How strict are/were your parents as far as violent videogames?

S

Synbios459

Banned
My parents have never cared about what games I play and never bothered to look at the ratings. I've always been able to buy whatever game I want. However I have a friend who is 17 and can still play only T rated games and PG-13 rated movies :lol not surprisingly he comes from a VERY religious family. Although mine is to they've never bugged me about what games I play or movies I watch.

Funny story: I let the same aforementioned friend borrow MGS:TTS and he said that he thought it was fun, but his parents didn't. I asked him why and he said that they said it was to "gloomy" . I asked him how far he got and said he only got to Tranq a few guys but his parents didn't like it and took it away untill he could bring it back.

I just don't understand why they would have a problem with it considering the good and bad guys are clearly defined, you're job is to kill the "bad" guys and save the world. I don't understand what's wrong with that.
 
my parents let me buy the original gta (dunno when it came out im 18 now) even after i told them u get to run over pedestrians in it.

Because they recognise that I'm not a dumb fuck that would copy it
 
I wonder how many of us were playing Missle Command and Space Invaders when our parents were checking our games.

Then again, I was in high school when the SNES came out...
 
Never had a problem with any games and my brother and I could always get whatever game we wanted.

I remember my brother's friend's father telling him not to buy Mortal Kombat 1 on the SNES. His friend did, and his dad took a hammer and smashed the cartridge to pieces. :lol
 
I don't know anyone here who is really strict with movie / game ratings. I don't think people really care about it here in Holland like they do in some other countries, except if it's about pr0n. My nephews were playing GTA 3 when they were 8 years old and they thought it was "very cool".
 
Lyte Edge said:
Never had a problem with any games and my brother and I could always get whatever game we wanted.

I remember my brother's friend's father telling him not to buy Mortal Kombat 1 on the SNES. His friend did, and his dad took a hammer and smashed the cartridge to pieces. :lol
Click to expand...

yeah the lack of blood was a disgrace
 
My parents never really cared what games I played. They were more concerned with the amount of time I spent playing. "Turn off that video game and go outside." "Nature is God's video game. Why don't you go play it for a while." "You're going to grow up and be fat if you sit there all day playing video games."
 
My parents didn't really LIKE that I played violent videogames (my dad used to say stuff like, "I don't see how anybody could like that mess"), but they pretty much let me. And after that, I didn't really want violent games, anymore. :P

As far as nudity and sexual stuff, they didn't like that. And personally, I don't like it, either.
 
My parents never cared. They just tried to make sure that my brother and I wouldn't play videogames for too long.
 
Only time I was in troulbe for games was when I was caught printing out codes for Chun Li nude code, that didnt even WORK!.
 
They didn't care or know anything.

box.jpg


This cover is rather similar to the PAL cover for Street Figher 2

They didn't even react to the Street Fighter 2 cover... I was merely 12 or so when it was released on SNES. The cover was very graphic for its time with a Ryu lying on the floor and Blanka charging Chun-Li, not even a raised eyebrow on that.
 
They simply resorted to asking question when the content was questionnable. They never kept me from actually playing them, even though they mocked gorier titles (like Mortal Kombat).
 
The only game my rents ever gave me flack about was GTA:SA...for obvious reasons, I still kept playing though. THey might voice thier objections, but they won't do anything about them. That's fine with me.
 
I remember when I had my first PC (a 386 DX, it actually meant something!) and my dad saw me play Wolfenstein 3D. At that time, games on Nintendo systems were still bloodless so that was quite a shock for him.

I remember him saying "I don't know if I should let you play that" but basically video games were preventing me from loitering around and when my dad saw that I wasn't getting more violent, he didn't bother me no more. Although he didn't saw it as funny as I was.

I was sort of careless with playing violent games but most recently, I often think what happens when you kill someone (in games or in movies). Was that person a dad? Did he have a family or something? The most shocking thing that struck me was the Normandy attack in Call of Duty. I was hearing the bullets strike the wood and then I got hit and died. In the game you press enter and you restart but since this really happened, the guy next to me would die and that would be game over for him, no credits left. I found that morbid.

My dad was more strict on time spent on video games. He thought that I would neglect my studies for vg. But he stopped complaining when I went to work at 22:30 when he was playing Starcraft to find him still playing the next morning when I came back at 6:30AM :lol
 
I don't think it's violence that even matters these days, but sexual content. When I'm at work, and a parent wants to know "what the deal is with that 'Grand Auto Theft' game I keep hearing so much about," a typical conversation goes something like this:

Me: Well, the game is pretty violent. You're a gangster, and you run around stealing cars, shooting people, etc.
Customer: That doesn't sound too bad.
Co-worker: You can cut off limbs and shoot off people's heads, too.
Customer: Yeah, but my son has seen worse on TV already I guess.
Me: You can pick up hookers too.
Co-worker: And you drive off with them and watch the car go up and down.
Customer: You pick up prostitutes?!?!?!?!? ABSOLUTELY NOT, JOHNNY. Thank you for being honest about the game guys.

There really is something very wrong about that to me. I mean it's like the attitude parents have is

Killing/Stealing = Okay
Boobs = HORRIBLE HOW CAN THEY MAKE FILTH LIKE THIS?

I also love how the kids will stand behind the parents mouthing to use to please, please, PLEASE not say anything about the game's content. :lol
 
There really is something very wrong about that to me. I also love how the kids will stand behind the parents mouthing to use to please, please, PLEASE not say anything about the game's content.
Click to expand...

Haha, happens to me all the time. Makes me laugh, I kinda feel bad for the kid afterwards, but hey if their parents don't want their kids playing games like GTA, who am I to stop them. I'm there to inform people, their decisions are up to them.
 
Lyte Edge said:
I also love how the kids will stand behind the parents mouthing to use to please, please, PLEASE not say anything about the game's content. :lol
Click to expand...
:lol

I've mentioned this before, but my parents actually found the manual to Bard's Tale II that I'd borrowed from a friend, saw the spellcasting stuff and promptly made me return it to said friend.

AND I received a "loving intervention" from a couple of church elders. Unbelievable. Their hearts were in the right place, I guess, but still.... :lol
 
My father used to play through ALL of Bruce Lee on my Atari 800XL with me every weekend, we loved it. Then we played Amiga 500 games together when I was a more grown up kid, and we had a blast blasting stuff. When my sister 'came of age' we used to deathmatch on doom and later with quake 1/2/3 together, and sometimes my father would even play with us. He sucked, but he played anyway. Those were good times..

Sometimes we still play some good old Q3 with my sister and my dad comes and watches and laughs.
 
Killing/Stealing = Okay
Boobs = HORRIBLE HOW CAN THEY MAKE FILTH LIKE THIS?
Click to expand...
Well, if you really want to know, I can explain it, although I'm sure you'll mock this, too.

Anyway, the reason they're treated differently is that in a videogame, you can't really kill or steal. You can view a virtual character killing or stealing, but the player isn't really doing it. And viewing a stealing or killing isn't a sin, if you believe in that stuff.

But a game absolutely can provide nudity. "Viewing" nudity itself is a sin. Viewing is required for porn to be wrong by its very nature, unlike stealing. To commit the sin of stealing, you must take something -- that doesn't belong to you -- from someone without their wanting you to do so. To commit the sin of pornography, you must simply view the porn, and a videogame (like any visual media) DOES allow that.

You don't have to agree with this, of course, but I think it does make more "sense" that you're giving it credit for.

And obviously, in real life, stealing and killing is about a million times worse than some kid sitting in his basement wacking it to porn.
 
Cyan said:
I think it's simpler than that. Parents simply aren't comfortable with the idea that their kids know anything about sex.
Click to expand...
Well, that probably certainly has something to do with it, but even many sexed-up adults aren't particularly fond of porn, believe it or not. :P
 
Simulating the act of killing and stealing is not a sin but simulating the likeness of a woman's nudity is? Religion makes my head hurt..
 
Two times my parents came down on me for violence in games:

1. Playing MK4 (rental) with a friend on the N64. We put in a code that made uppercuts = Fatality. Dad told me to quit playing because it was bothering my sister and mother.

2. Playing GoldenEye 007 against my sister. Kept shooting her after she was dead and my parents told me to stop.

Otherwise, they're cool with it. Mom doesn't care for it in general, but my dad let me get M rated games years before I was supposed to (and bought some with money I gave him on his way home like Perfect Dark and Conker). I was honest with them about it and they trusted me.
 
Whatever, ratings for computer games are nonesensical anyway. You're killing a bunch of pixels. The bottom line for me is, no one who won't be persuaded to kill another person by what they see on american TV regularly will be persuaded to kill another person by a computer game..

Not to mention that Jerry Springer has more immature sexuality than Larry Magna Cum Laude Uncut..
 
viewing nudity a sin? Stupid... stupid stupid stupid.

STUPID.

Am I not allowed to cross the Memorial Bridge into D.C.? You get surrounded by male AND female nudity - riding horses too, very suggestive.
 
I've never understood the nudity/sex VS horrible voilence arguement, not even that religion based comment makes sence to me.


Nudity and sex will happen in your life pretty much no matter what, I mean I see a big floppy penis everyday when my pants are off, girls see big floppy boobies and a vagina everyday, occcasionally if the right conditions are met they see each others floppy bits too. Its a natural unavoidable occurance.

Voilence on the other hand can be avoided and simulated or not , it's still people being killed or horribly maimed.


I never understood censoring kids, just explain things to them and use common sence. I for one never had a bit of censorship my entire life and I was actually pissed off when it happened to freinds.
 
Well, considering my parents never raised heck about Soldier of Fortune, other than how I showed it off to people, I guess they were good about it. I'm a loyal Nintendo man. It's like parents having sex. I only play non-violent/sexy games in front of her. We pretend the bad ones don't exist. The only stipulation is that when I graduate (3rd Year DigiPen Student) that I have to make a good nice clean FUN game for girls and kids that isn't violent.
 
Four years ago, my mother had a problem with me playing Resident Evil, but I convinced her otherwise and now neither of my parents care if I play violent games since I've demonstrated that I know the difference between real life and video games, and of right and wrong.

(can't believe that was one sentence)
 
they didn't care and they knew exactly what i was playing.


oh yeh... my mom got really disgusted when i showed her the sof demo for the pc when it first came out. that was pretty funny.
 
they didnt care, they watched me play MK1 and MKII against my friends and were like "wow, thats awful, videogames are so rediculous" when we did fatalities...
 
My parents bought me Diablo for my 13th birthday cause my brother told them it was a good game. You know the game with human beings dangled upsidedown by shafts going inside their skulls.

My parents were never concerned with the violence or the gore. But my mom got a bit pissed when she saw me playing a hentai game (there was no "scene" on the screen when she saw it, just a schoolgirl with big boobs) a few years back, not that she did anything about it. She was like
"Hey! What are you playing!?"
"umm, this simulation game"
"it looks very sexual"
"all japanese games are like that mom"
 
When I was still young enough for videogames to potentially have a negative impact on my developement, the Apple IIe was still relevant. Most of my games were Infocom text adventures, and I regularly played Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord with my dad. I actually cried when my high-level mage finally died. :p
 
Not strict at all, but, as some others have mentioned, this was a while ago when everything was not-very-realistic sprites. Plus I only played RPGs for the most part and those are (generally) not the type of game parents would object to.
 
My mom bought me Mortal Kombat II the day my dog died. I think she felt confident that I wasn't going to uppercut anyone's heads off.

...

*sniff*
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Videogames are replacing superheroes as Hollywood’s dominant IP
2
57
2K
Icymanipulator replied
  • Poll
Do you consider videogames as an art?
2 3
111
654
Jesb replied
How videogames are made.
News Drama 
2
508
The Cockatrice replied
Your Top 3 Shocking Moments in Videogames
2 3
118
672
xrnzaaas replied
  • Poll
Your GotY so far? [Q2 2025]
Poll  2 3 4
187
724
DiscoDave replied
Top Bottom