Tell me...what would you rate this image?
Good ol' Super Mario Brothers. The game that introduced most of us to the great world of gaming. It also introduced us to mass murder on a grand scale! Yes. That's right. What is the first thing you do in the game? I'll wait why you run through the whole theme song...
ok...
done?
GOOD!
That's right! Excellent. You jump on a Goomba that is just chilling. Taking a walk out in the sun on a nice day. Then. One day. A fat mustachioed bastard just appears and starts running and then leaps! *SQUISH* That damn goomba only had two days until retirement from the Koopa Korps. It doesn't stop there. Turtles get it too! In the first level you take out more than ten enemies.
That isn't including property damage, and theft of coins and rare foliage.
Do I even have to go into how violent the Legend of Zelda is? You cut and bludgeon things. Set shit on fire!
Those are only two of the most iconic first steps for the characters they became today. Now, I believe that now they've been marked 10 and up by the ESRB. Honestly I don't give a shit to check. Parents everywhere wouldn't bat an eye at their children picking up those games and playing them. Just because it's games that they think are harmless. They played them when they were children themselves.
The Columbine Kids were trained on Doom II, supposedly. A game that had a chainsaw with INFINITE gas, pistol, shotgun, CHAIN GUN, PLASMA RIFLE, ROCKET LAUNCHER, and a BFG. A game where you tried to make it through hell on earth fighting the undead, imps, horney pink demons, ghosts, spider master minds, cyber demons and floating skulls trained a kid how to kill his school mates.
uh huh.
My ass.
Back on point.
It isn't that fact that video games are violent. It all comes down to how well your child perceives fantasy from reality. Each video game experience is different for each player. They perceive it completely different on many different levels. Video games have had violence in them from the very beginning of our experiences with them whether you wish to acknowledge this or not.
I do not wish my daughter to run around in Grand Theft Auto doing dirty things with Hookers. That's one of the few reasons I don't want her to play. Sex is off limits. She watched me play the latest installment of Splatterhouse. It was an experience that was fun for both of us because we realized it for what it was: Just a Goofy Game. You kill demons, zombies and shit. It is overly gore filled, but she has seen worse in movies.
The language and sex are the big NO responses in our house. Let me explain more. Sex is an automatic HELL NO. Cursing? Cuss? Saying "bad" words? Pft. She once snitched on a kid in her class to us by saying he said that "F word that Daddy says so much". So it isn't as much of a problem for us as it would be for some parents. She doesn't go around and repeat them. The problem comes in with the fact that when cursing is in a game just to try to be controversial. If you say you're going to rape a porcupine up it's urethra, that's fine. Saying it every 20 minutes? Lame. Saying "Give me the fucking money" in a robbery scene is ok. It adds emphasis. If you say "FUCKING GIVE ME THE FUCKING MONEY, MOTHER FUCKER", is overtly retarding the point you were trying to make
In conclusion....
Just think about it. Don't base your choices for your child's gaming experiences based on just the little rating on the back. Take your child into account. They just might surprise you. We were taking the same jump back in the day, the graphics were just too low end.
It all comes down to your child's ability to discern fantasy from reality.
Michael Smalley entertains himself by writing articles that range from thought provoking to downright rants. You can read other articles on his site The Axalon.
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