Age Ratings: Guidelines or Must-follow rules?

[SailorShale]

Guidelines. I personally don't care if a little kid plays God of War or GTA or anything. Video games don't make a crazy person crazy. It's already pre-set in, and triggered from bad parenting or a deeper source, not from a game.

 

[Joshua112321]

I do believe they are guidelines. My younger sister is 8 (more mature than I am, in some ways!), and I vet what she can and can't play with me.

For instance; CoD is okay, GTA is not.

duuuuuuuuuuude awesome you have an 8 year old SISTER that plays call of duty, that is just so rare... speaking of, what's your PSN/LIVE/STEAM?

If you stay around the 'Scapist, you should know that somewhere around 10-30 percent of the users here are female. Not trying to criticize or anything; just it can come as a surprise to people.

Sorry I Think I was Unclear
actually my point was that she was 8 AND she was playing call of duty. now if it was 8 year old boy then you may expect that, but in the younger girls, excuse me if I'm wrong, but don't they have the trait of being more innocent and girly? Or is that at a younger age?

@Therumancer

... I have actually had enough of you for today... seriously if you are only going to quote peoples comments and talk about their flaws, then you should probably leave, unless you feel like actually saying something on topic that is

I don't know if he edited his post or something, but it looks to me like he has an on-topic argument here. Also, if you hit the quote button on the lower-right, you'll get a nice quote box, and said user will be sent a message that you have alluded to their post.

well for one I didn't quote because It wasn't really a post I was annoyed with, it was him. Well I had a good sleep and am now not so annoyed as I was yesterday from after that "AC:Is it really that bad" thread. Anyway I believe him to be off topic with the actual response I was reffering to... I'll update with the quote and you can judge if he was on topic or not.

-EDIT-

Age limits in all forms in video games are bull. I can see some sense in pornographic material, but in general it's like saying minors can't read A Tale of Two Cities because it's violent. Children are far smarter than most people give them credit for.

Smarter does not mean mature. One of the things about adults is that in most cases we know when we're acting "immature" and can turn it on and off, kids cannot. Yes, this means that a lot of the adults acting like douches online are generally doing it with the full knowlege that they are being immature douches. Odd as it might sound, that is a way of letting your hair down so to speak.

What's more your arguement would ultimatly mean halting the progress of gaming as a medium, which is a no-no. I mean, who says games can't be porn or involve pornographic material? If you don't rate them properly because your not going there, then it means you can't ever go there based on your own arguements. That means no sex scenes and so on.

now I cut off the rest as he then went on to express his views ON THE TOPIC, however I wouldn't have a problem if the response he made to the quote was on topic.

 

[Erana]

I do believe they are guidelines. My younger sister is 8 (more mature than I am, in some ways!), and I vet what she can and can't play with me.

For instance; CoD is okay, GTA is not.

duuuuuuuuuuude awesome you have an 8 year old SISTER that plays call of duty, that is just so rare... speaking of, what's your PSN/LIVE/STEAM?

If you stay around the 'Scapist, you should know that somewhere around 10-30 percent of the users here are female. Not trying to criticize or anything; just it can come as a surprise to people.

Sorry I Think I was Unclear
actually my point was that she was 8 AND she was playing call of duty. now if it was 8 year old boy then you may expect that, but in the younger girls, excuse me if I'm wrong, but don't they have the trait of being more innocent and girly? Or is that at a younger age?

It depends on the person; by four, I was playing with giant robot dinosaur action figures. My father kinda ruined the whole, "gradually introducing violent themes to children" by his going, "Let's play Heretic!" and later Duke Nukem, Tomb Raider, 'n what not...
I still sometimes have pig-cops in my nightmares.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I never said anything about government regulation. That's something else entirely, especially considering that it's currently illegal for minors to purchase M rated games, and California is heading towards banning violent games in general. As far as other nations, Australia is just plain sad in their regulations.

I don't think California could afford the backlash from this one. The phrase of the day is Class Action Lawsuit. When I say class action, I mean from both the publisher and consumer side, and that could be amusing.

 

[Joshua112321]

I do believe they are guidelines. My younger sister is 8 (more mature than I am, in some ways!), and I vet what she can and can't play with me.

For instance; CoD is okay, GTA is not.

duuuuuuuuuuude awesome you have an 8 year old SISTER that plays call of duty, that is just so rare... speaking of, what's your PSN/LIVE/STEAM?

If you stay around the 'Scapist, you should know that somewhere around 10-30 percent of the users here are female. Not trying to criticize or anything; just it can come as a surprise to people.

Sorry I Think I was Unclear
actually my point was that she was 8 AND she was playing call of duty. now if it was 8 year old boy then you may expect that, but in the younger girls, excuse me if I'm wrong, but don't they have the trait of being more innocent and girly? Or is that at a younger age?

actually by the sounds of it, it depends on how parents let the child grow up :/
It depends on the person; by four, I was playing with giant robot dinosaur action figures. My father kinda ruined the whole, "gradually introducing violent themes to children" by his going, "Let's play Heretic!" and later Duke Nukem, Tomb Raider, 'n what not...
I still sometimes have pig-cops in my nightmares.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

I doesn't bother me, though I do always go to myself, 'you shouldn't playing this' whenever I see a minor play Modern Warfare 2 or Bad Company 2.