Rockstar: Only "Terrible Parents" Buy Our Games for Their Kids

[Cowabungaa]

"If you tell a gritty crime drama with violence and profanity and call it The Sopranos [http://www.hbo.com/the-sopranos] you're handed a load of awards to put up on the shelf," he said. "You do the same and call it a videogame and you'll have certain organizations up in arms."

That to me is the best part of the article to me and the best description of the situation I've heard so far. It's about damn time videogames get the same recognition as older forms of media.

As for the actual point of the article; it all depends on the article. I trust my 11 year old sister with Red Dead Redemption, GTA4 and pretty much every 18+ game I own (especially Mass Effect 2), not that she wants to, but still. The same for my 16 year old brother. I know they can easily handle it.

But of course I do see their point; adult media for adult people. Don't blame the developer of an adult game when a young kid freaks out after playing it, blame the person who bought it for him.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

You know sex can be great fun, but no decent parent wants their child being involved with it, and there's no warning or 18 certifcate on the 'controllers' (not even 'may contain small parts').

If they can understand that, also trying to keep alcohol and tobacco and other drugs away from them, how come they can't understand it in other things when it's all obviously labelled.
(No, I'm not saying video games are half as bad, that's partly my point.)

I believe Lazlow was a radio DJ IRL before GTA came along, he'd been heard and they hired him from that.

As for -

"If you tell a gritty crime drama with violence and profanity and call it The Sopranos [http://www.hbo.com/the-sopranos] you're handed a load of awards to put up on the shelf," he said. "You do the same and call it a videogame and you'll have certain organizations up in arms."

Unfortunately, the majority of 'mature videogames' having the artistic merit of movies such as 'Crank' or 'Kick Ass' (note I loved kick ass, great movie, but it's not gonna get any Oscars), is, I feel one big reason why we're not getting the same recognition as movies and TV.

Not all, but the vast majority of people in videogames are just targets to aim at, rather than fleshed out characters, especially in mature games, where the kill rate tends to be more important than any plot. (I'm not saying it needs to be 'deep', just that it's hard to sell your media as the next Tarantino, when it's mainly about how fun it is to chainsaw people's arms off.)

 

[cream]

It really depends on the maturity of the child in question. My little sister is going on 12 and she started playing Bully alongside me at 10. Did this encourage her to go out ant commit school violence? No. Because it's a GAME, and she knows that. She also watched my uncle and I play numerous Grand Theft Auto titles.

The problem here isn't GAMES. It's a lack of parental involvement that makes kids unable to tell the difference between games and reality. Yes, there is a certain boundary with younger kids and games produced by companies like Rockstar, but parents themselves are really to blame, not the developers. If they market for older audiences and parents buy them for the young, who is at fault?

I couldn't of said it better myself. I have been playing video games since I was around 4 or 5. The first violent game that I remember playing was the first mortal kombat. I was watching R-rated movies at the age of 6. My parents were there to tell me that none of this is real, and it's just for entertainment.

I have never once killed anyone or stolen cars, or beat up hookers, or any of that type of stuff. Just like many of you have said, it's up to the parents. The rating is there for a reason.

 

[VanityGirl]

About TIME! I'm so glad someone discouraged(!) parents from buying a game for their kids. I mean there's a pretty dang realistic f*cking in Red Dead, not something I'd want my kids to play.
Good on yah Lazlow!

 

[DamienHell]

Too true. I've been saying that for years.

 

[TOGSolid]

Why the hell didn't they come out and say this years ago? The entire gaming industry should have been telling parents to just shut the fuck up and actually do that whole "parenting" thing ages ago.

 

[Yureina]

That amuses me. Quite alot. I almost even agree with it to an extent.

 

[liveslowdiefast]

100% true, people seem to forget that this content is not sutable for kids.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

How dare they insult my parents!

You should probably keep in mind they're just referring to young children in general, around 10-13, or something like that. I'm pretty sure they weren't mentioning older teenagers or young adults.

That's how old I was when I got GTA 3

Weeellll....I suppose there can be certain exceptions...but if your parents really trusted you that much, they must be pretty frakkin' awesome.

 

[Phoenixlight]

Very true, I just wish parents could be taken to court, fined (£650.00~) then banned from purchasing 18 rated games from local stores and online if they were found to purchase an unsuitable game for their child.

 

[OceanRunner]

Finaly somebody in the gaming industry is making a stand against the ignorant haters.

 

[Uncompetative]

I'm 40.

I've never seen any material classified beyond my age.

I didn't see Alien until after I was 18. Unlike my contemporaries at school I chose to wait.

All the little whining kiddies who pressurise their parent/guardian/older-sibling to buy 18 rated games like Manhunt and MW2 just need to calm down and amuse the precious years they still have left in their innocent childhood to play through the staggering number of games that have been written for their age group over the years.

In short, buy a retro console - like a N64 with Super Mario 64 - or get a Wii.

The latest 15 and 18 certificate games will still be around when you are old enough to play them, they will be much cheaper to buy and there will be a consensus on which ones are the classics and which were hyped dross - there will also be full video & text walkthroughs on the net.

 

[Canadian Briton]

BS. Violent videogames dont turn kids or teenagers into ravening pcychopaths.

 

[katsabas]

Nothing to say except too true.

Ditto!

I was giving hell to a friend of mine for buying GTA vice city for her ten year old and then complaining about the content.

I told her that it WAS labeled 18+ and that it DOES list the offencive material.
She replied "I though it was a 'driving game' like Grand Turismo."

I called her a "Friggin idiot!"; She hung her head in shame.

Well, at least a child was spared, right? Knowing is half the battle, like someone told me once. Grown ups should REALLY get filled in about the ESRB icons and such.

 

[the Dept of Science]

My mum bought me GTA 3 when it came out, Im now 19. Not sure how old I was exactly, but I can't have been older than about 12.

She was far from a terrible parent though.

Ill informed about games perhaps. But on the other hand, there weren't really may qualms about watching movies below their age rating. I think she respected my ability to differentiate between what is real and not real, and trusted that I didn't think recreating GTA 3 would be a good idea.

 

[Phoenixlight]

Weeellll....I suppose there can be certain exceptions...but if your parents really trusted you that much, they must be pretty frakkin' awesome.

Or pretty fucking stupid if they couldn't understand the rating given to the game :|

 

[swolf]

GENIUS!!! No, if only parents would focus more on their kids instead of trying to find the cheapest babysitter that would allow them to recapture their youth, this world would be a better place. My suggestion (and I realize this may be unethical, unconstitutional, etc) would be to put birth control in all the food and water. If somebody wants to have a kid, they have to go through a rigorous application that makes boot camp look like day care...seriously, it would be a boot camp day care. Instead, of screaming drill sargeants waking you up, it's a crying baby...though I can sleep while a fire alarm is going off less than 3 feet away so that wouldn't work. My wife is a light sleeper and wakes me up so it works out.

 

[Weaver]

I really hope Rockstar doesn't think Grand Theft Auto was a gritty crime drama.
They make their games for adults... very juvenile adults.

 

[dfphetteplace]

Amen.