Is There Any Point in Videogame Age Ratings?
Probably not. But let’s face it, having a blog post that’s two words long is about as appropriate as a 9-year-old getting home from school and watching the local working girls enjoy a good time from the protagonist in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Age ratings mean different things to different gamers and many are completely oblivious to their existence. It probably boils down to how strict your parents are or whether or not you grew up in a religious environment. Sometimes, unfortunately, bad things happen IRL, so should we just ban violent videogames? Hell no. So what’s the point in adding ratings?
Do Ratings Only Exist to Cover People’s Asses?
Probably, yes. But again, we are showing our hand too soon. It’s like pulling a knife on someone inCounterstrike when they’ve still got too much HP left. Or was that RL? Who can tell the difference these days?
The problem here really comes down to accountability (or, whose fault it is when something bad happens). Many more “mature” gamers would have enjoyed titles such as Double Dragon on old school consoles including the Nintendo GameBoy and Streets of Rage on the Sega Mega Drive as youngsters, and they also fall into the ‘completely oblivious that age ratings even existed’ category.
Others would not have been so lucky in the ‘liberal parenting’ department and may have found themselves relegated to Mario Bros and Ecco the Dolphin respectively.
So, are the above-mentioned either stomping around in news stories of unimaginable violence against their fellow citizens or singing Kumbaya and roasting gelatin-free marshmallows round the campfire of the local Greenpeace chapter?
No they’re not. The sad reality is, sometimes bad events do take place and they’re sometimes a lot worse than any of the scenes we may have seen in the average beat-em-up.
Can You Realistically Blame Games for Violence?
There’s such an epic philosophical and ethical debate here and we’re about to devote a short paragraph to it. As much as we want to say a categorical “no”, the reality is that a kid who’s been playing Manhunt obsessively for several months and then gone out and re-enacted some of the scenes probably got more than just a little inspiration from the game, as chilling as that may be.
On the other hand, as above we’re not all doing that. Sure, it probably didn’t help, but the real question is; would he have been doing that stuff anyway? There’s a whole lot more that goes into building a human being’s psychology than a few hours spent on a video game.
Parents of kids sure can’t go blaming the retail stores if the title is clearly labeled with an M certificate. Who’s to say a good clean game of Lemmings won’t see children lining up their classmates and encouraging them to walk forward, confident they would find a steel girder below their feet and deliver them to safety.
When Should Kids Start Playing Videogames?
We have no idea. But, if you’re going to get them started on the hard stuff early, make sure you’re there for them in general and give them an all-round loving, encouraging and positive environment to offset the violence experienced in whatever digital fantasy world of stress relief they may be engaging.
Many of the WiHD team enjoyed such violent streaks as youngsters and now we’re getting paid to play videogames using projectors on the sides of buildings. Surely, something must have gone right for us somewhere along the line?