Don't you just hate that?
Kids, all over the world, now can use weapons and basically shoot some heads. And they're parents are like, "WE BLAME THE GAME PRODUCERZ"
Well..I blame the parents. Why the hell do you guys even spend your own money purchasing these rated M/T games for your own kids? Do you parents like, don't know any other way to shut your kids up? Does it really have to be this way? If you know your kid is irresponcible and you know that he might be totally influenced, then don't waste your money.
I absolutely hate it when the parents blame the producers, that's why we got a god damn rating that no one pays attention to anymore. We've got warnings dammit, the game producers are not trying to start a whole war between children and have them carry guns, they're just doing this for entertainment. Its the parent's fault, not the kids, not the producers.

Am I right?

Plus there are MANY more games that are actually SUITABLE for children. Not this COD stuff, not the Left 4 Dead, there's Kingdom Hearts and Spyro plus Crash Bandicoot. Those aren't terribly influential.

Seriously, video games don't harm the brain and make you do horrible things like everyone thinks. There's no scientific studies proving it, and I myself play video games that are pretty violent and surf ***** on occasion and you don't see me killing anybody!besides spambots and n00bs

It may help along an insane person who thinks they can do it in real life, but an everyday normal person knows the difference between reality and video games.

I'm not allowed to get any Call of Duty games. Halo's fine, though! =P

And yet I know people not older than 8 years old, playing Resident Evil and Call of Duty. I say shame on the parents!

Most of the kids in MY GRADE play this junk. I'm in 5th grade. Seriously, if your 11 you really shouldn't play it.

Videogames don't MAKE me do these things. Just because I sneek around like a ninja, pretend I'm mowing down zombies with a machine gun, and say random catch phrases doesn't mean video games are the cause.

The only things video games have made me do is save a princess or twelve, blow up Metroids, catch 'em all, stab Ganondorf in the chest, race to the finish, beat up zombies, re-enact the Normandy landing, level up, and copy my enemy's abilities. I seriously doubt I can even do any of this stuff in real life, so how do video games influence me to beat the crap out of people?

I understand it's only fiction. If video games can make people violent, then movies, books, comics, music, and all other forms of media can do it too. Because that's what it is. It's simply a form of entertainment media. I've been playing/buying T games since I was 11, and although I haven't owned any, I've been playing M games a while before that. (Although, now I do own CoD WaWii and RE4 for Wii, and a few other M games) If someone is seriously deluded enough to actually think that video games are real, then that's not insanity, or murderous rage. That's just idiocy. The people who think that people will kill because a video game told them to are even bigger morons.

“Videogames are bad for you? That's what they said about rock 'n' roll.”
—Shigeru Miyamoto

This is a ****ed up debacle we've got on our hands. So, here's THE TRUTH.
WHEN THE PARENTS FINALLY RELISE THAT IT'S THEMWHO ARE LETTING THERE KID PLAY THE GAME, I ****ING SWEAR, PIGS WILL FLY.
How bout this, what if you pay more attension to your kid? You know, moderate what he's buying and ****. BECAUSE IT'S ALL THE GAMES FAULT AHHHHHHH.
****

In all truth there is more truth to this than you may think. There is really no doubt that video games /can/ result in more violent tendencies. Obviously, this depends on how mature the person is - seriously, a 9 year-old should NOT be playing Call of Duty. All the same, most well-educated people shouldn't see any cognitive changes.

VIDEO GAMES SCREW KIDS UP!!!!111!!!

Actually, tests have been done that show shooter games increase hand-eye-coordination, so surgeons that grew up playing video games are actually able to go through surgeries faster, and more accurately!

Although, to claim that video games only have positive effects would be silly. My younger cousin is about... 7? And he plays shooter games all the time. I really wish that his parents would choose more age appropriate games, because when I was 7 I was racing at Moo Moo Farm and kicking the CPUs' butts at Clefairy Says. My cousin is kinda violent-ish and hyperactive, and I am sure that the games are contributing somewhat, so my belief is that such games should not be played until a certain age is reached.

It's not the videogame, most of the time. It's the person. Actually, I think it's the generation. Kids today are getting almost anything they want. I remember my when my 2nd cousin turned 7. She got a brand new cell phone. And when her little brother turned 6, he got a brand new PSP. It wasn't like that when I was growing up. I got my first cell phone (the cheapest one) when I was 16, when I was allowed to stay out until 10pm. I don't know what happened.

And the video games are getting worse. Playstation and Xbox are making things too detailed. It's like they're letting the kid practice up before they hijack a car and kill people. Nintendo isn't like that. It tends to stay cartoonish and comical.

Haha yeah, like Kaz said, hand-eye-coordination is most definitely improved with video games. I'm sure that Guitar Hero also helps that out a bit. ;D

And Jason, you are very correct, the world has changed a lot. There are 7-10 year olds who got cell phones before me, and I finally got mine when I was 14 1/2. I wouldn't have had it right now f I didn't play basketball at school, which was why I needed it. Kids these days have no reason for cell phones and they don't need violent video games either. It's like younger kids are being treated like they are more mature when in reality they are less then they should be.

Kids today don't use cell phones. They play on mobile devices. Yeah, they're great and all... but kids think they're toys. It's disgusting.

My parents let me play M rated games when I was little. They had no problems; I had no problems.

Personally, I think that it's the way kids choose to act. I think it's the usual: "Oh, that's so cool! I want to do that!" attitude.

If I had that attitude, I wouldn't be able to play half of the games I own.

Game makers - We make the games, we put warnings on them to discourage kids from getting any bad ideas.

Parents - We'll let the kids play the games as long as they are mature enough to handle the content.

Kids - If we want to continue playing video games, we'd better not cross the line if we decide to take some of the ideas to reality.

Personally, I think a kid should only be banned from a game if he/she can't handle it in terms of maturity. A parent should only be to blame if he/she encourages the child to misbehave. I think a game company should be to blame only if they included things in their games that wasn't released to the public.

Who are the ones making the final decision to carry guns and shoot them as if they're in that video game? Not the parents, not the companies. It's whoever carries the guns -- usually the kids.

Well, seeing what had happened in my elementary school (long ago), People would be influenced by Dragon ball z resulting in kids beating up each other. So I guess some video games can effect people in different ways.

It's all in the mind. They must already have some sort of feeling in order to finish it off, meaning video games sometimes "trigger" an inner problem some people already had. There's really no blaming anyone.

It's interesting that someone brought up this topic because this is exactly what our school's debate was about. Needless to say, the side against banning violent video games won because we were able to convince the judges with several strong points that we made.

Here's my speech which was centered around scientific evidence to prove my team's point. It made me get the "Best debater of 2009-2010" award in my school:

According to several studies made by groups such as The Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and The British Medical Journal, violent behaviour has not and cannot conclusively be linked to violent video games. Researchers concluded that there’s no causal relationship between aggressive behaviour and violent video games. Not only that, but no studies had found such games as being a primary factor in turning a normal person into a ‘killer’. In fact, most studies only found a correlation between the two, which could simply mean that habitually aggressive people like aggressive entertainment.

 

It has also been shown that lab research done on gamers does not accurately reflect real-life situations; subjects are asked to experience content that they would not normally see, and may not understand. In addition to that, the laboratory environment itself is very different from the environments where games would normally be played. This has caused many people to criticize such researches and their reliability.



In return to the opposing team, research has shown that even if those games created violent thoughts to the player, there’s no reason for these thoughts to display themselves in actions. Only the small number of people who already are aggressive in their nature might be affected by such thoughts. To back that up, only 19% of parents say that such games have visible negative influences on their children, of the total 54% who play violent video games. This has been stated in a research by Pew Research Center in the USA. Also, if the influences of criminals were playing aggressive video games or watching intense TV shows, doesn’t that mean all people are or can be criminals?



Lastly, let’s not forget the positive aspects of playing violent video games; a research undertaken by the Office of Naval Research in the USA is showing that violent videogame training is having “surprising” results in helping military personnel. It is helping them adapt to the challenges of fighting terrorists and teaching them new tactics to use in battle. 



If research proves that no firm connection between violent games and aggressive behaviour has been established yet, and that violent games still don’t have a major negative impact on the player’s actions, this means there is no evidence.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magmaster12 “Videogames are bad for you? That's what they said about rock 'n' roll.” —Shigeru Miyamoto

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreezeWarp In all truth there is more truth to this than you may think. There is really no doubt that video games /can/ result in more violent tendencies. Obviously, this depends on how mature the person is - seriously, a 9 year-old should NOT be playing Call of Duty. All the same, most well-educated people shouldn't see any cognitive changes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragiiin123 I ****ing hate those sunnava ***** kids who have a cell phone at ****ing 9. Spoiled kids ****ing PISS ME OFF.

From more reading, parents just need to monitor and control what their kids play. The ratings are there for a reason!

Just because in Sonic you jump on a computer to get invincibilty, dosen't mean i'm gonna jump on my laptop thinking i'm going to be invincible! How can this stuff influnce killing and stuff? I think it's just an ecxuse so parents don't have to go to court if there kid does something REAL bad.

EDIT: I mean "thier kid does something real bad."

"If video games affected kids, adults today would be running around dark rooms eating steroids and saying 'waka waka waka'". - I forget but He was probably pretty important.

video games, if you get in to them too much, yeah bad things will happen, but if you are looking but a chemical answer, a game of chess gives you the same inbalance as video games, you probably aren't going to knock people down because you played a game of chess

Video games don't make an already bad child do anything and the kid was messed up from the beginning though heaven forbid the parents ever admit that anything is wrong with their little angel.

Parents should determine whether or not their kid is mature enough to handle videogames. if you kid is a crazy 9 year old who mimics everything, maybe videogames aren't the best choice. However, if your parents have raised you up normally, videogames should be okay.

My parents have raised me as best they can, which is pretty well. I've played SSBB the day I got it (after two release date changes and waiting a week when I was grounded) for fourteen hours. Yes, it was a long time, but my dad lectured me on how I was going to go kill someone if I played it any longer. He raised me to know that killing is bad, so I wonder where that logic came from. I'm a normal (normal for me), non-killing cellist!

That 9yr old who played the realistic shoot 'em up game for 14 hrs is way more likely to kill someone.

Videogames don't make kids violent AND IF YOU SAY OTHERWISE I'LL TEAR OUT YOUR SPLEEN.


Now to be serious: I honestly don't know how people can think these games are able to influence people.
In GTA IV, if your car exploades after falling off a 300 story building with you in it, what happens? Six hours precisely at the hospital and a fairly small bill. I don't know about some of these people, but that's well beyond the reaches of reality to me, despite how realistic this game makes it out to be.


And I don't see how CoD could be bad. Especially the WWII games. They teach kids how tough wars are, give them the encouragement to fight for their countries, and remind us of the horrors of humanity's past.

There are many different parenting styles, and they can correspond to different government types: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parenting_styles .
If every teens heard that fact, they will demonize their parents by comparing the parenting styles to the dictatorship in China.

Some teens feel unfair when his mom doesn't allow him to play CoD.

My mom refused to buy CoD, so I downloaded a free FPS game called OpenArena, it has blood and gore (called gibs), but I can turn them off.

I also played GTA and even Jacka-- games, and found them funny, but I'm rational, I will never perform the stunts.

I'm not a brave person, because I never lived with my biological father, once, I went to the playland for the field trip and did nothing, money wasted, if I'm not brave, how am I going to steal cars, frag people and perform dangerous stunts?

First person shooting games can sharpen your motor skills, and even improve your vision (as in detecting contrast).

I forgot the source (maybe in Slashdot), the benefits of FPS games can be extracted by replacing soldiers with princesses with magic wands.

Installing flight or space combat games in computers of flight schools and military schools also helps.

Readt this, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...u-destined-sin
it says that when you did too many good things, you may be tempted to do something bad as a compensation, (the reverse can happen)
and video games can become the releases when you want to do something bad. (see also: http://mindprod.com/ethics/apemind.html, The Ways Out: Displacement section)

See also: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../03/29/2058239

the violent games can

Violent games train criminals. I've heard Microsoft Flight Simulator trained 911 terrorists, and the game is rated E. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual...with_terrorism
Later, Microsoft removed the World Trade Center on the map.
However, they train you only if you want to get trained. For some people, they are unconsiciously trained into committing crimes. Video games are like tools, they can be used for evil.
Imagine Grand Theft Auto on holodeck.

So I can learn how to fly a plane by playing flight simulators? :O

If any thing, playing violent video games keeps children from violence. It allows them to manage their anger without actually doing any of the violent things they may do otherwise.
See this: http://www.whattheyplay.com/features...-games/?page=1

So wait Spaceman first you praise videogames, then you say that they're bad?

You're pretty good at understanding both sides of the argument.

Perhaps it's not the videogames that make people violent. Maybe violent people choose violent video games.
I've never liked "shoot-'em-up" games, and I don't like the idea of hurting others. That being said, I like sparing for fun. Pokemon and SSBB are two games that could be considered violent, but neither of the games put an emphasis on gory graphics. In Brawl, at the end of a fight, the characters are seen clapping, indicating more of a friendly competition than a malicious war. Even so, I feel bad beating up Jigglypuff or Princess Peach. The only character I can beat up without any remorse is Falco, and I can't figure out why--but I digress.

Then again, I've seen firsthand how violence and excessive gore can affect a child. It had more to do with youtube than video games, but I think the same rules apply. My younger brother went through a blood-drawing stage about half a year ago, and we found out he was watching youtube videos with stick figures' heads getting blown off and blood spattered everywhere.

Ultimately, though, it depends on the individual playing the games.

Yeah lite, I contradict myself a lot--especially when I'm trying to give the condensed version of what I'm thinking. I'd rather not write a ten-page paper explaining my view (or views, as the case may be).

honestly in my opinion, the parents are just as much to blame as was stated before because in the end they are the ones buying 18 rated games for the children, but saying that i have been playing 18 rated games since i was 10 years old.

this just puts the thought out in the open about kids having something wrong in their heads to even try and recreate something they saw in a video game on someone else.

a good example is this case here, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3934277.stm

so really it is the fault of the person who bought the game and the person playing the game, i really dont think that the developers can be blamed.

"when the weapon is made, and the person who buys the weapon kills someone with it, you cant blame the weapon or the person who made it, it is the person who wields the weapon that is too blame"

I kind of think so. I mean, c'mon! Who else doesn't feel kinda funky after leaving the movie theater or playing GTA or something? I'm pretty strong mentally and I can feel the effects from switching from fantasy to reality. I can do it, but I notice the difference.

I think it could change how you perceive and take your problems in life if you aren't prepared mentally. If you play video games or watch movies, you've got to ensure you understand the difference between fantasy and reality.

In my school, at least, there's a pretty strong correlation between the people who play shooting games daily and the people who violently overreact to everything and anything.

With that aside, this is not a debate I like to take part in because there are a few hundred other things that I don't know about may or may not be a factor. It's like trying to argue that sleeping with your head next to an electrical device causes health problems in the age of digital everything.

Edit: This isn't really relevant, but if a game like GTA has been rated M for as long as I can remember . . .

WHY WAS EVERYONE IN MY 5TH GRADE CLASS PLAYING IT?

My 12 year and 11 year old brothers play Call of Duty. (I do as well) but ya 8 year olds shouldnt play them. (And how does a 8 year old get hold of ps3 and xbox hacks?)

Kids want to be "cool", especially in the more awkward (in my opinion at least) preteen stage. For them, "cool" means "adult-like". This in turn means that anything kids aren't supposed to have/do becomes amazingly interesting and "cool". This is mostly why teens drinking alcohol is a thing. This is mostly why teens start smoking. This is also why teens, preteens, and even younger children are attracted to anything that has a rating suggesting they shouldn't play it. At first it may be the Teen-rated games like SSBB that are violent but not especially so, but in no time at all the only "cool" games are those that read M. My new school actually has a decent amount of pokémon players and the like, but at my old school the only "cool" games were CoD and GTA. The nerdier groups played Halo and Minecraft. Anything else was often called "gay", which irritated me to no end.

So I want to have cute, cartoonish creatures fight in mock battles against each other that *gasp* don't have any gore? Obviously there must be something wrong with this fourteen-year-old.

Interestingly, those CoD players in my school (and there were a lot) were often poor students, and it wasn't uncommon for some of them to flip off a teacher. Remember, this was sixth to eighth grade. The nerdier groups had some violent tendencies, but they were never that extreme. Me? I got my first game with blood at all (Darksiders) and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I tend to turn off gibs or at least keep them on a low setting if I can.

Me, my little brother and sister have all played M rated games since we were about 3years old. And we wouldn't want to hurt someone, since we know all the awful consequences. My parents taught us to not kill or hurt innocent people. The parents are responsible for telling the children about why you shouldn't do the stuff in violent video games in real life, since they contain dire consequences.