Poll: Kids and video games.

[BanthaFodder]

video games have as much an effect on kids as any other media. kids might start swearing like a bastard after watching Scarface, they might do the same after playing GTA IV. the point is that niether of these things are MEANT for children. it all depends on how impressionable a child is.
will playing GTA IV affect a child's behavior? depends on the child, but if the child is impressionable enough, yes, it can. the point is that the child isn't supposed to be playing it in the first place. we shouldn't be telling parents that games are totally harmless, this will only encourage them to buy their kids mature games without knowing exactly what they're exposing their kid to. if anything, we should be educating the parents on the finer points of research. their kid wants "Grand Something 4" on their "GameBox"? RESEARCH. Look it up. any good parent would then see what a game like GTA is rated MATURE for and REFUSE to buy it for their kid.

tl;dr: Video games won't turn your kid into a serial killer, but if you don't want them watching an R rated movie, don't let them play an M rated game. it's that simple.

 

[imnot]

mmm...maybe people should make games about using the media to destroy the youth of today.

I think Spore came closest to the "use media to destroy" thing where you were a religious race and attacked an enemy city by broadcasting religious propaganda via a MASSIVE hologram over the enemy city until they gave up and converted to your side.

I loved Spore, just saying.

And no I dont think they harm kids, quite frankly if its that violent or whatever, why did the parents buy the darned thing?

 

[Communist partisan]

I really hope you wrote what you thought to your relative, if you didn't you must.

 

[DrStupid87]

I really hope you wrote what you thought to your relative, if you didn't you must.

I thought about it to be honest. But imagine if the Houses of Parliament or the U.S Senate tried to settle their debates by calling the opposition a "big fat muppet wanker", we'd still be trying to invent the wheel.

 

[booker]

video games have as much an effect on kids as any other media. kids might start swearing like a bastard after watching Scarface, they might do the same after playing GTA IV. the point is that niether of these things are MEANT for children. it all depends on how impressionable a child is.
will playing GTA IV affect a child's behavior? depends on the child, but if the child is impressionable enough, yes, it can. the point is that the child isn't supposed to be playing it in the first place. we shouldn't be telling parents that games are totally harmless, this will only encourage them to buy their kids mature games without knowing exactly what they're exposing their kid to. if anything, we should be educating the parents on the finer points of research. their kid wants "Grand Something 4" on their "GameBox"? RESEARCH. Look it up. any good parent would then see what a game like GTA is rated MATURE for and REFUSE to buy it for their kid.

tl;dr: Video games won't turn your kid into a serial killer, but if you don't want them watching an R rated movie, don't let them play an M rated game. it's that simple.

I love this post. Yes, kids are not all impresionable, nor are they all the same level of impressionable. If you want to be a good parent, be informed. Even better, find a good, age-appropriate title and play it with them. That human interaction will do wonders for the child's future as well as your relationship with your child. Those games I cited up there, I played because of my older brother. We used to geek out about them and I firmly understood that it was just a game, much like Banjo-Kazooie, Super Smash Bros., and other such games of my youth.

They do affect you but not in the demonic ways the nay sayers want it to.
Games are just this generations "devil maker", before that was music, D&D, TV, movies, radio, books,... hell even washing at one point was the devils work, you heathens shalt not wash off gods dirt!

Best way to set those religious extremists straight is a good backhanded slap, but you really haveto plant it well to work. (that ofcourse was a joke, tho it's worth a shot)

I kind of find your joke in bad taste, to be honest. And do be aware that not all religious "extremists" consider video games to be evil, and you don't have to be a religious extremist (or even religious at all) to have a flawed hypothesis of the media's role in child development.

 

[Tehlanna TPX]

I really hope you wrote what you thought to your relative, if you didn't you must.

I thought about it to be honest. But imagine if the Houses of Parliament or the U.S Senate tried to settle their debates by calling the opposition a "big fat muppet wanker", we'd still be trying to invent the wheel.

No, instead governments lie back and forth and bicker amongst each other as they skeevily try to trick each and the other sides that one proposal, which would benefit one political viewpoint, is better than yet another proposal. I think more honesty, on all fronts, would be a benefit to government. A loud messy benefit at first ha.

OT: Parenting. It is the center of what grounds a child, what defines their moral compass. If we had more parents that actually did their jobs, we'd have fewer troubled children running around making issues. Solve the entire violent videogame debate in one fell swoop: Don't buy it for your underage child, you twat.

As far as brainwaves being adversely affected by it? I'll take proof when I see it and then decide on that matter.

 

[Zoomy]

Spoiler: Facebook pic

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/facebooksb.jpg/]

Let us know if they ever reply. Also, black out her picture too, I managed to get straight to her profile just by going to your friends and looking for the one with the creepy doll face.

 

[Speakercone]

What a rude thing of your relative to say. My approach would be "So I take it you didn't read the article? Because your comment is nonsensical. Also please provide evidence for your assertions or you will be ignored/laughed at."

 

[DrStupid87]

Spoiler: Facebook pic

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/facebooksb.jpg/]

Let us know if they ever reply. Also, black out her picture too, I managed to get straight to her profile just by going to your friends and looking for the one with the creepy doll face.

Done. Thanks for the tip.

 

[DrStupid87]

So far, no responses yet. Although that particular relative does enjoy 2 bottles of wine per night.

 

[booker]

What a rude thing of your relative to say. My approach would be "So I take it you didn't read the article? Because your comment is nonsensical. Also please provide evidence for your assertions or you will be ignored/laughed at."

Pretty much this. Though they'll probably get mighty annoyed.

 

[DrStupid87]

What a rude thing of your relative to say. My approach would be "So I take it you didn't read the article? Because your comment is nonsensical. Also please provide evidence for your assertions or you will be ignored/laughed at."

Pretty much this. Though they'll probably get mighty annoyed.

After watching the "Extra Credits" videos, I'm not happy to sit down whilst games take the blame again and again. Let them be annoyed and hopefully vent mis-informed bullshit to people who know what the hell video games are.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I kind of find your joke in bad taste, to be honest. And do be aware that not all religious "extremists" consider video games to be evil, and you don't have to be a religious extremist (or even religious at all) to have a flawed hypothesis of the media's role in child development.

See that's the great thing about jokes everyone takes them as they want to, you wanted to be offended so you are, maybe some day you will be in the mood for a giggle and you can do that too.

And you don't haveto be religious for that either

 

[Gustavo S. Buschle]

Not as badly as the media makes it to be, but it does affect them. Besides, I think that already mentally unstable people can be swayed by games, maybe it may help them too, I don*t know.

 

[InsipidMadness]

Just how people aeons ago tried pegging reading as a horrible influence, then movies, and music, the blame game has now moved to videogames. Really any form of fiction is usually a sin of sorts in the world of the closed minded. Most people fail to recognize a lot of families these days have only one parent, or both parents working, or other sorts of complications in the kids life. So if the kid goes out and acts poorly, it's probably not the game's fault, it's usually the parents fault; I mean where did they go to learn to become parents?

 

[Communist partisan]

I really hope you wrote what you thought to your relative, if you didn't you must.

I thought about it to be honest. But imagine if the Houses of Parliament or the U.S Senate tried to settle their debates by calling the opposition a "big fat muppet wanker", we'd still be trying to invent the wheel.

Sooo... Just a knuckle sandwich? I'm sorry, I do prefer violent and retarded ways of solving problems... Easier to insult and tell somebody to fuck off than having a long complicated debate. But i still get what you mean, so did you at least kick his arse in a civilized way?

 

[Tsaba]

snip

I feel compelled to post

 

[aei_haruko]

Hello Escapists.

A relative of mine recently commented on something I posted on Facebook. I posted a link to a cracked article:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-crucial-lessons-learned-by-watching-kids-play-video-games/

Basically, it looked at features of video games, like excessive cutscenes and explained why kids are right in not liking the features. It's a good enlightening read if you've got a few minutes spare.

But out of nowhere, this relative of mine (who doesn't approve of video games in general, who also recently qualified in childhood studies) came along and said:

"And have you also read the stuff about the nuerological and developmental damage caused by allowing children access to tv and gaming? Very very powerful scientific evidence of damage to brain development"

I didn't post the article to try and proove that games are a health benefit, I was posting it because I thought it was an insightful piece into the evolutions of gaming.

I thought "You're an idiot. And where is this evidence you failed to show? Games are not responsible for making the kids, the parents are. What you're doing is a really lazy way of saying 'I can't be arsed looking after my own children'"

Am I right/wrong? Should I be more concerned with the effect games can actually have or should I just unfriend this relative?

Discuss, mighty Escapists!

EDIT: Piccy of the Facebook post:

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/819/facebookve.jpg/]

i hink to a certain degree it influences us, but nowhere near as much as:
music " I'll cap dat hoe"
telivision: rampart sex, gunfights, and brutal beatings
in every entertainment medium there is violence, sex, and the whole lot. The only reason they go after video games is because they are interactive, I think that if maybe they quit making video games a scapegoat and maybe started looking at their entertainment then maybe we'd get someplace. Besides, Psychologically it is entirely different to Pretend to do something, like if you play paintball and you fight in a war, compleatly different. Or maybe if you had airsoft guns and thought " hey, lets go shoot somebody"
then you'd be rightly diagnosed as A MORON

 

[DrStupid87]

snip

I feel compelled to post

That was singlehandedly the best video I've ever seen on youtube. Thanks for posting that. That poor kid at the end of the third video.

Fellow Escapists, I insist you watch that shit right now. I suddenly feel a lot better.

 

[DrStupid87]

i hink to a certain degree it influences us, but nowhere near as much as:
music " I'll cap dat hoe"
telivision: rampart sex, gunfights, and brutal beatings
in every entertainment medium there is violence, sex, and the whole lot. The only reason they go after video games is because they are interactive, I think that if maybe they quit making video games a scapegoat and maybe started looking at their entertainment then maybe we'd get someplace. Besides, Psychologically it is entirely different to Pretend to do something, like if you play paintball and you fight in a war, compleatly different. Or maybe if you had airsoft guns and thought " hey, lets go shoot somebody"
then you'd be rightly diagnosed as A MORON

Completley agree. I know someone who blames video games for their kid acting like a complete knob to them, forgetting entirely that they put the kid through a very messy divorce, effectively forcing the kid to try and decide on his own which parent he should love more. Weirdly, that exact same shit happened to me but I'd like to think that I'm a reasonable person even though I kill the shit out of people online on a daily basis. All someone needs is common sense, not bullshit statistics and weak links to hide the fact that they're terrible parents.