Topic: Violence in Video Games

like all other polemic subjects in gaming, it's just a matter of point of view.
if YOU are influenced by a violent game it's a personal trait of yours, if you're not influenced that's great.
the ratings are there to avoid selling suggestive stuff to risky age groups, of course they're not perfect but if you are old enough to play a game and it influenced you badly, it means you're not mentally mature enough to play it.
in the end if you can differentiate reality from fiction and don't let them mix up, you're fine with any kind of entertainment without having to worry.
plus kids shouldn't even have access to violent games so if a child does bad stuff because it played violent games it's already either bad parenting or the kid has bad company.

That's a really good example actually. Think about movies. Most movies trying to sell well aim for a rating of PG-13, and indeed the best selling non-animated movies tend to be PG or PG-13. Yes, you get something with sensationalized violence like Django Unchained or Chucky occasionally, but they aren't the bread and butter of the industry.

For games on the other hand, if it's not a cartoon character aimed at everyone, the target rating is M. Think about how few high profile games have stuck with a T rating.

Weelllll...

I've played Doom, Call of Duty, Borderlands, Serious Sam, Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, Painkiller, and the list goes on and on...

These games are all violent, and I think I turned out okay.
However, I can't stand violence in movies, for some reason.

@CorporalPegasus I'm really not quite sure what it was exactly, but all I know is the game made me feel awful and I didn't want to play it anymore because of that...

The ESRB is way too strict on sexual content and too conservative about violence. Discuss.

Oh gosh this better not lead into the whole violent games make people violent argument. Hasn't really been proved some studies say yes others say it makes people less violent. I say mind your business and if you don't like it don't play it but it's no reason to b**** at other people because they like playing them.

That's more of an America problem rather than something specific to the ESRB.

Agreed. Although I respect how liberal they are with language.

Not sure what you mean about conservative about violence though. Do you mean they are too strict or lax. I'd argue in the E-T range, they are too strict, but between M and Ao, they are too lax. I guess the big 3's policies against Ao games encourages ESRB not to use the rating much.

MGSV trailer bothered me a little, and I love MGS.

If people make violent decisions on what they see in video game, then they are already mentally disturbed and should not have had access to any form of violent media, books, tv, games etc.

A lot of the time it is parents trying to blame something other than their poor parenting for their child misbehaving/committing felonies.

I always wondered how the heck Halo gets M everytime.

Funny, I literally wrote a research paper on this just last month (scored an 86) and a quote i used mostly said unless your child has issues, he/she is most likely not going to turn to real world violence because of violent games

Well crap, I make pretty messed up decisions in some of my business sims...

This is relevant
http://www.dorkly.com/post/55347/5-games-that-actually-prove-...

Persona 4 really shouldn't be M. It should be a middle ground between M and T, but I would lean towards T. Yes, it has sexual content and sexualized imagery, but it isn't explicit for the sake of it, and actually isn't that bad at all. I don't want the ESRB to get as lax about the issue as France's movie rating system (The Wolf of Wall Street is the dictionary definition of 18+), but they seem to be too lazy.

I think gory games have every right to exist, but there are things I think need to change. Now, I don't think mature games negatively effect adults (unless they already have issues), but I think there's more we could do to keep "M" games away from children, who are still developing right from wrong.

1. Parents don't respect the ESRB system like they do the MPAA system - I think it would do wonders if the ESRB adopted the G, PG, PG-13, R system. From what I've noticed (anecdotal, I know) parents don't respect an "M" like an "R".

2. I think they need a "T 15+" (or "PG-15" in revised system) rating. I've played GTA:VC & RDR, and while they're great games, my goodness they're much more objectionable than COD (or Halo, from what I've heard), and need to be a rating higher-up (Thus, COD and the like being downgraded to "PG-15").

3. Any "M" (or "R") game shouldn't be advertised until 10 P.M. - Not much to explain here. It wouldn't be unlike those "Adult" websites that advertise on Comedy Central after hours. (Maybe "PG-15" games could have a less strict restriction put on them, like not advertising until after 6, 7, or 8 P.M.)

Would this fix everything? No, there will always be bad parents, and sneaky kids, but I think it'd go a long way.

Actually I did one last year with a couple of friends one the same topic.

but anyway it seems that the general consensus was it depends on the person. personally when I was younger I was terrified of halloween and gore to the point of screaming in fear at walmart halloween aisles and horror movies and as I grew older I did things to break that fear like playing scary games (majora's mask because of the masks) to where i'm at now playing anything liking horror movies and standing gore but to be honest it gets boring decapitating and shooting heads. That being said the Mario series is my favorite of all time and I usually stick to T rated as my main rating but feel no shame in going to E sometimes. The only rated M games I like are Halo, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, GTA and generally anything with a sword.

So to sum all that up gore affects certain people they know it and while kids shouldn't play them I understand why they want to, curiosity when my dad played Die Hard on the PS1 I always wanted to try its just kinda natural. So gore isn't causing world chaos its just over used and boring now.

Games are like any other medium, and should ve treated as such. I don't believe they cause violence of any sort when treated appropriately but can be a trigger for those who are unable to process it properly, be it too young/immature for the material or mental issues.

Unfortunately, many parents don't treat games like any other medium. If you wouldn't let your kid watch an R-rated movie why would you let them play an M-rated game? Even if you ignore the "M" its still rated 17+. The "its just a game" mentality is just too prevalent, I'm all for using your best judgement but from my experience a lot of parents just end up buying whatever game their kids want to make them happy. They are "just games" but the content in many M-rated games is still equal to, at the very least, programs like Friday the 13th or the Walking Dead and should be treated with the same care. Some movies push the R rating for all its worth while some barely deserve it (Zombieland comes to mind here) and games are the same way.

What I meant was that killing things in video games is fine, but a person thinking that killing something in real life is okay just because they did it in a game is a person who shouldn't have access in media. Seriously, who hasn't built a death coast in RCT or drowned a sim for the fun of it? I couldn't afford to build a roller coaster, let alone kill anyone with one.

The only one of those things I haven't done is the Oregon Trail one

Before VG ratings and regulations my parents (particularly my father) would allow me to play a strip poker VG. I turned out fine. It's a matter of whether the kid can handle it, I could, never even played a real (for money) game of poker, let alone a strip variety... I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing haha

The most important thing is to actually explain what is going on and why you should or should not do, not "let the TV babysit my child". Some people say "media doesn't have infulence on children", which is not true.

What is funny to me is that people think "violence" in any media is the worst offender, but the truth is, you can utterly destroy and scar your kid for life even with something like Toy Story. I'm dead serious.

I liked my time with Quake 2, Doom, Blood, Soldier of Fortune and Shadow Warrior or watching movies like Robocop with permition of parents as kid and I think I turned out fine, because they KNEW what they were doing.

Partially media could be the "thing", but not the reason that someone turned out doing killing spree - it is the bad parenting and just being rejected by society and frustrated by it, but of course "smart" media psychologists or whatever base their opinions that "games = killers, murderers, rapist" on nothing other than "it is easier to blame the thing which won't defend itself than parents".

I mean, there were killing sprees in schools even in 1920's and 30's.