Parents and the Media VS Video Games - Page 3

November 14, 2007, 5:14 PM

It's pretty easy to use your common sense as a parent recongize a game that looks inappropriate. I mean...Grand Theft Auto! What else do you think the game is about!? Hell, if you look at the cover at GTA III there are men who look like gangsters and a gun. What other clues does it take for a parents to take a hint on what the game is about!? Not to mention the M at the corner. What else could the M mean!? Of course, parents recongize when a movie is rated R or not. In game commercials they mention: "This game is rated M for Mature." Also in Game stores for M rated games you have to read the list of reason why it's rated M.

The media just loves to blow thing out of proportion. With Manhunt 2, the media has been making it a huge deal about it. (Of course, the media isn't making a big deal about very violent, graphic movies but whatever.) The fact is the media is creating a huge deal about Manhunt 2 is actually helping sell Manhunt 2. The hype is increasing sales. Overall, Manhunt 2 isn't even that great of a game.

November 14, 2007, 5:22 PM

It's when parents that buy games for underage children is when the parents are at fault, they see the classification but they really don't understand why they have those ratings to begin with. But in a lot of cases they get the game to keep their child happy, it's no excuse of course but I'd imagine that they still widely look upon gaming as a silly hobby when they do this without knowing what the content of most games are.

It's only when the press have one of their moral crusades against the likes of GTA and Manhunt that they usually actually see for the first time what the hell they are about to begin with. And of course the controversy only adds to more sales but with Manhunt 2 being a prime example some of this negative is having an impression now although only Take Two seem to be at the receiving end of it.

April 20, 2008, 10:57 AM

Do you think the type of video game we play, movies we see, and the music we hear can influence how we behave, how we talk, how we think?

becuse many people thinks that our behavur changes due to a video game or a movie or a music or even stories.

my opinion is that it is up to us weather thay influence our behaveur or not.

becuse most of my friends like shooting games. when thay were kids thay always buy gun toys such as water gun, paint gun, sound gun, light gun and all the games that thay play is shooting.
after thay finished high school thay entered the military. the military gave them VR training and my friends were the best thay never got shoot and thay always aim at the head.
but when the military putthem in a real battlefield training with paint guns my friends were the worst thay couldn't shoot at anyone.

April 20, 2008, 12:08 PM

Of course they're going to influence us. It is society that shapes who we become, and society includes the television and games we're exposed to. I think to a certain degree, many children have been completely desensitized to violence. Does that mean they're all eager to go out and shoot people? I don't think so. Most people (I hope) can differentiate between make-believe and reality. Movies are just movies, and video games are just video games. If children are raised correctly, they understand that violence is wrong, and while it can be entertaining in a movie or a video game, it should not be imitated in real life. To say that violent video games, movies, and music don't at all contribute to a violent society is really ignorant. Of course such factors are going to contribute.

April 20, 2008, 12:26 PM

Firstly, paint guns are highly inaccurate, due to the fact paintballs are, you know balls, meaning they spin and therefore do not travel straight when shot.
However that's not the point.

Also it's perfectly normal for children to want to play with guns etc.
Violence is part of life, and it's an aphrodisiac. Although they are children, they are to a certain extent effected by that part of it. However it doesn't manifest itself sexually.

Like Erythritol said; TV, movies, music etc have an effect on people's attitudes.
However it doesn't mean they go out and murder people just because they have played GTA.
It's how people are raised which contributes to the way they react to stimuli such as TV.
Also some people are likely to be more susceptible than others, ie children with mental illnesses( I'm assuming children can have mental illnesses)

April 20, 2008, 1:23 PM

I think video games/movies/music can influence society, but not as a whole. For instance, back when I watched wrestling, I would always see those commercials of "don't try this at home" accompanied by videos of kids throwing each other through tables and all that, obviously motivated by WWE or ECW or whatever. The media always influences the decisions of some percentage of the audience, but that's not to say that everyone will be getting in fist fights or shooting people or judo kicking their grandmother after watching some action thriller.

I think it's important for parents to make sure their children know that it's important to know what's reality and what's fantasy. Kinda like mah username.

April 20, 2008, 2:17 PM

the TV people must cancel these kind of commercials like the one that Reality.Fantasy mantioned or like the cigarette commercials. thay tell you that there is a new kind of cigarette and in the end of the commercial thay put a warning : the cigarettes are not good to your health. i mean come on people if the cigarettes are bad for us why do you put a commercial about it.

April 20, 2008, 2:31 PM

-Threads Merged-

And yes, I do believe that to a certain degree, video games do influence society, and sadly there have been unfortunate cases where it has contributed to violence. But are video games to blame for these shameful behaviors? Not at all. Some people let themselves be corrupted - it is their own thoughts and actions that counts at the end of the day.

And really, It's pretty common sense that people draw the line between reality and fantasy, but then again, not all people have common sense and some choose to act violently despite their high sanity level. That's just the way humanity runs, video games or not. I suppose video games is just one of those things that can be an influence to society, good or bad.

April 20, 2008, 6:00 PM

There's nothing particularly wrong with violent video games--except that they're violent.

Well, the labels on the video games are really clear though--if they're labelled M, don't buy them for your kids. If it has 17+ on it, don't buy them either. And don't make excuses like your kid bought it without you knowing; you should be a responsible parent and deal with it. The people that produce the video games can't be responsible for the people who watch it; they only made these video games for the sake of entertainment; not for the sake of turning kids into mass murderers or violent assholes.

But alas, that's society today. They like to blame everything and take just about almost no responsibility as parents.