ID checks for video games

[Mole 0]

I am also glad they are carding kids for the video games. Besides, a parent shoud know what their kids are buying.

 

When I was younger, my mom wouldn't let me watch rated R movies, watch bad anything on TV, or listening to music with bad language in it. At the time I hated it, but I think that was the right thing to do.

 

If there was an R rated movie I wanted to see, my mom would see it first and see if it was okay to watch.

 

That's what parents should be doing with their children and I'll do the same with my kids.

 

If someone carded me now though, I'd laugh at them. When I got carded for an R rated movie last year, I laughed at the kid who was younger than me, and showed him my fake ID which said I was 22, just to make him look like a fool.

 

Hell, I barely get carded for beer and I'm not even 21 yet.

[Guest DVD Spree]

I live in the UK so this won't affect me, but you already have to be a certain age to buy some games here. Most noteable example being the GTA series of games as you've had to be 18 to buy any of them.

I've never been ID'd for anything including buying beer and stuff when I was 15 and 16. EXCEPT one time when I was 16 and I bought Driver from Toy R Us, which I felt was a bit strange.

I worked at Toys R Us (in the UK, obviously) in 1999 and they were just getting heavy with requesting ID for games. Everyone was shit scared because ELSPA were sending out underage mystery shoppers, and it was something like a £5,000 on the spot fine to the person who hands over the title - not the store itself - to an underage customer. I don't know if they've kept it up since then though...

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

I worked at Toys R Us (in the UK, obviously) in 1999 and they were just getting heavy with requesting ID for games. Everyone was shit scared because ELSPA were sending out underage mystery shoppers, and it was something like a £5,000 on the spot fine to the person who hands over the title - not the store itself - to an underage customer. I don't know if they've kept it up since then though...

 

So what you're saying if I'm working the video games and give it to an underage mystery shopper I'M going to have to pay the fine out of my own pocket? The store doesn't? Damn.

[Guest DVD Spree]

So what you're saying if I'm working the video games and give it to an underage mystery shopper I'M going to have to pay the fine out of my own pocket? The store doesn't? Damn.

Well, that's how it was explained to me, but again - this was 1999, and in England.

 

I remember one morning the area manager had been in, and when he'd gone the store managers rounded up all the multimedia staff and were all piss scared about us getting fined shitloads of money. "Just card. Card them. Fuck, card everyone - the store gets a separate fine and could be suspended from selling certain titles [don't know if this would've been a Toys R Us policy or an ELSPA punishment], and you personally receive a £5,000 fine if you hand over a game to an underage customer."

 

It did get stupid at the end because, as has been pointed out elsewhere in the thread, kids would just come back with their parents or older brothers and walk out with a smug look on their face, but the adult who'd been dragged into the store would be seriously pissed off. We just have to change the attitude towards game ratings being more than just paper advice, I guess.

[DangerousDamon 0]

My parents always let me watch rated r movies and play violent games. They may not have liked what i was playing or watching but they KNEW I wasn't gonna run out and smoke someone with my dad's police issue .45.

Because they taught me the difference between what's real and what's not real. They also taught me the difference between right and wrong.

 

 

But some parents don't do that. they let little Johnny watch one too many violent movies or play GTA without telling him that's not real and that you shouldn't do that in real life. So one day Johnny runs up to some dude and beats him down with his Louisville Slugger.

 

OMG! Let's sue the video game company for MY bad parenting!

[SpikeFayeJettEdBebop 0]

Totally agree with you Prototype. I was taught/am constantly reminded(I am only 13) what is and isn't real. It pisses me off when my parents bug me about it, but I realise they need to do it I guess. I can easily tell the difference between real and fake, and right and wrong too. I seriously can't think of ANY reason why ANYONE would go out and do some stupid shit that they saw in a form of ENTERTAINMENT. And half of em are older than I am. I'm not sure if it's maturity, common sense or just lack or good parenting, but kids who do that shit are SERIOUSLY fucked up. If they cannot tell the difference between reality and a video game, then in the REAL world is not where they belong. Lock the fuckers away.

 

Sure, that doesn't solve many problems, as they're will always be the kids who think they are the shit(**cough**FreddyFan**cough**) and they think that they will get away with anything. I'm positive it has to do with the level of maturity, and also you have to factor in if they were spioled as a chiuld(Although I was, and I have turned out just fine, so I guess its the attitude of it all). The problem is that immature kid's have things that they shouldn't.(And Im not talking about GTA games here folks.You would have to do some serious damage to kill someone with one of those.)

[Guest wildpegasus]

Can we have a similar rating system forbidding anyone over the age of 12 from buying a copy of Final Fantasy X-2?

Why? I'm curious.

 

 

I know this isn't a popular opinion but I'm of the belief that videogame violence does have an effect on people. Video games are part of the enviornment and in some cases a pretty large part of someone's enviornment. How much effect it has is unknown but I believe that for at least some people enviornment does influence you. Take the same exact person and put him/her in two different enviornments. There will be some differences in what that person would or wouldn't do. Games makes players more desensitive to violence. It's the same idea in wrestling in how one gets jaded to bumps over time and the reason you see so many preformers taking insane risks just to get a pop. Over time that pop gets smaller. Or look at someone who's walking in a war ridden city and sees his first dead person. It's a 3 year old child. The person sees it and cries about how this is the worst thing ever and he just simply can't go on anymore. However, he sucks it up and keeps on walking. Later he finds 3 children dead and thinks to himself how horrable this is. He keeps on going and eventually finds a group of 5 dead kids, than a family of 10 and finally a group of 20 starving, dying kids some of which are alive but with limbs torn apart along with and any other horrable thing you can think of. The person just walks by without even helping them. Why? He just doesn't care anymore. Now this is a stretch but I think it makes a good point. People do get desensitive to violence after a while. It's happened to me. You can get jaded to other things as well so why not violence? Perhaps some of the posters haven't been desensitised to violence yet as they're still pretty young. I think it's a good idea to limit violent stuff to the youngsters because there's no reason for them to get jaded yet.

 

Now of course, everyone's different. Some people are just naturally "evil" and some just naturally "good". People will go around shooting people, killing animals and making them suffer just for the fun of it and yet they've never played a video game. On the other side, there are tons of good people out there who play violent video games and they're the nicest people in the world. The point I'm making here is that I believe people do get jaded to the violence on the screen and it's not a bad idea to limit that. And of course, no one would ever admit that video games or movies made tham violent. I mean, how embarassing is that?

Edited December 18, 2003 by wildpegasus

[yankovic fan 0]

Seriously, Manhunt is FAR overated, its not THAT violent. You get over the violence after playing like two levels and its all about the stealth. I think it's stupid, Mature is a fine rating for the game, and if someone is MATURE(As am I) then they have the right to play it. That's all. Plus, Mature says 17+ right on the fucking cover, its not hiding anything. I am personally only 13, but my mother buys all my M rated games for me to buy. Why? Simply because she IS doing her job, she feels I am mature enough to play them, so I do play them. I don't go around and brag that I am playing M rated games, or any shit like that, if they suck, then they suck, and in my oppinion, Manhunt would still be good without ANY violence. However, if the violence was taken out it would make the game VERY different. Lastly, the violence didn't hit me as much as the language did. You can expect to hear "fuck" "shit" and references to drug use from the hunters, including the narrator using "fuck" on more than one occasion. I would also like to bring up the point that the guy above(Whoever wrote the article) obviously does'nt know what he is talking about concerning the violence in Manhunt. Manhunt really isn't any bloodier than any GTA games, its just the darkness of the game and the attitude towards killing. In my opinion, its more the hunters begging for their lives than the violence itself that is the big deal. The playable character kills other characters in MOST games out there(maybe thats a little too much, but alot of games atleast) but I think Manhunt deals with this better. The man isn't killing for pleasure, or money, or anything else(The hunters are though). He is fighting for his life, a life that he doesn't deserve, as he is a BAD person. The hunters, although other bad people(Killing for money/pleasure) are going after him, trying to kill him, because they want the above stated goods and because he isn't a good person. No one in this game is a good person, and I think that's the big reason for the controversy. You are james Earl Cash. You play as a man who is a bad man, a man that SHOULD be dead for what he is done, yet you are killing others to keep that same BAD man alive. As to say that bad men can become better by killing for the lives.

 

I personally have nothing against this game, or any other M rated games that are GOOD(Alot of them, BMXXX comes to mind right away when trying to think of horrible ones.) Other than BMX XXX, Mature games are made for Mature players. The huge deal all around is that immature kids are getting these games and they SHOULDN'T be getting them. That isn't anyones fault but the parent's and the child's. See, if a player isn't mature enough, they SHOULD not play, as simple as that, but I guess it's not that simple these days. Games are not to blame for ANYTHING that happens. It's always a person to blame, games have never told anyone to go and kill anyone in the real world, and I can't think of why anyone would think that it is okay to do so. Just imagine, if video games were really as they are treated, we would all be dressed up by gorillas, throwing barrels at Italian Plumbers. That never happens. So, you know, people just need to get over it. If a kid stabs another kid, then put the first kid AWAY forever, dont blame fucking video games. It's simple and I think mostly everyone here knows it, but I just needed to vent, as this whole problem pisses me off(As most of the people who make a fuss have NO FUCKING idea what they're talking about).

 

Anyway, Thanks For Reading.

 

SFJEB.

You know, for a 13 year old, that is a well written post filled with several valid points. Why can't more people your age write as such?

 

My take on it is most parents don't reconize when little Johnny is a bit on the immature side. They figure "It can't happen to me" and that's when the trouble starts.

 

No one can ever accept that their child is wrong, and I cannot really fault them for that.

 

When I was a child, if I would get in trouble at school, even if it was my fault, my parents would blindly fight for me.

 

Of course had I screwed up outside of school, as say when I called a fake order to Dominos, my hide was raw.

 

Just my two.

[Guest JacK]

Ahh, my parents were a cagey lot when it came to stuff like that, they'd work on my conciensce the bastards, and eventually that pushy little wieny stopped me doing stuff, and all they had to do is say 'you do what you want' and presto - instant guilt.

 

And you have to be over 21 in the states to buy alcohol? Dude, that sucks, it's 18 here in Australia, not that that really matters.

[Jingus 0]

Why? I'm curious.

It was just a joke, I'm not a big fan of the game.

 

Also, I can't believe you broke out the old "Ole Anderson explaining why Cactus Jack is a bad wrestler" parable story.

[Guest Metallica]

America should just have age ratings like in the UK

 

M = Mature...So how old do you have to be before you're mature?

 

Is a 17 year old mature? 16?

 

In the UK, Manhunt has the exact same red 18 logo on it that the Silence of the Lambs DVD has..

[Guest DVD Spree]

In the UK, Manhunt has the exact same red 18 logo on it that the Silence of the Lambs DVD has..

The UK rules.

 

Although we could really do with adopting some of the US movie ratings. I mean, if we could compromise on the 18 certificate to make it similar to the US system where, as long as you go with someone who IS 18 to decide if it is suitable, you can watch the flick regardless of your age. Either that or abolish the 18 certificate in favour of a 16. I mean, Jesus, you can legally fuck and smoke and buy a railcard at 16, and at 17 you can get married, but you can't go and watch Silence of The Lambs? That's just stupid.

 

Not that it really matters to me since I'm approaching 23 (Jordan time!), but I'd like shit to be better for the young 'uns.