Raise Your Kids
This is a message to a lot of parents out there:
You guys suck.
Okay, I'll explain myself.
It seems every couple of months a new crusade against video games rises up from uneducated parents and incompetent politicians. Whenever a crime is committed by someone, and that person has played a video game at some point in their lives, someone else comes out of the woodworks to say it was the violence in the video games that drove them to it. So the only logical thing, according to them, is to get rid of games. These anti-video game people are convinced that violent video games make kids grow up to be violent people.
The poor children! Won't someone please think of the children?
Well, you shold have done that way, way earlier.
Parents, you're willing and eager to point fingers at video game companies for making your kids into psychopaths, but what have you done to prevent it? For that matter, what have you done to help it?
Okay parents, I'm going to need you to cooperate with me for a second. Does your kid(s) have a game console, maybe a Playstation or an X Box? If so, go and grab all the games they have for that system, more importantly grab the boxes the games came in. I'll wait.
...
You have them? Good. Now, I want you to look for a letter that will be printed in one of the corners of the front of the boxes. That letter is a rating system created by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). Are all the letters "E"? Very good. Are any of them "T"? That's okay, depending on the game and if your kid is at least twelve. Are any of them "M"? If so, you're a jackass. Games with an M rating are meant for players 17 years or older. It's essentially an R rated movie.
This happens a lot. Parents don't pay attention to what their kids are doing or what they are getting into, and before you know it, the kids are begging the parents to buy them the newest M rated game, such as the popular first-person shooter Call of Duty. And what do the parents do? They buy the game, of course. I mean, if your kids wouldn't stop annoying you, would you buy them the game as well, just to shut them up? It's even more convenient when you realize there's a video game company out there that you can make a scapegoat of out of to avoid the consequences of your bad parenting.
Maybe you want an example? Here you go. I was actually involved in this one.
Sometime in the spring of 2007, I was in the electronics section of a Walmart, checking out the games. I was 16 at the time. As I was looking at the games, I overheard a mom talking to her two boys. The boys were of course begging her to buy a game for them. The game was called God of War. I remember all the buzz that came out about that game, as well as articles on it (I never played the game, so don't try to start on any "Double standards" bull.). It's an M rated beat-'em-up game, where you play as an incredibly violent demi-god on a quest for vengeance. Oh, and there's also mimi-games in it as well, mini-games where you get to have sex with prostitutes. The the kids who wanted this could not have been older than eleven.
As I continued to watch, I realized the mother had know idea or interest in what the game was, and was about to buy it for them. Now it wasn't my place to question her parenting, but I felt learning how to bang hookers wasn't something 5th graders should be doing, so I went over and told what was in the game. She thanked me for the help, and bought them Jaws: The Game instead. That's a game where play as the shark and swim around and eat people. Yep.
Now, how many of you parents are mad, not because of that lady's lousy parenting, but because there are such awful games out there? If you are, you have missed the point entirely. Not all games are for kids. That lady at the Walmart clearly did not care to know what her kids were playing, and only saw that, "Oh, they want another toy." Games are for kids? Okay, then all cartoons or movies are for kids too, right? You let you're kids watch all the cartoons on Comedy Central because anything drawn is for the kiddies, or watch the Marvel Punisher films because kids like superheroes?
Video games are an entertainment medium. They are for wide variety of people. If your kids play a game they shouldn't, and you think it has negatively affected them, it is entirely your fault for allowing them to have access to it. If you can't keep a handle on what games your kids are playing, I can't imagine what they're getting into on the internet. Good luck with that one.
Okay, I'll explain myself.
It seems every couple of months a new crusade against video games rises up from uneducated parents and incompetent politicians. Whenever a crime is committed by someone, and that person has played a video game at some point in their lives, someone else comes out of the woodworks to say it was the violence in the video games that drove them to it. So the only logical thing, according to them, is to get rid of games. These anti-video game people are convinced that violent video games make kids grow up to be violent people.
The poor children! Won't someone please think of the children?
Well, you shold have done that way, way earlier.
Parents, you're willing and eager to point fingers at video game companies for making your kids into psychopaths, but what have you done to prevent it? For that matter, what have you done to help it?
Okay parents, I'm going to need you to cooperate with me for a second. Does your kid(s) have a game console, maybe a Playstation or an X Box? If so, go and grab all the games they have for that system, more importantly grab the boxes the games came in. I'll wait.
...
You have them? Good. Now, I want you to look for a letter that will be printed in one of the corners of the front of the boxes. That letter is a rating system created by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). Are all the letters "E"? Very good. Are any of them "T"? That's okay, depending on the game and if your kid is at least twelve. Are any of them "M"? If so, you're a jackass. Games with an M rating are meant for players 17 years or older. It's essentially an R rated movie.
This happens a lot. Parents don't pay attention to what their kids are doing or what they are getting into, and before you know it, the kids are begging the parents to buy them the newest M rated game, such as the popular first-person shooter Call of Duty. And what do the parents do? They buy the game, of course. I mean, if your kids wouldn't stop annoying you, would you buy them the game as well, just to shut them up? It's even more convenient when you realize there's a video game company out there that you can make a scapegoat of out of to avoid the consequences of your bad parenting.
Maybe you want an example? Here you go. I was actually involved in this one.
Sometime in the spring of 2007, I was in the electronics section of a Walmart, checking out the games. I was 16 at the time. As I was looking at the games, I overheard a mom talking to her two boys. The boys were of course begging her to buy a game for them. The game was called God of War. I remember all the buzz that came out about that game, as well as articles on it (I never played the game, so don't try to start on any "Double standards" bull.). It's an M rated beat-'em-up game, where you play as an incredibly violent demi-god on a quest for vengeance. Oh, and there's also mimi-games in it as well, mini-games where you get to have sex with prostitutes. The the kids who wanted this could not have been older than eleven.
As I continued to watch, I realized the mother had know idea or interest in what the game was, and was about to buy it for them. Now it wasn't my place to question her parenting, but I felt learning how to bang hookers wasn't something 5th graders should be doing, so I went over and told what was in the game. She thanked me for the help, and bought them Jaws: The Game instead. That's a game where play as the shark and swim around and eat people. Yep.
Now, how many of you parents are mad, not because of that lady's lousy parenting, but because there are such awful games out there? If you are, you have missed the point entirely. Not all games are for kids. That lady at the Walmart clearly did not care to know what her kids were playing, and only saw that, "Oh, they want another toy." Games are for kids? Okay, then all cartoons or movies are for kids too, right? You let you're kids watch all the cartoons on Comedy Central because anything drawn is for the kiddies, or watch the Marvel Punisher films because kids like superheroes?
Video games are an entertainment medium. They are for wide variety of people. If your kids play a game they shouldn't, and you think it has negatively affected them, it is entirely your fault for allowing them to have access to it. If you can't keep a handle on what games your kids are playing, I can't imagine what they're getting into on the internet. Good luck with that one.
I should not blog angry, but whatever.
ReplyDelete