Comments on: Parental Apathy-or-Permissiveness?

By: Arby 'n' the chief fan

Arby 'n' the chief fan — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:34:15 +0000

Whatever you do, If you ever want to play an “M” rated game before you turn 17, do NOT show your parent’s the website commensensemedia.org. They have the worst ratings, for example, they recommend all the halo games for 18+. Stupid, isn’t it?

By: GamerMom

GamerMom — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:29:51 +0000

As a lifetime gamer and mother, I have to say that most parents have no idea what they are buying for their children. I have worked with children for 20 years and you wouldn’t believe how many fourth graders and younger had parents that pre-ordered GTA4 for their kids. Kids you may not agree with your parents, but respect and appreciate the fact that they care enough to be involved. My son, when he was your age was not allowed to bring certain games into the house. GTA4 was one. (I rented and played the games before I made my decisions of what was allowed.) Blood for some is the issue, for some it’s the language and others the “mature content” .

My son now 18, actually thanked me. Why, I am not sure. As we discuss new games coming out and which ones to get as he leaves for college, I can see he has become critical of game publishers that charge $60 for poor physics and game graphics, poor story lines and the only thing that carries the profits to the title being the questionable unnecessary additional content. He loves the halo franchise, gears of war, Drake’s Fortune franchise, and of course Warhawk and CODMW2.

Personally my favorite game is CODMW2.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:28:19 +0000

It’s fine caleb. He’s checking it out for me this weekend and he says we might play coop sometime

By: Caleb

Caleb — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:23:27 +0000

Yeah I feel your pain Ben. My parents are the exact same way. If your dad is still unsure and is a bit of a gamer himself, ask him to try it out before you play. My dad did the same thing and in the end I could play halo! It all depends if he can stand a little blood. (Purple blood is still blood.)

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:28:12 +0000

Ok, I will be sure to let my dad look at some of this when the time comes. I don’t think we need to carry the conversation any further than we have already (mostly because I don’t like having my name posted on the front of a large blog like this, but I guess that’s my fault) and im probably going to use this site more often. Thanks!

By: Some Guy

Some Guy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:41:35 +0000

OK, I’ll make a small contribution to the discussion.

The “maturity” (as defined by age-rating boards) of games is not just about the amount or the colour of blood. MW2 is simply a much more intense game that Halo 3 and it makes a much greater effort at mimicking reality. You also shoot human beings (and even innocent ones in “No Russian”) as opposed to generic aliens. This, in a nutshell, is why most people would consider MW2 more violent than halo 3.

Secondly, everyone knows my opinion on the connection between age ratings and the choices of parents. As far as I’m concerned, age ratings are merely guidelines and a parent has the freedom to judge the maturity of their own child. The correlation between age and maturity isn’t 100% accurate. Ultimately, every kid/teen is different and no-one knows a kid/teen better that their parents.

Thirdly, there’s really nothing particularly bad about Halo 3 if MW2 is suitable under the same parental standard.

That’s all.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:10:38 +0000

Obviously ESRB knows what there talking about but, it is smart for them to rate things maybe a little more restrictive than not to protect against any lawsuits. But, my parents are going to look at Halo’s rating when they get the chance and probably watch some videos. I’m pretty sure they won’t mind after they see some gameplay and reviews but that might be a while.

By: GamerDad

GamerDad — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:14:40 +0000

I should add that I didn’t direct that rambling answer at Ben. I just took an opportunity to comment on some things I’ve learned about this subject.

By: GamerDad

GamerDad — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:47:02 +0000

It helps to also remember that without… purple blood… Halo would be Teen.

Every parent draws the line differently. Some feel that fantasy violence is worse for being about killing without real consequence. Some feel that military shooters are better because they are realistic and prove how easy it is to die in a war situation. The reality is that both are just games.

That said, I’ve yet to encounter a parent who feels that Halo is more violent than Modern Warfare 2. Saying Halo 1-3 should be T-teen is easily the most popular thing I’ve ever said. I’ve NEVER gotten a single disagreement on it except from the ESRB itself (and that was in a conversation).

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:14:31 +0000

Lol. Yeah, I know the gamerdad dissagrees with the M rating and hey, I have MW2, which is much more realistic and violent than Halo. You shoot aliens, not people, and when you do shoot people in multiplayer, it has less blood than my Tony Hawks game. But anyway, they will research the game sometime and I willshow them some YouTube and probably some of what gamerdad said about it. It really wasn’t that my parents weren’t unwilling to get me the game, but they need to check it out first sometime.
PS. Wow, it does kinda look like star wars