How do I convince my dad that games aren't "Evil"?

[DSEZ]

try showing him a education game like brain age or somethine then he'll see all games aint evil

but in all honesty there is more violence on CNN then there is in a FPS

and the stuff on CNN is real the stuff on the game is fake

 

[ffs-dontcare]

My dad's always been skeptical about me playing any games with guns in them, and I've always tried to let it go and not get pissed, but today we had a conversation that made me realize I had to do something. I started up Urban Terror, a Quake 3 Arena mod with blood turned off. The conversation went like this:

WARNING: Big wall-o-text
Dad: Is that the gun game?
Me: Yes dad, this is the "gun game"
Dad: -in a normal, perfectly conversational tone- I hate that game. It's evil.
Me: What?
Dad: It's a game about killing people. It'll make you want to kill people.
Me: No it won't. I'm not that easily influenced.
Dad: It's not about how easily influenced you are. That game will make you evil.
Me: No it won't.
Dad: Yes it will. Games like that make you violent.
Me: I'm not violent!
Dad: Yes you are. You're using a violent tone right now.
Me: so I can't play it anymore?
Dad: You'll stop eventually.
Me: What does that mean?
Dad: Someday you'll understand and stop playing that game. -leaves-


So have any of you Escapists had a similar experience? And what can I do to change my Dad's mind about video games?

Your dad's an idiot. His logic is so full of fail it's just not funny to me.

Dad: It's a game about killing people. It'll make you want to kill people.
Me: No it won't. I'm not that easily influenced.
Dad: It's not about how easily influenced you are. That game will make you evil.

O_O

I just... I... *sigh*

At that point, I would've said, "well ten years from now when I'm still leading a perfectly normal life you will know just how wrong you were".

Also, note how he carries the underlying arrogant tone of "I'm your dad therefore I am right and you are wrong", as well as deliberately getting you to raise your voice with his own stupidity and then saying that the game made you raise your voice.

I have a dad like this. I'm glad I moved out when I was 19. No more putting up with that crap.

In my experience, you can't change your dad's mind on this. Dads are far too stubborn. From the sounds of it, your dad (and mine) is under the impression that he is literally always correct just because he's the dad.

The only way you can prove him wrong is to act as mature as possible and prove him wrong over time through your actions. Ten years from now, when he sees you still have a clean record and a (hopefully) healthy life, he'll be forced to eat his words and apologize to you for it.

Hope that helped.

 

[Sacman]

take up a new hobby thats ten times worse(like public masturbation or something) and blame it on the fact that u stopped playing violent videogames and pretty soon change ur appearance and attitude and he'll miss the old u and thats when u go back to ur old self and start playing violent videogames again if it works he'll notice that ur attitude has changed and he'll stop hounding u about it, but if it fails just get a Wii with a bunch of kiddy games and all of a sudden whip out No More Heroes just to mess with him...

 

[Klagermeister]

Not 5 years ago, my dad forbade me to play anything violent.
Now we own Gears of War, he regularly plays Halo with us, and he wants to chip in to buy MW2.

So my answer is that it's a phase. Wait and it'll pass. Try to get him involved to speed things up.

 

[Tourette]

Be really polite and kind to him and take up flower aranging. When he notices the difference in you, tell him it is because of videogames.
Either that or have him hypnotised.

 

[AgDr_ODST]

My mom is very anti-violent games. She hates any game that recieves an M rating. I was playing Half-Life 2 and she walked in to see me give a Combine soldier a face full of buckshot and that was it. My dad is very easy going, but told me my mom complained to him about it, and now I can't play them when my mom is around and I can't buy M rated games. It sucks, now the only games I can play are Flash games, and to think I could be playing Borderlands or Fallout 3.

I have the same problem with my mom, its either there's no convicing her or Im doing a poor job of explaing why the don't make me inclined to violent behavior or pointing out studies that she'll deem legitimate that prove my point. Lucky for me though her being opposed to the games(and as a result for anti-violent game legislation) doesn't stop me from playing violent games, as long as she doesn't have to see me playing them she mostly keeps quite

Explain to him that people (i.e. you) play games to do things that you could not do in real life (kill people and not get arrested, fly, get shot in the head 57 times).

saying ^ kinda helps my case, but at the same time mentioning the first one causes her to think that Im a closet phsychopath

 

[Keepitclean]

Why does it really matter what your dad thinks? It's not like he is stopping you playing them and so long as he doesnt push the issue there wont be a problem. I advise you not to push the issue mate it will only piss him off.

It Llooks like he was just winding you up anyway.

 

[Spineyguy]

I know what people mean, I get disapproving looks from mother every time I do anything on the interwebs.

 

[asinann]

You could always show him the studies that say that games don't make people violent. Or the court rulings. Or you could stop playing games and THEN become violent.

 

[S29 Afterlife]

Show him Brain Age.
it made my dad into a casual gamer.
so it might work on your dad.

 

[Levitas1234]

Your dad is ignorant to the subject of video games. tell him his opinion inst fact.

 

[Bat Vader]

I say let your dad keep his opinion. He will most likely never change it as you will most likely not stop playing games.

 

[SantoUno]

You've played that game plenty already right? Just tell him "Dad I've been playing this game for quite a while now, have I turned violent? No, so stop saying that, you're overreacting and you know it, seriously just let me have fun, it's like if I said that you can't drink anymore because you are going to crash for sure."

Seriously this should be easy.

 

[MrNixon21]

Honestly, as a psychology major, your dad needs to understand playing violent video games, as well as being exposed to violent media in general, is not the primary determining statistic with regard to violent crime. The one statistic that translates to the likelihood of you going out and killing someone is economic status. You heard it right: poor people are more likely to commit crime. Even so, any reasonable person could tell you just because Johnny's poor, he's not necessarily going to shoot his neighbor Jill out of the blue.

Furthermore, I found this neat article on google scholar stating leisure activities that take place away from the household show positive associations with rates of crime, whereas leisure activities in the household show negative associations with those rates.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2579022

Honestly, your dad's a victim of political spin. Violent video games and crime is a hot button topic these days, and there are always people trying to scare you into thinking something will kill your or cause you harm. Your dad needs to calm down, understand a playing a bloody game or not is the least of his worries if he's truly concerned about your well-being, and stop listening to anyone who will tell him there's something wrong in the world today without trying it out for himself. Geez, you could be killed in a serious car accident tomorrow, and he's worried about you playing a violent game?

 

[mandrilltiger]

You aren't killing people your killing people that are attacking you. So if your are attacked by people I know your Dad will tell you that you should sing them away.

Of course then there is games like GTAIV that don't have that excuse.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

It's a rather simple minded way of thinking. If you wanna convince otherwise then find statistics that refute the link between violence and video games. Tell them that, if anything, there a stress release and they will proably keep you from becoming violent.

If he still dosen't listen, then I'm sorry, but he's proably not gonna change and the best you could do is live and let live.

As for my parents, there pretty easy going. They don't tend to complain about the violence in any of the games I play and will usally watch me turn poor little NPCs into red paste without even a grimace. I suppose it's the realization that the people in the games aren't real and my actions in game won't affect reality in any way.

 

[RN7]

Ironically, I used to think this way, when I was two, until my dad made me play videogames. They had been simple games, but by the time I was 8, I played grand theft auto 3. I didn't grow up to be some gun-toting, manical murder, thus games cannot make you violent (but they can.)

Back on topic, have your dad actually play the type game for about 2 months . After the 2 months are up, if he murders someone or beats the living shit out of someone, he was right. Games are evil. If not, you were right.