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Well, well, well. We have here a major issue.
Not so long ago, I made a rant about video games not being the problem regarding violence. How it was the parents’ fault, and that video games are not to blame for their content, as it is age rated.
In this article, I will be explaining in depth as to the sheer folly of parenting. Because it seems parents are still excessively stupid regarding their gamer children. I’ll make this straight since in the past I made it completely and utterly and indubitably clear that an age rating on a game is a restriction. The problem with the age rating system is it is seen as a guide, not as law.
There is a seriously large market for the older generation of gamers, as games have been around on consoles for the last decade or two and in essence, those gamers haven’t given up, only grown up. Thus more “hardcore” content is fitting for them. I feel old fashioned if I say I am so piddled off when I go into lobby on an 18+ game–for instance, Call of Duty–and hear some twelve year old singing down the microphone. I know those kids aren’t supposed to even be on that game. So I make it clear, they shouldn’t be on that game. I can understand if the age rating was treated as a guideline for children, and a 16 year old was playing an 18 game.
No. These are twelve year olds.
I still don’t think I have elaborated enough. So, imagine you are an older man, or woman, playing an 18+ game online. You expect a mature environment. You expect to have a fun game without some disrespectful youth hollering. You expect that maturity because you are playing a game with older targeted content.
Just yesterday, my young sister in school came to me and asked me for my Xbox live gamertag. Why? Because her friends in school would want to play with her older brother on Call of Duty Black Ops 2. Perhaps I should have been flattered. I wasn’t. I wrote down on a note instead, my feelings about them playing games they shouldn’t even be glancing at the back of the box of. Then I told her to give it to them. I haven’t had a reply. Why? Because “my feelings” lets say were “very strong.” I found it fitting if they wanted mature content. They got it.
It seems parenting in this day and age is getting more and more rife with idiocy. I know this because who in their right mind buys their child content that they know is too mature – easily influenced children I’ll add, and then when that kid muffs it up, they go out of their way to blame these games?
Would you like to know what the bloody equivalent of this is?
For the next five minutes, I am going to be a dad to my imaginary 11 year old son as I explain this. My imaginary son, lets name him “Ron,” is the light of my life. He’s the best kid ever. So, I went out for his eleventh birthday and bought him a crate of whiskey. I am aware that you need to be 18 (21 in the States) to drink whiskey, and it even says that on the box, but I figure those are more guidelines anyway. Right?
So, Ron loves his whiskey, and that eleven year old is now suffering from liver failure–oh, and he’s an alcoholic. Do you know what the best thing is?
I am going to get the media informed, and I am going to sue the company I bought the alcohol from. Because that whiskey made my child sick! He’s an alcoholic now, and my twelve year old is always drunk, hating his life, and generally is not right in the head.
It’s most definitely the alcohol’s fault! Of course, it’s absolutely nothing to do with the fact that although I know it’s illegal to supply children with alcohol, and that I’ve bought imaginary Ron this case (of my own free will) knowing the content is not suitable for his age. It must be the supplier’s fault!
Do you buy your children pornography?
How about guns?
Do you let them drive?
I swear by all that is holy, the next unfortunate sap who blames mature video games for their influence on children, I sincerely hope gets hit by a bus. It’s a hard thing to wish on someone, isn’t it? But least that way, the child gets a better upbringing, because he ends up with foster parents, WHO LIKELY KNOW TO RAISE THEIR KID AND WHAT HE SHOULD, OR SHOULD NOT BE EXPOSED TO!
These people are nothing short of stupid.
But I am far from done.
When you see a sign saying “warning, railway crossing,” what do you, assuming you are a normal perfectly sane human being without learning difficulty, do?
I ask because with this logic of neglecting signs, these parents, uncles, role models of children all ignore the signs on the box. It’s the very same logic of ignoring that railroad sign, setting up a picnic on the rails, and getting hit by a freight train. And if they survive? SUING THE TRAIN COMPANY FOR THAT INDIVIDUAL’S OWN STUPIDITY.
“Ironically, most people knew that games had age ratings, the study by the Swiss research firm Modulum showed.
Video games have to carry labels with age ratingsHowever, parents were still letting their children play 18-rated games.
“Parents perceive age ratings as a guide but not as a definite prohibition,” said Jurgen Freund, Modulum chief executive.
“Some may have not liked the content but they did not prohibit the game.”
The research showed that parents were more concerned about children spending too many hours playing games, rather than about what type of title they were playing.”
I sincerely hope I have elaborated the absolute nothing-short-of-idiocy of people out there, with no common sense, no responsibility and nothing short of appalling folly in blaming the gaming industry for its content.
Especially when it makes standardized procedures for consumers to follow–which the consumer then defies. Who, as a result when bad happens, decides to sue those makers.
Oh-hooo ho, trust me, I am mad about this. And those of you with an imagination can guess which digit on my “paw” is reserved for presentation to those idiots on behalf of the gaming industry, for being scapegoated for the stupid’s convenience.
I am glad you have read this. And to every parent out there, or person even thinking about having a child? Remember this.
There are only two people in a child’s life who have the power to either create a respectful human being or a bloody serial killer, because they choose what influences that young member of society.
This is my personal opinion, and you can bloody-well-betcha it’s shared by every gamer, developer, retailer and consumer, or even society itself to some extent.
Because for your possible neglection in parenting, and your stupidity, exposes us all to the fruit of what your parenting yeilds.
