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Gaming and kids

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personally, for kids age, i dont like when the game displaying kinda gore things, bloody is ok but at their age i dont think its right
 
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Eh, violence nonsense is completelly baseless. Kids were bullies or did horrible things even before computer games even existed. If they weren't shooting virtual enemies, they were kicking mushrooms and pulling legs off frogs. or punching a random kid in a face. Same thing, except less things get hurt when playing violent games. Because it's virtual. So, frogs and mushrooms are grateful. And random kids. Anyone who has problems distinguishing reality from virtual would have reality check problems anyway, with or without any violent games.

I've been playing violent games since i was a small kid, kinda started with Wolfenstein 3D and Duke3D. And i play like all of them, even those 10 times worse like Killing Floor or Soldiers Of Fortune where guts fly all over the place. And its just that for me. In real life i can't even kill a fly. Ok i lie, i kill flies because they are friggin annoying and there are like millions of them every day. But i'd never harm anything else, be it even so primitive creature. Or a human for that matter. It's called intelligence and ability to make moral choices. Anyone who has no problems doing that will also have absolutely no problems playing even the most cruel and violent games.
 
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Younger kids shouldn't play too violent games. But if you are older than 13 go and play what ever you want and find out what you enjoy the most. But than again if the younger kids don't play violent games that doesn't mean that they probably wont see violence in movies.
 
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Eh, violence nonsense is completelly baseless. Kids were bullies or did horrible things even before computer games even existed. If they weren't shooting virtual enemies, they were kicking mushrooms and pulling legs off frogs. or punching a random kid in a face. Same thing, except less things get hurt when playing violent games. Because it's virtual. So, frogs and mushrooms are grateful. And random kids. Anyone who has problems distinguishing reality from virtual would have reality check problems anyway, with or without any violent games.

I've been playing violent games since i was a small kid, kinda started with Wolfenstein 3D and Duke3D. And i play like all of them, even those 10 times worse like Killing Floor or Soldiers Of Fortune where guts fly all over the place. And its just that for me. In real life i can't even kill a fly. Ok i lie, i kill flies because they are friggin annoying and there are like millions of them every day. But i'd never harm anything else, be it even so primitive creature. Or a human for that matter. It's called intelligence and ability to make moral choices. Anyone who has no problems doing that will also have absolutely no problems playing even the most cruel and violent games.


Because hitler was totally xXH34VyxGunn3rXx in CoD XD
 
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While i am not as old as many of you, i am one of those who already grew up in an era where the pc and the games already existed, and not just the tv consoles, i know we had one of those, some generic stuff, but never played it. I remember my family having a pc since i can remember this kind of things, that was more of a professional thing, with my parents being involved in computers. I also remember the times when i got older, around the age people go to school or so that they let me use the pc by myself, not just watch them. I remember playing some rally game, pretty old one and never found it later. There were a series of educational games, where you learnt animals and such and you needed to color in things. Typical kid stuff. There was another game that involved construction of things, but none of them had human vs human action. There were only objects under your control. Until i got into high school i still had that limit of 30min-1h of computer maximum a day. That got me into games like the NFS series or the Tycoon series, games i really enjoyed were Transport Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon 1, both some really old titles, but alternatives still exist today. "Got" my pc in 9th grade, it was basically moving it from the living room to my room and my parents using a laptop thereafter. Then the things started "falling apart". I started to discover games on my own, and got into a few more violent ones, gta series, CoD,BF. Then my friends got me into the MMO thing. I played WoW for a few months, never really enjoyed other than questing. I got into the MOBA crowd last year when my dorm roommates stared playing LoL in the exam session, i play that now just to play with some friends, never been serious about it. The only game that got me is World of Tanks, as it was a game that i have discovered in the beta and rediscovered later and played a lot. But there is no actual blood or killing people, you just shoot at other tanks. But i still like casual games and driving or economy simulation games better, been playing almost every game of the 18WoS series, NFS to day. Maybe except those from the pre 2000 era that wont really run now anymore. Remeber that XP came out and the only game i played wouldn't run and it took time to get a Win98 dual boot for this, i just felt like an artist with mspaint during that time. And when i got a partition on the pc for myself.. a whooping 20GB, 3 games and it was all gone with games starting to have the size of DVDs.

I still feel like my parents protected me maybe a bit too much from violence and pc games in general, but the pc still marks the end of your social life partially. And being socially excluded gets people back to their virtual reality even faster. And maybe this gets worse when kids become addicts and play all day long from early ages, also with the new consoles, where you can buy them for a lot cheaper then computers. It is a bad trend and people just cant stop little kids roaming on the internet anymore. Also Animated TV shows got much worse in the recent decade, so tv is also a place where violence is omnipresent even on children channels.

I just remembered i still have a copy of Halo(1), wrapped in foil, never opened because i hadn't been allowed to play it when i got it, well my father got it with some hardware at our PC shop and brought it home as they don't sell games and business clients don't take the games bundled with their hardware. Now i decided i will never open it, maybe it will be of some value later.
 
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Younger kids shouldn't play too violent games. But if you are older than 13 go and play what ever you want and find out what you enjoy the most. But than again if the younger kids don't play violent games that doesn't mean that they probably wont see violence in movies.

Question here is, what separates a 13 year old from a 8 year old? Seeing myself back then when i was around 8 we were playing Battletoads and Street Fighter (i think) on Nintendo sistems (those boxy ones) at friends place. And yeah, Wolf3D, Doom and Duke3D arrived very soon after. If your logic, morals and mental well being is in order you can be 8 and it wouldn't make any difference what so ever. At least it didn't for me or countless friends who we were playing with back then.
 
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Question here is, what separates a 13 year old from a 8 year old? Seeing myself back then when i was around 8 we were playing Battletoads and Street Fighter (i think) on Nintendo sistems (those boxy ones) at friends place. And yeah, Wolf3D, Doom and Duke3D arrived very soon after. If your logic, morals and mental well being is in order you can be 8 and it wouldn't make any difference what so ever. At least it didn't for me or countless friends who we were playing with back then.

I think spongability decreases with age. Kids rely heavily on external parties to obtain their opinions and views, but the second they hit their teens, they become independent, and no matter what you tell them, they'll always form their own opinion based on what they were taught in their "sponge years". Parent a kid well during the first decade of their life, don't rely on external mediums to do you job as a parent for you, and I reckon a kid the age of 13 is capable of playing any violent vidyagame and will have a good sense of what is right and what is wrong.

I personally believe the main issue is parents using vidyagames as a tool to prevent them from having to deal with their children on a daily basis. If parents don't take a prominent stance in a kids life when they are young, then the kid is going to have more reliance and respect for their console than their parents, because the console spent more time with them when they were very young. I played a couple of man-shoot games when I was quite young, but I always played them with my family, and I think that makes a huge difference, because the concentration is on the spending time with the family, not trying to keep yourself entertained, by yourself.

As said above, Hitler didn't kill millions because he played violent vidyagames. Nickson didn't bomb all those people because he played CoD 1 instead of being parented, and in this modern age, Gadafi wasn't a butt hole because he played too much GTA. They were brought up in a toxic environment from a young age.
 
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Question here is, what separates a 13 year old from a 8 year old? Seeing myself back then when i was around 8 we were playing Battletoads and Street Fighter (i think) on Nintendo sistems (those boxy ones) at friends place. And yeah, Wolf3D, Doom and Duke3D arrived very soon after. If your logic, morals and mental well being is in order you can be 8 and it wouldn't make any difference what so ever. At least it didn't for me or countless friends who we were playing with back then.

An 8 year old might not have all the logic/morals of a 13 year old that's the difference (well some might but on average they don't), he is less capable of knowing what's wrong and right in a game.

Another problem today is that most children spend 5+ hours playing games - you can look at the outside playgrounds and you will noticed that they are empty while in the 90's everyone was outside.
 
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Give you kids the gift that is called TETRIS.
 
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An 8 year old might not have all the logic/morals of a 13 year old that's the difference (well some might but on average they don't), he is less capable of knowing what's wrong and right in a game.

Another problem today is that most children spend 5+ hours playing games - you can look at the outside playgrounds and you will noticed that they are empty while in the 90's everyone was outside.

Oh yes, because kicking a ball is so much more productive than for example playing natural Selection 2. Or FIFA/PES. The all time old stereotypical "you should play outside more" nonsense.
 
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Oh yes, because kicking a ball is so much more productive than for example playing natural Selection 2. Or FIFA/PES. The all time old stereotypical "you should play outside more" nonsense.

I value excersize just as much as I value playing Warframe on a daily basis. Excersize and fresh air is important, I believe there is and should be time for both.
 
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Oh yes, because kicking a ball is so much more productive than for example playing natural Selection 2. Or FIFA/PES. The all time old stereotypical "you should play outside more" nonsense.

Oh yes because it is, it's way more productive for your body than sitting and starring at a computer screen all day long. Not to mention you're doing it with friends (and it's in real world, not social site garbage).
It's far from nonsense.
 

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i tried to fight it for a long time, but my almost 4 year old son plays L4D 1 and 2 on single player. He understands menus and switching weapons as he also plays CS:CZ and CS Source.

He's not fazed by the violence at all and has never hit another kid. He doesnt take the gaming outside (ie. doesnt act out on other kids) and these days is usually on Minecraft single player trying to get the hang of that game.

In the end the coordination and multi tasking he is learning should help him at school in the fall.
 
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I agree using media to "babysit" your kids instead of interacting with them is wrong. We as parents are very involved in our kids lives and try to expose them to as much as possible to make them informed to both good and bad with an age appropriate filter. My kids have their own laptop but it can only be used in a common area of the house and not in their bedrooms. My son plays a tank game (not world of tanks) and loves it, it is his favorite right behind Minecraft, all of which are monitored and time limits set. I really do believe that we need to be transparent in how we deal with kids and protect them but not shelter them, exposing them to the world, both inside and outside. That being said, gaming in our house is a reward for working hard and not a given and generally on weekends only. Many times they are told no.

Thanks to all that are offering opinions
 

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I'm a mix on this topic. My sons couldn't play video games until they were 10. At first they were limited to things like racing games, and SpiderMan and Star Wars games, and arcadey games like Slave Zero. Then I gradually moved them on to thinking FPs like Splinter Cell series, and some adventure games, and the first two COD. Then they discovered Starcraft (original) and RTW.

In their Teenage years, I allowed them more violent games, with the rule that I always played it first, and weighed their maturity against what was in the game. On their own, they decidedDragon Age, Mass Effect series, Starcraft II, Oblivion, Deus Ex: HR and Skyrim were great games, which I had no problem with since the violence is a little less graphic, and the player has to think a little. I also limited their online time for multiplayer games to 3 hours per day, and only on weekends. Throughout it all, we had outdoor family activities, and I encouraged and supported their involvement in after-school sports and activities.

Now both are adults and on their own (the youngest turns 19 next month). My oldest doesn't play games at all anymore (and he's a quiet, well-adjusted man who works and is active). My youngest plays only a few hours per week now, and it varies between various COD MP, and things like Crysis 3 and Starcraft II. He also is non-violent, and would rather take extra hours at work than come home to the PC or X-box. Overall, I have to feel that the path I chose helped them achieve a good balance in life.
 
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I watched ninja turtles as a child and you didn't see me living in a sever talking to rats. :)
Some kids like to reenact what they see on tv or in games and some don't.
Not all kids act like randy and butters dad after playing mincraft in south park.
 
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Like zsolt I too am probably not as old as many of you guys either (1994 here -.- ). Anyway I grew up surrounded by computers. My old man played a bit of strategy games like SC and Command and Conquer in the late nineties early 2000s (he still does just not as much and with newer editions of those games). Because of this he'd allow me to play some games that were more suited to me ie good old Monster Truck Madness 2 and NFS Porsche Unleased and 1NSANE (<- that was a beast game). Basically I was allowed to play only when dad would be playing his game so he could supervise me. I was only into racing games as I have always like cars ever since I can remember.

Probably when I was about 8 or 9 was when I was given a PS2 for a combined birthday/Christmas present and the next year an Xbox. Gran Turismo 3 and Midtown Madness 3 babyyyy. I was never allowed to play online, and infact when I accidentally clicked on xbox live or the like I quickly got up and turned off the console as it was that condemned in my mind from my parents being quite negative about playing things over the internet. I first got into the 'violent' games with HALO 2 and CoD 1 probably when I was about 10 or 11 i think it was mostly because all my friends were playing it. My parents never liked me playing those games so I'd only be able to play those at friend's houses. It was probably when I was about 11/12 years old when I was allowed to play those games in our house and while being supervised. I'd say I was 13 when I could start playing those types of games unsupervised and also online. I think Trackmania United was the first game I played online (this was when I was about 13 iirc). It had a nice community so it was probably lucky I started there. I think I was brought pretty well in this regard so kudos to my parents haha.

Now though, I'm beginning to go off video games a little. And when I do play them it isn't for very long, I much prefer racing games again now (Assetto Corsa, Gran Turismo etc).

I had sports activities on weekends and during the week too right through primary(elementary) and high(secondary) school and even now in university (also was the school band for piano and flute). Tennis and football during school years and tennis, golf and motor racing at my local tracks now at university. As long as there is a good mix with co-curricular/sports/musical activities it should be good.


I think what you are doing is right, he sounds like a well mannered kid. If it were me I might wait a year or two before showing them 'violent' games like wolfenstein/BF/CoD though. And probably wait until they are around 14-15 before playing Grand Theft Auto and those types of games. I don't want to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet here but I'm quite a well mannered calm person. I do enjoy having a quick blast on GTA and doing all sorts of crazy illegal stuff like blowing up cars and running over pedestrians (is it bad I enjoy this lol D: ) it certainly hasn't morphed me into a crazy, criminal person. I think violence in people can also be affected by the general society around them too.
 
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i tried to fight it for a long time, but my almost 4 year old son plays L4D 1 and 2 on single player. He understands menus and switching weapons as he also plays CS:CZ and CS Source.

He's not fazed by the violence at all and has never hit another kid. He doesnt take the gaming outside (ie. doesnt act out on other kids) and these days is usually on Minecraft single player trying to get the hang of that game.

In the end the coordination and multi tasking he is learning should help him at school in the fall.
rofl at a 4 year old playing L4D 1 and 2 :)
 
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What I don't understand is the need to play rated "M" games with kids. There are tons of teen and children's games that are fun to play. For example Trine, Serious Sam (Gore off, of course), the Rayman series, any Lego game.....etc. I've played all these co-op games with my boys (Who are 5 & 7) and they love them.

The mature games I play when they are in bed.
 
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What I don't understand is the need to play rated "M" games with kids. There are tons of teen and children's games that are fun to play. For example Trine, Serious Sam (Gore off, of course), the Rayman series, any Lego game.....etc. I've played all these co-op games with my boys (Who are 5 & 7) and they love them.

The mature games I play when they are in bed.
Haha yes Lego games. I remember I used to play Lego racers 2, football mania, rock raiders, stunt rally etc all great lego games. I even still play rock raiders and stunt rally occasionally just for some nostalgia. The new ones are really good for co-op though.
 
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What I don't understand is the need to play rated "M" games with kids. There are tons of teen and children's games that are fun to play. For example Trine, Serious Sam (Gore off, of course), the Rayman series, any Lego game.....etc. I've played all these co-op games with my boys (Who are 5 & 7) and they love them.

The mature games I play when they are in bed.
When I was in fourth game it was basically a contest among the boys to watch and play the goriest most horrific games and movies they could find and whoever saw/played the goriest was amazing. Seriously when I played COD4 at a friends house he showed me that he has resistance but we didn't actually play that since I told him that COD is already too gory for my liking.
 
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I think it's more how children handle things. Chances are, unless they're being home-schooled, they've already been exposed to at least a basic repertoire of curse words/slurs/vulgarities/whatever through their peers along with whatever usual crazy antics (pranks, teasing, blackmailing, posturing, grudges, etc.). If your children can handle such fine, I think they're good to go. If not, you might want to get that sorted out first. Children will eventually have to face the real world. Preparing them for it early, even if piecemeal, is for the best in my opinion. I think a 20 year old who has been dealing with such for 10 years will be more experienced in dealing with such matters than a 20 year old who has only been doing so for 5 years. Or compare a 20 year old man-child with a cool-headed 11 year old. A lot of it is how they perceive things and what to make of those things. It is a bit different from 20 years ago, but there are still enough similarities. If you're on the fence about something, look to your own childhood upbringing and/or the early days of internet interactions for analogues and see how you turned out.

Also, I'm of the opinion that ESRB ratings should only be a very loose guideline. It's very numb to gratuitous violence; most hit the M (17+) rating glass ceiling and it is almost impossible for a game to get an AO (18+) rating through violence alone (The Punisher game originally did, but the devs revised it for a lower rating). It might just be an American cultural thing though. This is in contrast to the European PEGI and Japanese CERO ratings, which regularly give games like Call of Duty a 18+ and a Z (18+) rating respectively. I also do not like the implications of having two age categories separated by only one year (both ESRB and CERO are guilty of this), 17 and 18.
 
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I've thought about this a lot as I get closer to starting a family (I'm 24 and decided my GF is probably the woman I'll marry in the not so distant future and would make an excellent mother) myself. I grew up with a single mother who was working a lot to provide, and played video games all through my childhood. I played Counter-Strike and Half-Life through most of my childhood (granted I was like 9 when HL came out and 11 when I started playing CS) but even before that I had the likes of Resident Evil and Goldeneye. I played my fair share of violent and and mature games growing up.

That being said, I never was a very violent person, and neither were my friends that played violent games during their teenage years. I don't necessarily believe that children are imprinted the way lazy media seems to think they are. I think honestly the Internet screwed up my generation more than anything. We were basically given access to anything we wanted from an early age, before parents even realized that anything meant ANYTHING. I remember being a teenager at my friends house and seeing videos of journalists in Iraq getting beheaded. Before I get too sidetracked I just want to point out that Video Games like Counter-Strike and Half-Life didn't turn me into a desensitized sociopath, and the only negative emotional reaction I ever noticed was that I got very angry with video games, but I also had anger problems from other aspects of my life, so getting mad at Goldeneye was probably healthier than beating up kids at school.

I would recommend watching the Penn & Teller Bullshit episode on Video Game Violence. It tackles the issue pretty well, and they even go so far as to find a young kid whos parents allow him to play games like CoD and put him in a supervised firing range with I believe an AR15 to see how he reacts to real guns. The outcome is pretty interesting. I would say more than anything to assess your child and base your decision off that. Are they very influenced by things like movies and TV shows, if so, make sure you establish that the things that happen in these entertainment mediums are drastically different than real life. There's a world of fiction, and the world of non-fiction, and they need to know the difference. So my overall recommendation is to slowly introduce them to the content. Don't throw them into Manhunt and Mortal Kombat with executions and bone breaks, but maybe start them off with some rated T games that have some violent aspects and explain to them how video games don't emulate real life and they need to know while doing these violent things in games might be fun, doing them in real life is out of the question and has serious impact on themselves and the people around them.
 
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