This time I'm going to have a whine about stupid parents. Particularly the ones mentioned above.
You see I used to work in retail selling these very games. I used to get the abuse for not selling children these games. I have also been an avid gamer in my past days. There have been times in my life where it was work, eat, sleep and play video games. An online video game is even how I met my husband.
But I have to take issue with parents who walk into a store and expect to be able to pick up rated content and give it to their children. A manager I worked under had to deal with a particularly irate customer who lost it because we refused to sell him Grand Theft Auto for his four year old child. I've had customers more or less spit in my face for denying them sales (where I worked at the time you could be fired and or fined $10,000 personally for selling a rated game knowingly to a minor. That means if you were confident that the parent was buying for the child even if they hadn't said it you had better deny the sale).
I have seen parents walk in with their clearly under age children and pick up some of the most violent video games and turn from happy customers to the demon spawn in a matter of moments because their 10 year old cannot have these games.
And now I will get the real point of my rant. Video games are no longer the exclusive domain of children. I know more adults who play Pokemon than children. Just like there are more men aged 20-35 watching the latest reincarnation of My Little Ponies than girls in the target audience of about 5-12 years (somewhere around there).
While adults might be fine to play these games for a while, sometimes we adults need something more our level. And the video game industry realizes this. So they have supplied an answer. They supply us with games that aren't full of fluffy bunnies and happy sunflowers. And most countries have supplied suitable laws that state that such games should be rated and classified so that only people who are (supposedly) grown up enough to sort fact from fiction can release their rage on pixels on a screen instead of their work or school mates.
So when parents (and many religious orientated family institutions) rage about these games falling into children's hands I will make these points.
1. Until your child gets a job of their own they have an income of what ever you give them
A five year old has no capacity to earn money to purchase these games. A ten year old might have an income of a couple dollars a week from a paper route or mowing a friends law or what ever. Its probably not until a child reaches 14 or 15 years of age that they have any real source of income other than mum and dad. So if a child who has no job obtains these video games there is only one source ... you the parent. And if someone was to offer your child one of these games as a gift then I would hope you have the sense to tell them to get something else.
2. There are rating systems FOR A REASON
As the image above says "would you buy your five year old a porn magazine then get upset by its content?" No. Because I'm hoping that most parents would have the sense to realize buying a child a porn magazine is a bad idea. Buying a child a R18 movie or video game ... I would hope you have the same sense. Seriously, read the bloody label. R18 means that there will be violence, bad language and probably something in the sexual department. Get a clue.
3. What if the adult wants to play
Well hate to burst that bubble. Most modern gaming systems have a parental lock on them now. So you have to enter a PIN or password to play certain games. Might be a pain in the butt to enter a password or PIN number but it means you little ones can't get access to violent content.
The only game I have ever taken issue with was Grand Theft Auto. That is a game that purposefully goes out of its way to glorify a lawless society. I don't think we need that in society. But other than this game I have no issue with violence in video games.
At the end of the day you can think of it this way ... if you don't like it don't buy it. You control what your child sees and does. So don't complain that video game makers make content for their target market. Get a clue and buy content that is suitable for your child by maybe doing something like glancing at the rating on the box. Violent video games are not made for your child's eyes. They are made for adults. So don't make them a child's entertainment then complain because they are violent. There are many many titles out there that are suitable for children.
Don't push your views on this subject on others because you are too lazy to read the back of the box.
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