Who was an "underage" gamer? and the disconnect between us and the past decades

[ChildishLegacy]

I guess I really don't want them to feel like they miss out on things. Their friends all talk about the next film they are going to see or that new game they got or episode of that great show and my kids should be able to join in.

I was... 13? 14? When CoD 4 over XBL/PSN became the biggest thing since sliced bread and if I hadn't been allowed that (which my mother at the time did almost have happen) I wouldn't have gotten XBL and I wouldn't be the multiplayer game I am today, and wouldn't have a lot of amazing gamer friends that I do have today, taking games from kids can actually isolate them while at home now, because their friends the next day would undoubtedly be talking about their gaming session last night if there was one.

Also, the news is full of rape, torture and murder at 9 a.m. in the UK at the moment, and "mushed up" dictators faces have been put on newspapers, I really don't understand the double standard when it comes to pressing a button to see it rather than the same type of violence being shoved in our faces by the same media that warn parents of these murderer/rapist producing games.

 

[The Madman]

You have to admit however that there is a massive difference between games 'back yonder' and now. The level of quality and detail put into some of the gory shit that goes down on the screen is disturbing, and the context usually doesn't help either. I honestly can't blame parents for being concerned when they see things like this on Television, especially if they didn't grow up with games themselves. Hell, even as someone who grew up playing the original Mortal Kombat that's disturbing.

With that said however I think the best thing any parent or responsible adult can do is to play the game and judge for themselves based on first hand experience whether it's suitable for children or not. At the very least read reviews, watch gameplay, learn about the product. A good parent knows their children and what that child can or cannot handle.

It's irresponsible to do otherwise.

 

[Total LOLige]

I'm trying to think of the first 18 rated game that my parents bought for me. I think it was actually Fallout 3 and I was 13 possibly 14 at the time, and that was after some blagging and pleading along with promises to do housework and such. My mother refused to buy me GTA because she thought it was too violent and mature for a 15 year old(I'd say it is). My mother has always been really strict when it come to mature content in films and games, my twin brother(at age 10/11) once bought a PEGI 16 game(back when you didn't have to be 16 to buy them, it was Riddick for Xbox) when she found out what the age rating was she took it back to the shop. He didn't even get to play it, haha. Whenever I asked if I could get a game she'd always ask a shop assistant for information about the content, a pain in the arse if all else failed(it usually did) I'd play the games at a friend's house. I think the age that people should start playing 18 rated games is 14 or 15 because by that time you'll be able to understand the content in the games. I certainly don't think 15 and 18 rated games are appropriate 10 year olds, maybe I'm jealous because they can do what I couldn't. If I'd played mature games as a child I'd probably have the "I did it so they can too" attitude. It's probably worth saying that I'm 16 nearly 17 so I am a underage gamer. A parent will know if their child is ready for mature content until then they can safely assume that any game with a red 18 on the box is not suitable. A parent that doesn't think their child is ready for mature content should read about the games, that way they don't get angry when little Jimmy/Sally calls the teacher "a fucking faggit", or attempts to curb stomp a classmate. A child will always get game they shouldn't be playing from a friend most of the time. I remember once a borrowed RoadKill for Xbox from a friend when I was around 9 or 10, I hid it under my wardrobe to stop my mum finding it. When she found it I got grounded for a month, the charge having illegal contraband.

 

[TehCookie]

I'm guessing most people don't have a problem with kids playing M games, they have a problem with kids not having any manners. You don't have to know anything about games to teach your kids swearing is bad.

When it comes to the content of games ignorance is no excuse, there is a label on the box that tells you what age group it's for and what's in it. Not to mention parents should know their kids well enough if they can handle them.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

You have to admit however that there is a massive difference between games 'back yonder' and now. The level of quality and detail put into some of the gory shit that goes down on the screen is disturbing, and the context usually doesn't help either. I honestly can't blame parents for being concerned when they see things like this on Television, especially if they didn't grow up with games themselves. Hell, even as someone who grew up playing the original Mortal Kombat that's disturbing.

With that said however I think the best thing any parent or responsible adult can do is to play the game and judge for themselves based on first hand experience whether it's suitable for children or not. At the very least read reviews, watch gameplay, learn about the product. A good parent knows their children and what that child can or cannot handle.

It's irresponsible to do otherwise.

Someone never got to play RoTT back in the day. Now /that/ was a gory game.

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Yes, those are eyballs that are flying around when people get gibbed.

Or heck, how about Mortal Kombat itself? You showed a montage of fatalities from MK9, but MK1, 2, and 3 were at least as gory, with the first two being a huge part of the reason we have videogame ratings today.

 

[Chemical Alia]

My mom let me play Wolfenstein 3d when I was twelve (it was rated "PC-13"), but it was single player and I don't recall annoying anyone. If there were a lot of violent PC and Sega Genesis games in the early 90's, I certainly didn't know about them or particularly care to play them.

I don't mind younger kids playing games online with me when they're well behaved and seem mature enough to handle them. Many kids aren't.

 

[unstabLized]

Hahahaha.. Definitely an underage gamer. Played Serious Sam: First encounter Classic, Mortal Kombat, GTA 2,3,Vice City, Doom and Wolfenstein, Counter Strike, and many others. I had a ton of games when I was a kid, mostly because I didn't move to Canada till about 4-5 years ago,and games in my country were.. well,cheap. Got my PS1 when I was about.. 5? or 6? Sometime around there. Greatest memories of my childhood. I remember when me and my mom would go to the place down the street of our apartment that had PS1's. I would play Driver 1 all day. Then my dad asked me, straight up,if i wanted a PS1, and I firmly said yes. 3 or 4 days later early morning, I wake up to get ready for school and i see a box of PS1 sitting on the dining table,with exactly 10 games stacked on it. On top of it was Driver 1. I was literally playing while my mom put food in my mouth.

Greatest times of my childhood was spent either with my Sega, PS1/PS2, and my old PC, or outside. Back when there was no Multiplayer for me, and games would last months. The only multiplayer I played was with friends on split screen.

Awesome memories..

As many people have already stated though, we live in a different time. The deal with graphics has vastly changed, and so have people's opinions on video games.

The issue to me isn't the games, it's the people who play the games.

 

[The Madman]

Someone never got to play RoTT back in the day. Now /that/ was a gory game.

Yes, those are eyballs that are flying around when people get gibbed.

Or heck, how about Mortal Kombat itself? You showed a montage of fatalities from MK9, but MK1, 2, and 3 were at least as gory, with the first two being a huge part of the reason we have videogame ratings today.

The intention might be there but the visuals obviously aren't unless one is easily offended by red pixels and cheesy low-quality mo-cap. This is one situation where graphics make all the difference, it's silly to think otherwise. Again I can fully understand why parents would be ill at ease considering the fidelity of todays gruesome games especially when compared to the at-worst cartoonish visuals of the past.

But again that's also a matter for the parents in question to think over. I never presumed to say what's right or wrong, I'm just pointing out the obvious flaw in these 'then vs. now' things.

And no, I didn't play Rise of the Triads. I did however play Blood and Duke Nukem. Violent games for their times but compared to todays stuff kinda hard to take seriously or be offended by.

 

[Catfood220]

hmm..when I was a kid I watched mortal kombat on the N64...like somones face being eaten off (was the reptile that did that?) also golden eye/perfect dark and turock...

those games scared the crap out of me and put me off violent games for a long time...

Perfect Dark is the only game that I ever got ID'd for. I was just on the line for the age limit of the game, but now it makes me smile about how tame that game was compared to the games we have now.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Someone never got to play RoTT back in the day. Now /that/ was a gory game.

Yes, those are eyballs that are flying around when people get gibbed.

Or heck, how about Mortal Kombat itself? You showed a montage of fatalities from MK9, but MK1, 2, and 3 were at least as gory, with the first two being a huge part of the reason we have videogame ratings today.

The intention might be there but the visuals obviously aren't unless one is easily offended by red pixels and cheesy low-quality mo-cap. This is one situation where graphics make all the difference, it's silly to think otherwise. Again I can fully understand why parents would be ill at ease considering the fidelity of todays gruesome games especially when compared to the at-worst cartoonish visuals of the past.

But again that's also a matter for the parents in question to think over. I never presumed to say what's right or wrong, I'm just pointing out the obvious flaw in these 'then vs. now' things.

And no, I didn't play Rise of the Triads. I did however play Blood and Duke Nukem. Violent games for their times but compared to todays stuff kinda hard to take seriously or be offended by.

I kind of agree with you on the extreme end, but I think games overall are less gory than they were in the Pre- to early ESRB days. I mean, sure, the Left 4 Dead games are intensely gory (I find the first one to be more brutal and intense, the second one to have more actual "gore"), and I'll give you that the smoothness of animation in the new Mortal Kombat game makes some (though not all; you need to go back and look at the fatalities from MK2 again if you think the new ones are /all/ more disturbing) of the fatalities more disturbing. But games like Mass Effect and CoD are hardly any gorier than the games that received T ratings back in the day. Even Gears of War, which is constantly listed as some horribly gory game, really isn't any worse than any of the old arena FPSs.

P.S.: RoTT was a lot gorier than Blood or Duke Nukem 3D. It was a pretty unusual game.

 

[The Madman]

I kind of agree with you on the extreme end, but I think games overall are less gory than they were in the Pre- to early ESRB days. I mean, sure, the Left 4 Dead games are intensely gory (I find the first one to be more brutal and intense, the second one to have more actual "gore"), and I'll give you that the smoothness of animation in the new Mortal Kombat game makes some (though not all; you need to go back and look at the fatalities from MK2 again if you think the new ones are /all/ more disturbing) of the fatalities more disturbing. But games like Mass Effect and CoD are hardly any gorier than the games that received T ratings back in the day. Even Gears of War, which is constantly listed as some horribly gory game, really isn't any worse than any of the old arena FPSs.

P.S.: RoTT was a lot gorier than Blood or Duke Nukem 3D. It was a pretty unusual game.

I don't really think games have gotten any more violent over the years. Not overall anyway, even if there is a pervasiveness to modern-day set shooters that's more than a little annoying. But then when Doom first came out there were a billion clones of that as well so its little surprise, these trends always tend to come and go. I hope the next one is something more interesting.

Still you've got to admit when a game made today puts its mind towards violence and gore it can be much, much worse than anything way back in the years of yonder. I purposely try to avoid overly violent games, I've never really much had a taste for them and that's only decreased over time, but even so there's the occasional moment that just makes me queasy.

 

[Vault101]

hmm..when I was a kid I watched mortal kombat on the N64...like somones face being eaten off (was the reptile that did that?) also golden eye/perfect dark and turock...

those games scared the crap out of me and put me off violent games for a long time...

Perfect Dark is the only game that I ever got ID'd for. I was just on the line for the age limit of the game, but now it makes me smile about how tame that game was compared to the games we have now.

they dont ofen ask for Id

excopt once...I cant remember what game it was but it was 15+..and I was 18 at the time :/

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

hmm..when I was a kid I watched mortal kombat on the N64...like somones face being eaten off (was the reptile that did that?) also golden eye/perfect dark and turock...

those games scared the crap out of me and put me off violent games for a long time...

Perfect Dark is the only game that I ever got ID'd for. I was just on the line for the age limit of the game, but now it makes me smile about how tame that game was compared to the games we have now.

they dont ofen ask for Id

excopt once...I cant remember what game it was but it was 15+..and I was 18 at the time :/

I find this discussion interesting. The way I understand it, in the UK, the EU, and Australia, videogame ratings are legally binding, right? Because in the US they aren't, and I still get carded every time I buy something M-rated in a Gamestop. Granted, Gamestop seems to be the only place that can't tell I'm a 22 year old who has looked like a 20 something since he was 16, but still. They've got a weird policy there that requires them to card anyone who looks under 30 -- which is more in line with buying alcohol or tobacco than buying a videogame.

 

[StBishop]

[...] As long as my kids are happy and not out and about [...] burgling houses then i'm happy.
[...]

But aren't you liverpudlian?

Spoiler

In all seriousness, I don't have kids and looking after my nephews on occasion is enough to know how little I know about children and looking after them. While I am not above being an opinionated dick on the Internet, I'm not going to tell someone they're a bad parent.

 

[Rawne1980]

[...] As long as my kids are happy and not out and about [...] burgling houses then i'm happy.
[...]

But aren't you liverpudlian?

I am indeed.

Thats why i'm glad they aren't burgling the houses round here ..... nothing worth nicking.

 

[Clobersaurus15]

It's a really difficult subject and one that's really easy to take the moral high ground on. I'm not a parent but as a kid I remember how much of a nightmare it must have been for mine because as soon as one guy in school got hold of something "cool" and "mature", everyone had to have it.

I'll admit to playing games as a child that were easily too old for me, Goldeneye came out when I was 11, I played Half Life when I was 12 etc. However when I was playing those games I was either playing co op or taking turns with my dad. Not saying that every parent has to watch their kids 24/7 when they are gaming but I honestly believe that they should at least have experience with the console (my dad used to play each game before me so he knew what I was getting up to) and I think this counts for even more now that every profile on every possible platform can be linked to a credit card.

Hilariously, the first 18 rated game I remember playing was Perfect Dark, we've come a long way from bad blood effects and boxy aliens.

 

[getoffmycloud]

The issue is parents don't accept responsibility when something goes wrong it is the games fault not theirs. If they buy a game for there kids and complain its too violent when there is clearly and 18 rating on the box then that is bad parenting you don't need to be a parent to know that.

Its like the kid buying stuff on Xbox live story from last week the guy put his bank details into the console and never bothered to check if they were stored on there that isn't Microsoft's fault it is his fault for not using common sense.

 

[Orks da best]

I have been playing games since like 6 or 7, there were rts games or flash games on the interet mind you. Played RPGs like kotor and fable and shooters like halo around 8-9, yup being games for roughly 2/3 my like in one form or another, and about 60-75 percent of them are bloodily, violet, but did not scare me in the least.

Nor change me in a daemon. Fox news daemons.