’re a good mother to your children and it sounds like you have strong values.

It’s the Pit and all, you know, this ‘being nice’ stuff is hard here.

Happy New Year!

:slight_smile:

*Do you like my New Attitude? I got it for the Holidays.

I’m thinking of returning it.

There’s some very nice Bitterness I’m thinking of trading it in for.*


Hell is Other People.

Sorry, Melin, I’m in the camp that this game is damn fun, or was, when I first downloaded my own pirated copy over a year ago. Just repeat to yourself ITS NOT REAL. If you have raised your kids with any sense of right and wrong, fact and fiction, reality and imaginary, and any sense of responsibility and accountability, you should have no fear of them playing this, Doom, Martyr, Quake, Half-Life, Carmageddon, or anything else being blamed. It is only for entertainment purposes, after all. And, if my foggy memory serves me correctly, there is an option to tone down the violence on the options screen. Can’t be sure on that, though.

But here’s an idea. Trust your kids. You’ve (hopefully) taught them the right way to act and live, according to your mindset and values. So why don’t you trust them to play this game? The kid is nearly fifteen, for Chrissakes! He cannot be sheltered forever. Too much sheltering will be a HUGE culture shock when he hits high school, or, even more so, if he lives in the dorms at college. You’ve heard a few instances I’ve discussed over an over sheltered person being suddenly exposed to real life.

I know you love your kids. I know you want to protect them. But, you must release your death grip. I know it’s hard, with my own mom, it resulted in lots of screaming fights. But once it’s done, you will both be a lot more comfortable. Trust me.

The only other reaction from over sheltered kids, other than culture shock, is rebelling. You do not want your kids to rebel outright, do you? Ease up a little. Let him to go parties when he starts driving. Let him see the movies. Let him play the games. He has to. Now days, he almost NEEDS to.

I’m 18. I’ve been drinking for two years. I’ve had sex. I’ve shoplifted, I’ve vandalized, yeah, I’ve done stuff I’m not proud of. He will too. You won’t know about it. But if you’ve raised him right, he will snap out of it. Trust me, getting drunk every week gets old, to MOST people. Shoplifting gets old, too. Vandalizing, to anyone with a maturity level over 12, just seems stupid.

The point is, while you may not know, or want to acknowledge his actions, you must be prepared to accept them. Like I said, I’ve been drinking somewhat for two years. Only last week, LAST WEEK, did my mom FINALLY ever mention alcohol in relation to me or a party. No question if I drink it, no question if I have. She just said “Is there going to be alcohol?” I was like “Duh. I’m 18. I’ve been around alcohol for years.” And a “Don’t ride with anyone if they’ve been drinking, kay?” I’m sure she’s suspected for years there has been some interaction with the substance. It’s sad that it took this long for a mention.

GEEZ that was a ramble. I’m getting tired.

Main point: TRUST YOUR KIDS, MELIN! The game is not going to warp their minds.

Just play it. I’m sure you’ll have fun. Then, pick up Carmageddon.

–Tim


We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak.