I Just Had a Video Game Debate With my Parents

[LitleWaffle]

Its a parents job to decide what is good for the kid. However, most parents seem to go by the ESRB ratings.

Don't Just Rely On That

Take it into consideration, but look into the game and actually see why ESRB gave the ratings. Sometimes they over exaggerate how serious the subject is. And sometimes they also understate how serious it is.

Take what they say into consideration, but you mostly have to understand you kid.

*Cue gasp*

I know, I know it's horrible, but you have to actually know what your kid can handle without taking it too far and doing stupid things. ESRB doesn't know your kid. You should. Can your kid deal with rocket launching a strip club in GTA IV and not being corrupted to do that in real life? You need to know that.

Edit: Personally, My mom tries to restrict which video games I can get as a sense of pride of being a parent. But if your parents will ever listen to what you have to say, start off your argument by surprise, but make sure it's strong and serious. People who don't want you playing those more violent games will instantly refuse a loose and unorganized argument.

Steps if this is a problem for you...

1: Find relations to things that your parents have allowed before. Maybe a movie or something they went to see with you that has similar instances. Like Zerg and aliens hatching and attacking people for an example for StarCraft.

2: Never resort to illogical statements such as swearing. If your parents use their almighty "parent decision", don't push it. Back off for a bit while she comprhends your logical and thorough statement and eventually she'll cave in.

3: Spread out your argument. If you bring it up too often, she will become frustrated at the subject and completely disregard it as an option to allow it. Take it nice and slow, she'll see it through soon enough.

4: Don't disobey her. You need to focus on the prize, and if she is seeing disobedience now, she won't let you have the games which will "send you off the wall".

5. Find an official(or official looking) website that goes in depth into the violent aspects of a specific game. If she gets some information from a more reliable source, then she might be more willing to accept it.

 

[RipperSU]

I remember getting my PSX when I was 8 and begging my mum for Resident Evil 2. I had to wait for christmas... but I got it. I guess my mum isn't so bad.

 

[VegetaPrinceofSaiyans]

My experience with gaming and parents has been a rather good one. For most of my childhood, I lived with my mother and I thank her for being the one who got into gaming.(And Star Wars too, my mom is awesome, lol) She grew up having an Atari 2600 and later an NES. She bought me my first console, an N64, for my 6th birthday. She would sit there and watch me play Super Mario 64 and help me if I got stuck(I had trouble with throwing Bowser into the spike bombs when I was little ) Her interest in gaming has now waned and she doesn't really do it much anymore, but still doesn't have a problem with me playing games.

The only real conflict we ever had over gaming was me playing WoW. She had heard that this game caused people to become shut ins and stay in front of their computers for hours on end in a fantasy world(Admittedly I did play a lot, and still do) But when I exposed her to the social aspect of a game and allowed her to watch a Molten Core raid, she was amazed at the concept of 40 people working together with a similar goal in mind in a game. Never had a problem since then.

Now if only I could get her to understand that anime =/= childish cartoons >_>

 

[jamescorck]

The last time I talked to my folks about videogames it was after the news made a piece about how Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has the environments built from real historic recreations of buildings, and how historians helped to get the time period right.

Their reaction was pretty possitive, as seeing how videogames are becoming more like movies. Respect censorship, they don't care for it. I am a 25 year old person, my folks are more concerned about what my 15 year old sister watches.

 

[ReaperzXIII]

My dad bought and played 18 games in front of me, such as body harvest, max payne etc... in front of me since I was young as well as watch violence movies with me there so I got used to the violence, I've been playing games on the N64 bought by my dad since I was 2, he played Mario, Zelda etc... with me since I was young and was the best experiences I ever recall having with my father. He stopped playing games when he became busier with work and stopped buying me game in favour of my mother's "Its a waste of his time, he should be studying, don't let Gohan have any fun!! He's going to become a doctor!" so I started buying games myself and now they view it as a waste of my time and time would be better spent studying.

My arguement is simple, I play games to pass time when I'm bored, just like you watch TV, sleep etc..., what I am doing is no more a waste of time than that so what is the problem with me playing games? I still get good grades and do my homework, also games can have more complex stories that are more engaging than novels, be just a philosophical as works of Aristoctle (sp?) and as visually artistic as Picasso's work.

 

[Tips_of_Fingers]

yeah, mine are pretty much ok. But they stopped buying games for me years and years and years ago. When I was about 11 I managed to convince my da to buy me Resident Evil from a car boot sale... I told him it was about zombies...he asked if it was violent. I replied "It's about zombies." he seemed ok with it.

The most recent thing was revealing to them that I was planning on focusing on videogames for my English Dissertation at Uni. They asked me why and I rationally explained that it's becoming a hugely significant cultural medium....no problems.

 

[Leviathan_]

My parents are pretty cool when it comes to games. My dad likes the old-school strategy games and played some of my games on the Playstation as well (Like GTA and the Grand Turismo series). Age ratings were never a problem at home, as my parents were well aware that they are utter bullshit. My mother isn't as fond of gaming however and is quicker to complain when I spend a long time on the PC. My older sister likes GTA San Andreas and she played some matches on Call of Duty 4 with me.

 

[Musette]

One of my earliest memories was watching my dad play Red Alert 2.
My dad's just as much a gamer as I am, so the biggest disagreements we ever have on the topic come from trying to share a single Steam Account.

 

[Cosplay Horatio]

Whenever my dad complains about games the one thing he always says is, "playing games for any amount of time is a waste of an entire day". Whenever I have serious headaches or get sick for any reason he blames it on my playing video games.

 

[IamQ]

My mum was okay with me playing games. She played SSX and SSX3 with me alot when I was young. She doesn't anymore, but because of this, she has always been really accepting of my hobbies. As it is right now, I could probably buy rape-sex-murder-XXX-violence-simulator-3000, and she wouldn't mind.

 

[El Poncho]

My parents don't mind what games I play as long as I do my school work.

 

[Ddgafd]

My mom doesn't let me play 18+ games until I'm that old, but she lets me play other games just fine, as long as I don't waste my money carelessly. Sadly, I've got a PS3 and most of the better games are 18+ :[

 

[Baldry]

Both my mum and dad love gaming! As do I. And well they don't really care about the games age rating because they know i'm not impressionable.

 

[Delock]

My mom honestly doesn't like M rated games that much, though she seems to understand. All she really wants is for my brother (15) to not be playing ultraviolent games without me there (she has never outright said this, but I've noticed she has no problem with him playing Fallout 3 with the blood perk on so long as I'm nearby). It also helps that she slowly got used to the idea of games by having us grow up with handhelds (which basically had no M games) until the PS1 went on sale, gradually working up to T (we got them before 13, but only because we'd proved our maturity), and having a husband who is an avid gamer himself. At the same time though, she doesn't really like being around games as much as us, so we play in the "basement" (my house was designed awkwardly. My basement is obviously a ground floor, to the point that only a small part of it is underground, and has tiles for the floor rather than the sort of stone floor sterotypical basement. The reason for this is that it's built on a steep hill with the floor facing away from the street that divides the hill in half).

Of course, at the same time my dad is a Netflix abuser (evenlope is sent back almost always the next day), so she happens to know first hand that other mediums are much more "free" with their content. She also happens to enjoy the Wii (as an exercise tool, a DVD player, and on occasion a casual gaming machine), which since purchasing she's been much more accepting of the hobby, so long as we don't obsess over it too much.

As for parents who truly are concerned about games (and I don't know how many will actually read this post, so gamers who know parents spread this around) WhatTheyPlay is a great site to be informed. It's a useful guide to knowing about the game (both what's in it as well as what it's about and how it plays) and happens to be a better source of information about content than rumors or even the ESRB warning (ie, one section mentions that Fable 3 contains sex, but goes on to tell parents that it's only a black screen with noises and that there's no nudity rather than just going "IT HAS SEX IN IT! IT'S A SEX SIMULATOR!").

 

[Lucane]

Starcraft?

Yeah, 'cause that'll turn you into a murderer -_-

I know right? And by 16, I already knew I was a pacifist. Still am. Always will be.

Maybe they got to much info about how people played it to death and not so much murder others (I'm aware they're rare cases but they still happened due to playing that particular game.[Other games have similar issues.])

 

[PureChaos]

my mum doesn't get gaming, she doesn't see the point in yet will spend hundred on ornaments that will sit on a shelf gathering dust. she doens't mind me doing it but as my Wii is in the living room i have wait till she doesn't want to watch anything on TV (i.e she goes to bed, goes out somewhere boring or is occipied on the internet or something) other wise she complains she can't watch what she wants even though she pays the TV licence etc.

 

[Fuselage]

I wasn't really allowed to play GTA till I was 15 (legal age in aus). but I do think 10 years olds play that kind of game is just retarded

Nah. I was playing GTA San Andreas when I was 10, My Parents actually educated me on whats real and not real, The first game i ever played was Max Payne on the PC..

 

[TehIrishSoap]

My Parents Are Fine With Games
However, When "No Russian" Was Discussed In The House Of Commons, They Started Quizzing Me On It, But I Told Them There Was A Disturbing Content Notice...
They For Some Reason Don't Mind The Fact I Played GTA 4, For Hours At A Time, When I Was 13 Years Old.... WTF?
Still, I'm Not Complaining!

 

[darthotaku]

My parents won't let GTA in the house but I never liked it that much anyway. other than that, they're cool with games.

 

[Kuroneko97]

My parents have no problem with me and videogames, considering my older brother played them as a kid too (now 24). I can't however, discuss many games with them, because as soon as I explain the plot, they tell me to stop because they can't follow. They can only follow Mario. Even Zelda's too complicated.