On the subject of violent video games...

Almost all those games are already rated M too.

Gah. I have a good idea how these games are getting into the hands of children!

Family members are buying them for them! Big surprise!

I'll never forget working at an entertainment store how many dumbass parents, grandparents, etc. would come through my line or come to my desk and want to buy the latest Medal of Battle Duty for a gift. I would ask how old the person was, most often I got an answer between 10-15. By company policy we can't sell M games to anyone under 18.

"Sir, were you aware this game is rated M for Mature? That means this has excessive adult content an it is against policy for me to sell this to anyone under 18 years. Do you still wish to purchese this game?"

Most of the time I was either chewed out for pointing that out or told "I don't care".

Well, it shows when people don't care.

hmm, Rare had moments you could brutalize noncombatants.

Golden Eye 007 knock civilians down w/ a tank and crush them, complete with squishing sound

Jet Force Gemini you could execute surrendering drones, electricute, behead, delimb, incinerate and splatter ewok-like tribals, even pacifier-sucking toddlers

Perfect Dark, execute surrendering enemies (who even beg), punch, shoot, stab, slash, pistol-whip, strap a mine to, grind w/ the reaper (a gatling gun w/ bladded barrels) tranquilize, lethal overdose, tranquilizer dart pincushion noncombatants and allies.

phew! that was just three of their games! i really miss their insanity! need to try Conkers Bad Fur Day

I've been having a very difficult time choosing games that I can allow my son to play and/or watch. As a parent I'm concerned about desensitizing him to violence, but as a gamer myself, I want to play stuff that may not be appropriate for him. He, of course, desperately wants to watch whatever I play.

So, we have arrived at a deal. Getting to watch certain games that I consider to be more violent than others, such as the Half-Life series, is contingent upon and/or a reward for good behavior. If he engages in inappropriate play, such as pretending to shoot guns at school, he doesn't get to see the games.

What I've discovered over the years is that, in making the distinction between games he's allowed to watch and games he is not, and play behaviors that are and are not acceptable, he's always asking me if a particular game (or video, show, film, etc.) is appropriate for him. I consider that to be a good thing.

What's also interesting is that some games that I thought would be too violent for him really aren't. Diablo III, for example, is not nearly as much of a gorefest as the title and subject matter would imply. The things you are killing are demons and other monsters, not "people", you're killing them with spells and swords, not guns and bombs, and there's nothing "realistic" about it.

I'm more concerned with stuff like the Assassin's Creed series, and my son gets very excited over me "killing guards", as he calls it, but again I don't feel like I'm training a child to slaughter people with a sword.

In particular, as long as he is supervised and I'm telling him what is and is not okay — in other words, we're engaging in a dialog rather than letting violent imagery babysit him — he's fine.

Now, there are games (and shows and films) that he is not allowed to watch under any circumstances. I recently began watching a Devil May Cry Let's Play, and that's absolutely forbidden to him. Dead Space is another one I'm cautious of, mainly for the gory dismemberments, but it's really not all that realistic. Happy Wheels is a game he's forbidden to watch, because it trivializes and makes a joke out of gorily killing people. Duke Nukem is out because of the swearing and sexual content.

I'm fine with him watching games like H.A.L.O., though, since it's futuristic and not gory. I don't even mind some modern shooters like War, Inc. — they don't dwell on the goriness of the deaths and again, it's not like he's being trained to go out and murder people. I do keep an eye on him, though, and if he's too "into" it, I make him take breaks and go do something else.

edited 26th Mar '13 11:15:50 AM by Fighteer

seems like you have a good formula

since i grew up from the nes era on (lagging by years due to prices, 93 for nes, 98 for snes, 2000 for n64, 200? for Game Cube, 2010 for wii) i basically avoided contact with the riskier games until i was grown up, outside of seeing Mortal Kombat and doom on the evening news

I should also mention that my son only plays games like Minecraft, Angry Birds, Tower Madness, and the kinds of games that are hosted on Cartoon Network, Friv, and other kids' sites. He watches me play (or watches You Tube videos of) more mature fare, but only up to a point. I took away his You Tube privileges the other day when I checked history and saw that he'd watched a Devil May Cry video when I told him not to.

Fighteer: May I suggest that co-op games might be a good idea for testing the waters, depending on how old your son is? My dad used to play co-op Quake with me when I was about seven/eight; it's probably the best way to introduce a child to playing first person shooters.

Fighteer: I would strongly recommend playing some non violent games, proving to him that a game does not need to be violent to be awesome.

Problem is I can only think of Portal and Portal 2 as games that prove this

I play Minecraft and the Portal series, and he loves both games. Now, Minecraft isn't precisely "non-violent", but I would say that killing monsters is not the primary point of the game. As for Portal, I've more or less exhausted any personal entertainment from the games, having played through both more times than I can count. I'll still let my son sit down and play it from time to time, because he loves messing with the turrets and he's capable of solving many of the puzzles on his own.

edited 27th Mar '13 7:38:17 AM by Fighteer

What about platformers and puzzle games?

Puzzle Quest and related 'Puzzle' fantasy games might be a good fit if your son's into the Bejeweled subgenre.

I have a soft spot in my heart for games who deal with violence, not by whitewashing it out of the setting, but by abstracting it with conflict-resolution mechanics that are sufficiently divorced from reality that there's simply no possible relevant application to real-world violence. It hearkens back to the less realism-oriented days of 2D Mario and the like.

edited 29th Mar '13 10:05:23 AM by Karkadinn

Puzzle games! There's always room for puzzle games! Like not that match three crap, but actual puzzles. It's like half my Steam account, and they just had a sale of delicious indies.

I mean I also picked up a couple games that are violent (though it's rather difficult to take Shadowgrounds seriously with its hilariously awful voice acting), but it was mostly stuff like Antichamber, English Country Tune, Cogs, etc.

edited 29th Mar '13 12:55:46 PM by Pykrete

My brother was watching a horror movie late one night, after the kids were in bed, and his youngest daughter woke up, snuck into the room, and watched part of it without him knowing. She began having horrible nightmares, and was waking up screaming every night. Within a few days, my brother was at his wits end, so he decided to try letting her play a game where you slaughter monsters (one of the Gauntlet remakes, if I recall). The next morning, she reported that she'd had another monster dream, but this time, she just slaughtered them! The nightmares did not return.

I realize that the plural of anecdote is not data, but since most of the anti-violent-game propaganda is anecdotal, I thought I'd throw in a pro-violent-game one. :)

(@Fighteer): Think he'd like Kerbal Space Program?

Research comes through: Video games are more beneficial than detrimental to our health.

Take THAT, Faux News!

So she became a monster?

No — she learned how to use her own Poker.