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[Synbios459]

Do you let your kids play videogames, and if so, how strict are you? As in do you have a set time they can play, what rating it is, etc. I'm doing an assignment on children and videogame violence and I would some opinions of people here who do have kids.

 

[Willco]

Well, I don't have kids, but I've played with a father and son tag team on Halo 2. I find it funny that he won't let us curse in front of him, but it's okay to endorse shooting and blowing people up.

 

[Gek54]

Cursing is a form of disrespect...to some.

 

[Willco]

Words are bad, yet visual images of people killing one another are not? Interesting!

 

[Gek54]

How is halo two worse than paint ball as far as visual violence?

 

[PanopticBlue]

Words are bad, yet visual images of people killing one another are not? Interesting!

I dont know why this is so surprising.. its not much different than playing with action figures, or watching something like star wars... cussing however doesn't sound very nice to some people, to others it is simply disrespectful. I dont have kids but if I did, I wouldnt want them cussing in front of my parents/family in general. The violence in Halo isn't really gratuitous to begin with :/ Now if you're talking about GTA, I wouldn't let my kid play that at all.

 

[bishoptl]

*ahem*

Seriously, my son is quite happy to hold a controller (upside down) while I play a sports game or Katamari...for maybe 2 minutes maximum. Then he's off to go do something more interesting. As a gaming parent, I despair...but on the other hand I'm glad that he's not SO into games now that playing with his trains and/or legos has lost their allure.

I won't play any of my Xbox Live ESPN league games in front of him, though - watching my language and concentrating on the game at the same time is like juggling flaming chainsaws.

 

[mumu]

No, but if i did i'd only let them play Nintendo, or better yet, Katamari Damacy!

 

[speedpop]

I have a brother 10 years my junior, so I guess my opinion might be validated.

Tried weaning him on Playstation when he was 5, he preferred jumping around with Mario on N64. As far as violence is concerned, he doesn't really care. One day he'll be playing Diablo 2, the next he'll be playing Mario Kart, the next it might be Gran Turismo. He clocked through Halo over a few days and said it was kinda boring after awhile, which I guess might be reasonable since his main argument was the levels were too bland since he loved walking around in Metroid Prime - this coming from a kid going on 11yrs in a few months.

Other kids might be different, and sure the luster of violence does get him giggling now and again (who doesn't have fun blowing tyres and heads in GTA?) but ultimately he prefers gameplay whether it has violence in it or not it's no concern.

I'm going to bring up my kids the same way, except maybe shove them on Nintendo products first to see how they go, if Nintendo are still alive by then :lol

 

[mrklaw]

my oldest is only 3 right now. He likes getting involved = making me play Midtown Madness 3 with the big rig and him 'driving' it.

When I was playing Minish Cap, he was constantly over my shoulder, saying 'check the map, check the map'.

I do't know how I'll raise him though. I traditionally buy every damn console in sight on launch, often importing. But real life means thats less likely these days. But I'm still going to have one of the next gens at launch.

So do I raise him on the cutting edge, or make him serve his time on SNES upwards, learning the true value of gaming?

 

[john tv]

When I was playing Minish Cap, he was constantly over my shoulder, saying 'check the map, check the map'.

Hah, awesome.

I say let him grow up as a current generation gamer, and school him on the older stuff little by little. If you throw it at him all at once you might skew his perspective, and as much as it'd be nice for our kids to all have the exact same views as us on gaming, that'd be no fun!

PS - Minish Cap kicks ass. In the last dungeon now. GREAT game...

 

[Gibbo]

Minish Cap is indeed awesome. The whole Kinstones system is really addictive and I think Nintendo executed the whole shrinking/growing thing flawlessly