Hey guys, I'm looking to submit something to the local paper's youth section, just wondering if you could give this a read and let me know what you think.
Video games are important to children. When i was a kid, and I?m levelling with you here, i was not a fantastic athlete. I was what you common folk would refer to as a ?Skinny Weakling?. I also had the hand eye coordination of a retarded blind man with no hands, so football, soccer, basketball, tennis, squash, cricket, all went out the window. I want it noted that i DID try these before i realised how much i sucked at them. So, without having a junior league to make friends in, there was little else that grabbed my attention besides the little grey box on top of my TV, the Nintendo. When I asked my dad what it was he said ?its a game.? He couldn?t, in all honesty, fully comprehend the power of that statement. My life would never be the same again once I fired up Super Mario Bros for the first time. It was almost religious. The next day at school I found more like me. Gamers, although we didn?t have a word for it back then, we?d arrange to meet at people?s houses and try out new and exciting games. We went through so many amazing games together. The four of us defeated Gannon together. We all took turns trying to defeat metal man, fights would break out over who would get to be Mario and who would have to suck it up and be Luigi. And it was great! Me and my three buds joined by 8 bits.
Then Christmas rolled around. I unwrapped what to this day has been my favourite Christmas present ever. The Sega Mega Drive with Mortal Kombat, Columns and Sonic 2. My GOD! I?d never seen anything like it. Mortal Kombat was the first I fired up, and it was amazing. I was throwing spears, punching people?s balls, hell, i even fluked a fatality. The next day I called my mates over and we spent perhaps five hours beating the living shit out of each other. It became a way of sorting out our differences. We had a problem, we took it up with MK, or we raced using the hedgehog, or we tested skill. More joined us. People like us who had no real physical prowess to speak of, but were sharp of mind, and quick of finger. We arranged fighting Tournaments, we arranged Grand Prix races, hell once we stayed up till about 4 trying to beat Ecco the Dolphin. We were masters of our art. It wasn?t just Sega either. I remember VIVIDLY one time where we had three TV?s all hooked up to different systems. Two were running Street Fighter 2 on Mega Drive and SNES respectively, while the third, dubbed the ?Timeout Station? had Maniac Mansion running on a NES. There were like seven of us, all involved in the tournament. You Played SF, then moved to the NES to try and solve a puzzle or two. The games continued between homework, dinner and swimming in my pool with these guys and I can honestly say that it was by far the happiest time in my life
Today, however, games are becoming less and less child friendly. THIS IS NOT A CENSORSHIP RANT!!! Due to technology changing and developing things are becoming super realistic and scary. I was about 10 when i played Doom for the first time and I was terrified. Now by today?s standards Doom is cartoon-y and in places annoying and frustrating. 13 years ago it was SCARY. It was the first time I?d seen through the eyes of my character. It was the first time i?d ever killed anything with an actual gun. Not like a Zapper or a string of fireballs, a no-nonsense GUN. It was like nothing I?d played before. It was the first game I played where it wasn?t enough to get to the end. There could be no one left. Everyone had to die. Parents HATED this game. Mortal Kombat was bad, but hey, at least there was a social aspect. Doom raised the question every new media gets asked: ?Will it destroy our children??
The simple answer is no. I?ve played video games for years and I turned out ok. But then again I came from a loving household with good parents where it was easy for me to distinguish between reality and the game world. I have a fairly well formed psyche that knows the difference between right and wrong. I came to videogames themselves at about 6 or 7, and violent games at like 9, so I approached it with the same attitude as cartoons and movies. It?s not real. It was also easier to make that connection because the games LOOKED like a cartoon. That said, there are a lot of kids out there less stable than me. They could easily play Quake and think it?s ok to go shoot everything. It?s not Quake?s fault their nuts, but it probably didn?t help none. Games also look less like games today. Gears of War is one of my favourite examples of this. The monsters look real, the heroes look like people. The gunfire and chainsaw sound exactly like one would expect them to. These are not things I want to expose my children to. Not because I think that they will think it?s ok to take a chainsaw to their opponent?s face, but because it?s a graphically disturbing image. The same reason i wouldn?t take them to see a murder site.
As a consenting adult I think I should be allowed to play what I like, but children are another matter. Should my child one day ask me what a video game is, I would be happy to show them things like Boogie, Ace Attorney, Megaman, Viewtiful Joe, all fantastic, kid friendly games. Other games i would expose them to in time, but I don?t want my kids growing up without video games because I can?t show them things like Resident Evil. Games started for kids, lets not forget them as technology increases.
Video games are important to children. When i was a kid, and I?m levelling with you here, i was not a fantastic athlete. I was what you common folk would refer to as a ?Skinny Weakling?. I also had the hand eye coordination of a retarded blind man with no hands, so football, soccer, basketball, tennis, squash, cricket, all went out the window. I want it noted that i DID try these before i realised how much i sucked at them. So, without having a junior league to make friends in, there was little else that grabbed my attention besides the little grey box on top of my TV, the Nintendo. When I asked my dad what it was he said ?its a game.? He couldn?t, in all honesty, fully comprehend the power of that statement. My life would never be the same again once I fired up Super Mario Bros for the first time. It was almost religious. The next day at school I found more like me. Gamers, although we didn?t have a word for it back then, we?d arrange to meet at people?s houses and try out new and exciting games. We went through so many amazing games together. The four of us defeated Gannon together. We all took turns trying to defeat metal man, fights would break out over who would get to be Mario and who would have to suck it up and be Luigi. And it was great! Me and my three buds joined by 8 bits.
Then Christmas rolled around. I unwrapped what to this day has been my favourite Christmas present ever. The Sega Mega Drive with Mortal Kombat, Columns and Sonic 2. My GOD! I?d never seen anything like it. Mortal Kombat was the first I fired up, and it was amazing. I was throwing spears, punching people?s balls, hell, i even fluked a fatality. The next day I called my mates over and we spent perhaps five hours beating the living shit out of each other. It became a way of sorting out our differences. We had a problem, we took it up with MK, or we raced using the hedgehog, or we tested skill. More joined us. People like us who had no real physical prowess to speak of, but were sharp of mind, and quick of finger. We arranged fighting Tournaments, we arranged Grand Prix races, hell once we stayed up till about 4 trying to beat Ecco the Dolphin. We were masters of our art. It wasn?t just Sega either. I remember VIVIDLY one time where we had three TV?s all hooked up to different systems. Two were running Street Fighter 2 on Mega Drive and SNES respectively, while the third, dubbed the ?Timeout Station? had Maniac Mansion running on a NES. There were like seven of us, all involved in the tournament. You Played SF, then moved to the NES to try and solve a puzzle or two. The games continued between homework, dinner and swimming in my pool with these guys and I can honestly say that it was by far the happiest time in my life
Today, however, games are becoming less and less child friendly. THIS IS NOT A CENSORSHIP RANT!!! Due to technology changing and developing things are becoming super realistic and scary. I was about 10 when i played Doom for the first time and I was terrified. Now by today?s standards Doom is cartoon-y and in places annoying and frustrating. 13 years ago it was SCARY. It was the first time I?d seen through the eyes of my character. It was the first time i?d ever killed anything with an actual gun. Not like a Zapper or a string of fireballs, a no-nonsense GUN. It was like nothing I?d played before. It was the first game I played where it wasn?t enough to get to the end. There could be no one left. Everyone had to die. Parents HATED this game. Mortal Kombat was bad, but hey, at least there was a social aspect. Doom raised the question every new media gets asked: ?Will it destroy our children??
The simple answer is no. I?ve played video games for years and I turned out ok. But then again I came from a loving household with good parents where it was easy for me to distinguish between reality and the game world. I have a fairly well formed psyche that knows the difference between right and wrong. I came to videogames themselves at about 6 or 7, and violent games at like 9, so I approached it with the same attitude as cartoons and movies. It?s not real. It was also easier to make that connection because the games LOOKED like a cartoon. That said, there are a lot of kids out there less stable than me. They could easily play Quake and think it?s ok to go shoot everything. It?s not Quake?s fault their nuts, but it probably didn?t help none. Games also look less like games today. Gears of War is one of my favourite examples of this. The monsters look real, the heroes look like people. The gunfire and chainsaw sound exactly like one would expect them to. These are not things I want to expose my children to. Not because I think that they will think it?s ok to take a chainsaw to their opponent?s face, but because it?s a graphically disturbing image. The same reason i wouldn?t take them to see a murder site.
As a consenting adult I think I should be allowed to play what I like, but children are another matter. Should my child one day ask me what a video game is, I would be happy to show them things like Boogie, Ace Attorney, Megaman, Viewtiful Joe, all fantastic, kid friendly games. Other games i would expose them to in time, but I don?t want my kids growing up without video games because I can?t show them things like Resident Evil. Games started for kids, lets not forget them as technology increases.
