Doesn't she get cabin fever? Don't her parents?



@Taw, Yeah... well, there's adult content (a dubious qualification in as much as many adults are not of sufficient mental age anyway ) and there's other classifications. Each parent is responsible for what his/her kids can watch and play. I guess, though, that there are those parents who just don't care or think it is important. What happens to those kids? Do you let your kids play with them?

Simcopter? i remember throwing passengers out of my helicopter when i was quite high up.

Quote from PCGamer:

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The biggest insightment into violence isn't watching violence isn't watching violence - it's detachement. The nicer and more palatable violence looks on screen, the more inclined you are to give it a go yourself. So how do we remove the allure of violence? Easy. Make games more violent.

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This is true. If you feel genuinly repulsed by something that happens onscreen, you won't want to join in. If there is a high level of unrealistic violence, e.g Max Payne, where you can get shot 15 times and then fix yourself with paracetamol. Properley violent games make you less predisposed to violence, because the real thing is so horrible.

<Trip over soapbox, exit left>




Fight like a Warlord

Ed, as you will become aware (although with girls it's less of a problem until they're teens) it's almost impossible to keep your kids out of bad company, unless you lock them in the house 24/7. Believe it or not I do have some rules and I've tried to keep games/films/music/tv that I consider unsuitable away from my kids. Unf especially with boys, if you ban them from something but their m8s have it, they'll get their mitts on it anyway. I've given up on the violence side; and other parents I speak to say much the same thing, it's so much a part of games that it's impossible to police. And the GTAs and Resident Evils are mixed in with Spyro, Pokemon, Mario, Sonic, stuff like that. When I was a kid I used to go setting fire to garages and smashing up building sites and derelict houses, making firebombs etc. Now I know my nipper ain't doing that, so do I have a right to complain because he indulges in cartoon violence GTA-stylee? If I'd kept me ban in place, he'd just be playing it round his m8s anyway and exposed to god knows what else; at least at home I know what he's doing.

(girls only become a problem when they discover boys; before that they're as good as gold)

Taw, my lil sister hasnt discovered lads, and she is a F***ing pain already

Taw - I remember a number of those games, including Simcopter and Chiller. Chiller was seriously weird game. What kind of sick bastard would come up with an arcade game that allows you to shoot people strapped into torture devices? When I was young, that game freaked me out.

@Aceaz: dont worry, i almost live on a soapbox.
But as you were saying:

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If there is a high level of unrealistic violence, e.g Max Payne, where you can get shot 15 times and then fix yourself with paracetamol. Properley violent games make you less predisposed to violence, because the real thing is so horrible.

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Its true. Doom was really borderline disgusting. but it wasn't real. and it didn't have much of an effect cos it was set in a fantasy setting (not the genre, but in a non-realistic sense). Games like max payne and SoFII are set in the real world, and so desensitize people to violence in the real world, leading to violent outbreaks like columbine, but the designers of max payne and SoFII have very resposibly put violence locks on their games, and SoF I & II have disclaimers, warning of the violence in the game. however, games need not have blood to be mind warping. have a look at http://jet.ro/dismount. it isnt really in good taste. but i found it good stress relief, pushing people down stairs and hittin them with trucks.

anyone remember "Death Race" on the Atari? it was 2 Pong style cars, just vector graphics, going up the screen running over goblins. And there was uproar from Mary Whitehouse and her gang of middle aged blue-rinse media fascists. Look at it at know, it's more harmless than Mario Kart..

What about "Deathtrack"? It wasn't really controversial, but it DID feature driving around a track blowing up cars .

Death race? that was fun! (luckily my uncle saved an old machine from the slaughter...), and you're right taw. its absolutely harmless.