I can't name a realistic shooting game, Thief did the bow quite well though.

-~-~-~-~
There is no Silicon Heaven! But where do all the calculators go ?

You could no more evade my wrath... than you could your own shadow!

I'd say that ca. 90% of all games are related to killing, one way or another. Of course, blasting a space fighter in a space sim or destroying some units in an RTS is different from shooting some bad guy's head off in an FPS, but the essence is the same. So, I say, we should ban all games, just in case.
Really, it's about parental control, not about game contents. Me, I like violent games

An idea came to my head and is now desperately searching for brain

FL is a killing game, in fact. Just not guts and gore.

I think that it is a cyclical problem, just like child abuse is a cyclical problem. Statistics clearly indicate that children of physically abusive parents will, themselves, become physcially abusive to their own kids unless some heavy duty intervention and "work" is applied to unlearn those experiences.

I suspect that parents who heedlessly buy extremely violent games for their own underaged children represent another type of cycle. I am not referring to parents who know their own children and have a good understanding of their child's level of maturity, I'm talking about the parents who just buy whatever to keep the kids quiet or who apply only the test of whether, as an adult like themselves, the game would have deterimental effects. More likely than not, their parents also had the same perspective on looking out for their kids.

Certainly, no parent would ever admit to not being concerned for their kids' welfare. It is easier for them to say that the game has no harmful effects than to admit that they made a mistake or, worse, didn't know better.

I agree with indy, the parents need to have a good understanding of their child's maturity level before buying any game. Age of Empires 2 is rated 3+ and there is blood and violence. Have any of you heard of SoF 2? I heard that its been banned in several countries for how much gore it has. That is a game that needs to be stopped.


BlazeME: Flameus Muchus n00bus

Help me on Outwar.com

SoF and SoF 2 are banned more over the issues raised, ie shooting Iraqis civs is a non mission failure, shooting american civs is

The gores not THAT bad, it's just a bit more detailed than AVP2

SoF's "Ghoul 2.0" feature was so unrealistic that I ended up turning it off. I hate that game. Look, what it comes down to is that society needs a scapegoat for violent acts. Games have violence, kids play them, and there's your answer. Don't blame environmental or societal factors, and don't blame the old Y-Chromosone, but the Video Game Industry .

Kids are moldable. But the concern is, who is the baby sitter that is teaching them, Mom and Dad, or games, shows and movies? As a lot of our, USA, Public service ads on TV put out that, hate and violence are learned.

Finalday

It's a Queen......she'll breed......you'll die.......Any Questions? /Keith Green\ (1953-1983)

Is it possible to name any games that don't involve death in any way? there are quite a few that don't involve you killing to win, but jst about any games inculdes death in it. Roller coaster tycoon - Brakes fail and coasters crash into each other, killing the passengers. I'm sure you can crash your plane in MS Flight Simulator. I don't know if some of the old adventure games don't involve death... things like Myst, I'd imagine they must do. In those days you couldn't have a good invetigation without a few murders! Can anyone name a singl;e game that doesn't involve death?

Hang on, I've got one: Pong I guess many racing games don't but that's because they allow you to crash at body flatning speeds and mearly float back onto the road... Is there a modern, full size (i.e. programing takes up more than a couple of MB's (Pong!)) game that doesn't involve death or doesn't just hide what shold result in death?

My gap year in Borneo

I've never understood what's so controversial about violent games.
The whole point of games is that they ARE unrealistic! The reason you can crash a car and reappear on the road is beacause the game would be CRAP if you couldn't. That doesn't mean kids are going to grow up thinking that they can crash a car all they like or shoot people and just restart the last save!
Worst case scenario-
Someone actually believes the games they play are real, and they go out and kill someone or something, thinking they'll just respawn in half an hours time. How the hell can people possibly think this is the games fault! Anyone depraved ands insane enough to do that WOULD DO IT ANYWAY!!!!!!

It's like that story about those two boys who killed a baby and threw it on the train tracks (both those boys, by the way, are now living in a high security house somewhere, where they are well-educated, clothed, are almost certainly going to recieve better medical care than I will, as well as the fact that they're never going to have to lift a finger all their lives. This is justice, apparently. I personally would have the bastards shot, but that's beside the point...).
They had, apparently watched a violent movie beforehand and it was blamed on the movie. What possible involvement could the movie possibly have had in the childs death? The way I see it, anyone who would watch something like that and think that the violence was somehow a good thing, would have killed someone anyway. THEY WERE LUNATICS!

Anything like this can always be seen as not being the medias fault.
Why? Because it isn't!

Anyway, about the original question, I believe that there is nothing more stimulating than violence (apart from sex, but that's not quite ready for videogaming yet ). Violence gets the blood flowing! Few things compare to the drama of violence. Think of an interesting, non-violent dramatic scene. There aren't any. Well some...

In light of that, you can assume that vilence is a good thing. In the right context.

Zone - The Lucasarts adventure games; eg. Monkey Island 1,2,3, and Sam and Max etc, did not contain any death at all. They even make a joke about it in Monkey 3. The villain is, of course, dead, but no-one actually dies. Technically speaking .

As I recall, one of the early games that was considered "Controversial" was Battle Chess. Radio Shack carried it and it was a good seller till someone showed a scene in it. A pawn was moved in range of the queen who took her staff and swung a well placed low blow on the pawn who then hobbled around on the board till he fell over in pain. Today, this would simple be laughed at and no one would think anything of it at all. How times do change.

Finalday

It's a Queen......she'll breed......you'll die.......Any Questions? /Keith Green\ (1953-1983)

I remember Battle Chess. Good old EGA, those were the days! I always liked those dodgy little screams from the pawns coming out of the PC Speaker. Classic .

yet another reasonable discussion about a decent issue here at TLR.

I have played a LOT of violent games. not for the thrill of killing, but to see what the fuss is about. GTA, Doom, Wolf, Mortal Kombat, etc. ive played all of them. and im the last person who would pick up a gun and shoot people. and my friends have played these games, and they are normal, so the problem here is the individual trying to find a way of escaping responsibility for their actions.
*POSSIBLE OFFENCIVE OPINION AHEAD*
The whack jobs behind columbine and the other school shootings were social outcasts on drugs, and some were even abused as children.
*END OF OFFENCIVE OPINION*

After saying that, there are some games that should be restricted. I was shocked to find my 11 year old cousin playing Vice City. I enjoy the game, (mainly cos its so, so wrong that it isnt real) but someone that age shouldn't be able to buy the game. (note: i live in oz, so i got the watered down version, but its still got the meat there) It pisses me off that parents (sometimes not even parents, but relative who buy gifts dont read the labels.) buy such games for thier kids. Rental stores here have restrictions on M15+ to R18+ movies but not games. the australian video game rating system has no rating above MA15+, which means if it has 18+ content, its banned or modified. It would be great if we did, then we could have got GTAIII and Vice City in their full glory, while still respecting childrens rights.

and now ill finish on this note:
'what about porn. we let porn in, it contains sexist attitudes and degrades women, but nooooooo, video games have a bad effect on children. just make adult video game shops. problem solved.' - my good friend merlin

edit: oh how i long for my childhood, laughing my ass of at Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island and Sam and Max. *sigh*

Viator

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i used to be a guy called jake_langley

Edited by - Viator on 3/12/2004 2:28:23 AM

Well of course you aren't going to get a gun and shoot people, Viator! That's not the Melbournian way!

Violence in computer games are hear to stay, and it's the people who sell the games to underage users that are the problem. That and the fact that there are no "R" ratings for computer games here in Aus., only MA (15+). Why? How the hell would I know?