Much needed thread... i think

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quiksilverx181

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Nov 21, 2003
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Well the stupid gov has decided that they want to ban all FPS's and violent games sales in the United states to anyone that is a minor, that means ANYONE under 18. Now I see tons of faults with this as it doesnt accomplish much and that it will only piss off millions.... Parents these days dont know didly shiza about nothing so its not like that would help anyways... Thoughts anyone?
 
If you go to a store who actually enforces this you wouldn't have been able to buy Mortal Kombat 2 for Genesis. It has been like this for awhile with M rated titles. And you could always order online, or get someone over 18 to buy it for you.

I always found a relative that was going to the same R rated movie as I was when I was 13-15yrs old. :p

-Tron
 
No actually thier starting to do checks in stores now.... I cant find the link but I did read that Lieberman or whatever his name is the guy thats running for pres in 04 he wants to completely ban them for anyone under 18.... And that if stores let someone buy a game thats under 18 and it has a M rating... then they will get fined... stuff along those lines
 
While i think it is good to a certain point... Im not sure leiberman would do it right. I mean he wants to ban games like gta3 and etc. but he wants to ban all the wrong games along with it such as what would a presidential candidate know as a difference between a duck hunting game or halo? I mean he wont so i beleive it has the right idea, but the way lieberman was talking he wants a total annihilation of the whole genre (and btw gta isnt even a FPS!!!!!!!)
 
Well this is why I'm not voting Lieberman.




Although I'm not voting, but still. That's just bullshit.
 
Um...

The CompUSA I used to work at has checked ID's for 4 years at least...

I had a few angry parents come get snipety when I wouldn't hand South Park over to their kid, that is untill I told them it was rated "Mature", then they thanked me.

Some of you kids need to accept that not all games are made for you.

Granted, alot of the games that get "M" ratings don't deserve them, but, I think that a Child's (defined as someone under 18) parents are the best ones to decide if the child is mature enough to handle mature themes and violence.

That is a PARENTS DUTY. To introduce a child to the various aspects of our society at a pace which the child can handle responsibly. Every child is different, and it is up to responsible parents to make those distinctions.

Age limits on purchasing games and music aren't new, they just get a good bout of publicity every few years... oddly enough usually around election time.

For all of you kids who don't like it, I have a good solution for ya, get your parents out to VOTE.... and remember and VOTE yourselves once you become an adult.
 
I think putting Age limits on Video games, Movies, Music, and whatever else is a good idea. Especially if the stores actually support it. I know the majority of movie rental places and such rarely ever check a persons idea to see if they are 18 or older to rent rated R movies or Mature rated games. I find it strange that some movie theatres let you in when your 16 or 17 to watch rated R movies and yet they should probably inforce 18 but im sure they get a huge boost in sales from letting in the younger ones.

I guess i could be more for this because im 20 now and dont have to worry about it but being that i'll probably be a parent within the next 5-10 years its nice to know that your kids can't just go out and buy whatever they want behind your back.
 
I went to a Fred Meyers in Oregon during my xmas vacation to buy a DVD. I saw signs all over for this crap. blah blah new age limit enforced on games. It was even glued to the counter. I asked the salesman if they enforce that. He simply said no LOL.
 
I think it's a good idea and a step in the right direction. Parenting these days has gotten disgusting, and things like this would force parent to pay better attention to their children.

Having said that, things like this will never work. Until they make it a criminal offense to sell to minors, companies will continue to do so. They make WAY more money, and simply pay the fine IF it ever becomes neccessary. Now, if the offending store clerk were faced with jail time for selling to a minor, it would change things. However, since our jails are full because of all the silly marijuana arrests, they can't add sales clerks to the mix. :)

Something tells me this thread is gonna go soapbox quickly :)
 
I don't think it should be based on age, but maturity. Don't know how they would do that... but I could easy play a game like Vice City, only for fun. While one of those "trouble maker" teens could think up ideas to steal cars and stuff.
 
Oh no!!!1!!!1! "They" are threatening to take away "mature" games from "non-mature" gamers. Just like "they" have been saying for the past 20 years. I remember hearing of these new laws for soooo long now, I'm amazed everyone starts a thread about it in some forum, as if this was something new. Same threats have been made about "mature" music, rock and roll on the radio, Elvis on TV, blah, blah, blah, blah ad naseum. It hasn't happened yet in the 400,000 years of "adults" attempting to "protect" children from whatever happens to be the hot sacrificial sheep of the day, and it won't happen this time.

RagManX
 
That's fine. If it's M rated, kids under 18 shouldn't be able to buy it. I'm all for it.
 
Originally posted by Timayh
While one of those "trouble maker" teens could think up ideas to steal cars and stuff.
Click to expand...

By their very nature, they don't need a video game to think that up.


They enforce an age limit on Liquor, Cigarettes, pornography, and legal status (minor vs. adult)... so why not video games?

If they did it properly, where ratings were fairly accurate then it could work. And if it were actually enforced.

I used to be able to go to R rated movies with my cousin (I was 13, he was 11) at the theater near my house, without issue. But other theaters they would stop us.

Same thing with video game shops. the Gamestop near me won't sell M games to kids. But the other video game/cell phone/jewelry/leather jacket/sneaker hole-in-the-wall shops won't refuse anyone, just to make a sale.

They'd have to do something like have licensed retailers, kind of like a liquor and tobacco license. Don't know how well that will fly over with retailers though.
 
It would be a good idea for this kind of thing if it would me that parents would then be held responsible for buying an M rated game for their kid(s) and then the kid does something stupid and says he/she did it because they saw it in the game. I just don't see that happening though.

I see kids basically talking their parents into buying an M rated game for them. Then, if the kid does something stupid because they "saw it a game" the parents are going to sue the game maker and maybe even the store that they bought the game from. To them it won't matter that they bought the game for the kid without really finding out what it was like and making an informed decision on it. They will simply want to deflect some of the media from what their kid did and try to put the blame on the game developers.

Granted, they do this now anyway so I don't really see how it's going to accomplish anything to completely ban these types of games from anyone under 18. Hell if they're going to do this they might as well ban anyone under 18 from viewing the evening news on tv or reading newspapers or a million other things that could potentially be used as a scapegoat for the ignoramous of a kid that shoots somebody or whatever.
 
I think its a great idea. With one exception.. age limit should be 15-16. That is the legal age in most states to start driving. If we can give a kid the responsibility of driving a car, then they should be able to handle games like HL2 and Doom3.
 
After considering it more, it might be something to try just to prove how it wouldn't solve anything. Granted, we'd have to deal with it, but really. If gamers make the point they aren't bloodthirsty assholes who kill people every day, then is there really that much to lose? Besides the fact that our point probably WOULDN'T be made, but hey, who knows.
 
Where have most of you been for the last twenty-odd years? First it was arcade games corrupting youth. Then Night Trap and Mortal Kombat got parents up in arms. It was Senator Lieberman over ten years ago with his legal threats that got the game industry to start the ESRB rating system, so this isn't something new for him. Doom made kids shoot up schools a few years back with Duke Nukem handing money to strippers. Carmageddon ran over people with blood on the windshield and Postal got the Postmaster General threatning action. Now it's late night LAN centers and GTA.

Games and their affect on people will always be around. This controversy has been around since the industry started. Every city that has put restrictions on games has been overturned in court. The ESRB rating system works and it's up to the stores to enforce it. Recognize this for what it is: a hot button issue in an election year. The only thing that can happen is stricter enforcement of selling M rated games to minors. Any law restricting the content of a video game will get overturned in court in a nanosecond based on the First Amendment.

In a world where you have al-Qaeda recruiting video games and trash like KZ Manager being legal, this nonsense about GTA is tame in comparision.
 
Though, I have no problem with age limits, I think that the real point is this.

As long as people commit crimes, regardless of age, there will be a defense attourney out there willing to blame anyone but their client. It is their job.

As long as children commit crimes, there will be a parent standing in the wings willing to blame anyone but their child. It is kinda their job too, especially if not doing so may mean that they should be blaming themselves.

Now, I don't believe that every instance of juvenile crime is the fault of the parent... but I'd have to say that a majority of it is. Even if it is just to the point of failing to recognise social or even mental problems with their children.
 
Video Game Ratings. Senator Lieberman held the first hearings on the threat posed to children by video game violence, and he persuaded the video game industry to develop a comprehensive rating system to help parents make informed choices for their children. Since then, Senator Lieberman has successfully persuaded a number of leading national retailers to adopt standard policies to enforce the ratings and prevent children from buying adult-rated games.

http://lieberman.senate.gov/issues/faith.html#children
 
What really pisses me off is this: as some of you have mentioned above, parents do anything to put blame on other things if thier child did anything. It pisses me off because it is always their fault if something is wrong with the child... Normally if the child is under 12-13ish, it is the parents fault nearly every time and then parents try their very best to blame stupid stuff like video games for thier son grabbing the un-locked gun and trying to act as a cowboy or something. I hate parents some are really stupid
 
Originally posted by Timayh
I don't think it should be based on age, but maturity. Don't know how they would do that... but I could easy play a game like Vice City, only for fun. While one of those "trouble maker" teens could think up ideas to steal cars and stuff.
Click to expand...

I think thats the point. You block children from buying the games, effectively making the parents judge whether the child is mature enough to own the game.

I, for one, support such measures entirely.
 
Agreed, games with any "adult" content should only be able to be purchased by adults. The responsibility of regulating and monitoring the games kids play need to be forcibly shifted to parents. Game companies should only be required to make sure that the rating of a game is clearly displayed and explained on the box and retailers should be responsible for enforcing it.
 
Yea we check at Gamestop for 18 and ID on M rated games and have been doing so for some time now (every since the law was established) I personally dont believe in it but its because Im in the business and know what these games are, and Mature is such a reletive term, they should just list atributes parents would be concerned with on the box, not a letter rating, let the parents decide, but thats going off on a tangent.

Anyway, I HAVE to do it, they have made it a FEDERAL OFFENSE to sell a minor an M rated game, and if a parent sued, they would win. So its basically covering are own ass's, when we ( the people who sell these games) do it.
 
As a parent, I welcome this sort of thing - so long as it *stays* this sort of thing.

It is MY job to decide what my kids are allowed to have, not Joe Zitface at the local EBGames. If my son wants a game that is on the mature list, I want to know about it before he gets his grubby hands on it.

As for the initial poster... So, you are angry because they want to get your parents to do their job, eh? Bummer.
 
Originally posted by Typical Gamer
Anyway, I HAVE to do it, they have made it a FEDERAL OFFENSE to sell a minor an M rated game
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That's overstating it a bid since it isn't a federal crime to sell kids M rated games. Only local laws and statutes could enforce something like that. Most stores check identification as a matter of store policy and not because a law states they have to do it. (Some localities do enforce it.)

At least you are checking id's. As long as a parent is informed of the content of the purchase, you've done all you can. There's only so much you can do to inform a parent. Some just don't care.
 
I also agree with a law of this sort. Some kids just shouldnt have certain content at certain ages, but it all depends on the kid-parent relationship, if you know your kid well enough to trust him playing M rated games at 11 then by all means let him, but youve still gotta make sure the game wouldnt contain anything you dissagree with. For example I would let my kids play Call of Duty or Counter Strike all day, but I might draw the line on GTA cause it contains more adult only oriented subject matter. and if your 15+ theres no way this sort of thing would be a problem cause by then youll no doubt have a parent, brother, cousin, friend thats old enough and knows youll be just fine playing and is going to buy it for you. Hell my mom bought me Mortal Kombat cause Blockbuster wouldnt sell it to me, but that was only cause she trusted me as her kid and in her parenting skills.
 
Originally posted by cmosdos
I think its a great idea. With one exception.. age limit should be 15-16. That is the legal age in most states to start driving. If we can give a kid the responsibility of driving a car, then they should be able to handle games like HL2 and Doom3.
Click to expand...

Government wants to put age restrictions on things? Change the driving ages. 15-16 is too young to drive. Drivers license should be 18 as well.

You cant buy this game. You cant have a beer. You cant watch violent movies... Yet you can take a 2000lbs piece of metal on the road at 60k's with millions of other citizens.

Ohh.. and off topic a bit... Does the USA have the same bs insurance where its cheaper for chicks than dudes... Cause chicks and cell phones never cause crashes.. :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by SKiTLz

Ohh.. and off topic a bit... Does the USA have the same bs insurance where its cheaper for chicks than dudes... Cause chicks and cell phones never cause crashes.. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well from what i have seen from the car forums: yes. But it came to the fact that woman or more likely to get into litlle fender bender accidents every few months and men get into a huge accident destroying 3 cars, a post box, 3 dogs, a cat, an alligator, an eldery citizen, a stop sign and a oil tanker twice in their lifetime.
 
Politicians are just looking to blame something for what they think is causing the violence. In truth, I believe that movies teach kids worse things and more kids see them then rated M games. I think the solution to this would mabye be to add a new video game ranking because there are some very mild rated M games that would show things that are in PG-13 Movies. Some games I can see, however, should not be sold to anyone younger then 18, such as GTA and I think we can all admit that. And as for the things that people say in games (i.e. cussing), I say if parents trust their kids to use the internet, then they should trust them to play their games online.
 
Originally posted by Typical Gamer
Yea we check at Gamestop for 18 and ID on M rated games and have been doing so for some time now (every since the law was established) I personally dont believe in it but its because Im in the business and know what these games are, and Mature is such a reletive term, they should just list atributes parents would be concerned with on the box, not a letter rating, let the parents decide, but thats going off on a tangent.
Click to expand...
They do list what content warrants the rating. Look on the back of the package, usually in the lower-right corner.
 
heh on the counterstrike servers I administrate we have an 18+ policy. Usually I dont say anything but if the player sounds like a kid and acts like a kid I usually kick them.

There are some games that should be enjoyed by adults playing adults. I am a firm believer in that. Last time I checked that box had an "M" rating also.
 
Originally posted by M1ster_R0gers
heh on the counterstrike servers I administrate we have an 18+ policy. Usually I dont say anything but if the player sounds like a kid and acts like a kid I usually kick them.

There are some games that should be enjoyed by adults playing adults. I am a firm believer in that. Last time I checked that box had an "M" rating also.
Click to expand...

Buddy.. Gimme the IP... CS without the girly static voices spamming the mic and 24/7 tking,blocking and general moronic behaviour?? Count me in.
 
The guidlines they have in place now, the ESRB ratings, are fine. Just start enforcing them.

Although, because of some stupid punk wippersnappers, I get carded at Wal-Mart when I buy compressed air, and I am 6'8" 412lbs with a 7 inch beard, what the heck is that about.(has a small amount of alcohol in it).

Anyway, just enforce the guidlines that are there now and get over it. I would love to enforce the guidlines at a store....yelling at stupid parents that have been relying on the t.v. for a babysitter, and thier messed up kids.


.......screw all this, I'm moving to Wyoming and setting up a compound of my own.:mad:
 
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