Yep – 2 posts today. The one below is too unfocused to stay at the top 🙂
Made me laugh seeing a story around the media about how gamers should be forced to follow the Geneva Convention. The link goes to a short article by Metro, which sums it up nicely. At least the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) spin that came out originally. The original “Red Cross is anti-gamers” article got refuted quite quickly. Here’s an MSNBC article.
I’d like to think that the people who play games still know the difference between right and wrong, although there are a bunch of games out there which are just sick. They usually have an 18 certificate on them, so the only way they should be able to get into the hands of impressionable youth of today is if a parent ignores the question “Is this suitable for my child?”
It used to be like that when I grew up, with me being shielded from things like Evil Dead and other video nasties. I watch stuff like it now and I can recognise it for being silly and most important : Not Very Good. Mortal Kombat when it came out originally was infamous for its gore but when put next to the gameplay of other fighty games, it just Wasn’t Very Good.
Just because I’ve played Carmageddon (briefly, it didn’t hold a candle to -> ) and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, doesn’t make me into a nutcase on the roads. Hot Pursuit was actually a great laugh, the premise was 1v1 car races on public roads with Police getting involved.
Yep – NFS was a hoot but driving like that on public roads would get you arrested (boring) and cost money (less left for toys).
So – I’d like to think that some sanity is out there, although I know that’s not actually true :
Parents keeping the 18 cert games away from children like what used to happen with Video Nasties
Gamers being able to tell the difference between pixels and people
Recognition of what happens when addiction takes hold
I’ve been addicted to gaming, although I think mine was more a hurting person retreating from a drab uncaring world. I think I’m clear of gaming addiction now, I just fire up the game as “something to do”. Heh – I’m probably more addicted to reading forums now (anti-isolation again). I’m not someone who will fire up a game as soon as they get home, with them then being in the game until they go to bed. That’s not healthy but I see it happen. It’s why the Mercenaries fell apart, people got burned out, didn’t recognise that their addictions were making them different people and got into fighting with their friends in game. And I was on the wrong end of that a few times too.
There is a question of trust : can the parent trust the child to know right from wrong or to figure the difference between real world and virtual. Sometimes I’m not even sure the parents know. Remember though that anything you see in a game has usually been done on film and usually even just at 15 certificate. And it’s usually more graphic than what the game allows too.
Right – this was supposed to be a really short post to knock a bad one off the top 🙂
Time to get back to seeing how many Human/Alien/Strange Life Form Rights I can wipe my tentacles on, although I won’t be giving the Death Star treatment to any planets tonight. I ran out of those over the weekend. (Seriously!)
PS I’m actually going to read a book, with as much incest, sex, violence, human rights abuses and other nasty stuff (Game Of Thrones) as you’ll see in most games. It’s just presented a different way.