Banned Games

[tyger_claw]

More awesome information!

It is true that the media will quickly run and point the gun to the videogames that people own as the trigger to violence. True that some games have inspired acts towards people, but it could have been a movie (ie: The Cell with the intestine twisted) or a book, or anything. Comparing yesterdays videogames to today, yeah sure, they have gotten quite gory and realistic but so has the movie industry and comicbooks and etc. Friday the 13th 1 was light on gore, but todays Jason has extreme gore, guts and so. So why point the finger at VG? Because not everyone plays games, but everyone watches movies.

Side Note: Man people have gotten paranoid. This article I came across while compiling my search has gotten me scrathing my head. School yard games such as "Tag" are being banned in light to children's safety ?:P Is that not pathetic? How is a kids body suppose to learn how to heal? Kids get hurt one way or another, **** happens. Boy I hope that doesn't happen in Canada. I'll be signing my kids in Hockey. Isn't that worse then TAG?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk...00/2158468.stm

[darkes]

As a general point, it seems very hypocritical to ban these sorts of games in the US.
All of Western Europe does not allow real firearms to be sold to the general public.
Yet most people in the US aged 18 (or 21 depending on the state), can go to a gun store and purchase a lethal weapon, and receive training on how to use it.
Perhaps that is why the US administration is worried about computer games

[darkes]

As a general point, it seems very hypocritical to ban these sorts of games in the US.
All of Western Europe does not allow real firearms to be sold to the general public.
Yet most people in the US aged 18 (or 21 depending on the state), can go to a gun store and purchase a lethal weapon, and receive training on how to use it.
Perhaps that is why the US administration is worried about computer games

[SodaMoca5]

A couple of things.

1st Amendment does protect our right to free speech. However that right does not extend to all ages which is why the MSRP ratings etc were instigated. As has been pointed out here if a 12 year old is playing a game that is not supposed to be sold to anyone under 18 then an adult bought it for them or a resaler has illegally sold it. If the parent bought it for them then the responsibility is the parent's. If some other adult did then they should be fined (this is probably a misdemeanor at best) for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The same punishement for giving them booze or cigarettes. If they were sold it then the store owner should face the same felony charges he would face if he sold booze or cigarettes to a minor.

However, most people feel the ratings are slanted, illogical, or just unnecessary. So, like the theater previously mentioned, they often sell to under age kids because no one but the politicians feel it is the governments place to regulate this, it is the parents. In the case of sexual material that is already covered by other laws.

It seems to me that Germany would welcome Castle Wolfenstein. Sure there are lots of Nazi symbols but the nazi's are the bad guys. They are the horrible monsters creating horrible monsters in their labs through hellish experiments. Your job is to hunt them down and eradicate their evil from the world. It is about as pro-Nazi as a Holocaust Survivors Reunion. No offense to my German friends here but one thing WW-II did give us was a section of humanity (the Nazi's) who are universally hated and easily exploited as villains in Film, Literature, and Video Games. I can shoot Nazi's without fear of anyone, yet, screaming about insensitivity and racial or social inequalities and hate crimes. The Japanese have overcome the extreme prejudice they were held in. Germans as a nation are now accepted and well respected. In many ways it is as if Nazi's were a different breed, almost non-human by the general lack of concern we have for killing as many of them as we can. It seems to m that the German government in an effort to show how much they revile the Nazi party of the past would encourage you to pull out that copy of Castle Wolfenstein and kill computer generated Nazi's and all that they stand for.

One final note. I remember playing Counter Strike shortly after 9-11 and even I had no desire to be a terrorist in that game. It was difficult to get any American to be T's. On the server I played most of the T's were played by foreigners (in this case I distinctly remember at least three T's were French and one German). I was in no way upset with the French or the Germans for this, rather thankful, because I have never felt so good about killing T's as I did then. The game didn't change the world, didn't actually put a dent in terrorism, but it allowed me an outlet for some of the hostility, anger, and frustration I was feeling. For those brave men who took on the role of terrorist and allowed me to empty clip after clip of fake ammo into fake enemies so that I could release some very real stress... thankyou. Who knows maybe you kept some semi-psycho out there from going and shooting innocent Muslims. Kind of a reversal on what the media and the government seem to think about these games. Maybe we should take up the cry and let people know that Video Games SAVE PEOPLE

[SodaMoca5]

A couple of things.

1st Amendment does protect our right to free speech. However that right does not extend to all ages which is why the MSRP ratings etc were instigated. As has been pointed out here if a 12 year old is playing a game that is not supposed to be sold to anyone under 18 then an adult bought it for them or a resaler has illegally sold it. If the parent bought it for them then the responsibility is the parent's. If some other adult did then they should be fined (this is probably a misdemeanor at best) for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The same punishement for giving them booze or cigarettes. If they were sold it then the store owner should face the same felony charges he would face if he sold booze or cigarettes to a minor.

However, most people feel the ratings are slanted, illogical, or just unnecessary. So, like the theater previously mentioned, they often sell to under age kids because no one but the politicians feel it is the governments place to regulate this, it is the parents. In the case of sexual material that is already covered by other laws.

It seems to me that Germany would welcome Castle Wolfenstein. Sure there are lots of Nazi symbols but the nazi's are the bad guys. They are the horrible monsters creating horrible monsters in their labs through hellish experiments. Your job is to hunt them down and eradicate their evil from the world. It is about as pro-Nazi as a Holocaust Survivors Reunion. No offense to my German friends here but one thing WW-II did give us was a section of humanity (the Nazi's) who are universally hated and easily exploited as villains in Film, Literature, and Video Games. I can shoot Nazi's without fear of anyone, yet, screaming about insensitivity and racial or social inequalities and hate crimes. The Japanese have overcome the extreme prejudice they were held in. Germans as a nation are now accepted and well respected. In many ways it is as if Nazi's were a different breed, almost non-human by the general lack of concern we have for killing as many of them as we can. It seems to m that the German government in an effort to show how much they revile the Nazi party of the past would encourage you to pull out that copy of Castle Wolfenstein and kill computer generated Nazi's and all that they stand for.

One final note. I remember playing Counter Strike shortly after 9-11 and even I had no desire to be a terrorist in that game. It was difficult to get any American to be T's. On the server I played most of the T's were played by foreigners (in this case I distinctly remember at least three T's were French and one German). I was in no way upset with the French or the Germans for this, rather thankful, because I have never felt so good about killing T's as I did then. The game didn't change the world, didn't actually put a dent in terrorism, but it allowed me an outlet for some of the hostility, anger, and frustration I was feeling. For those brave men who took on the role of terrorist and allowed me to empty clip after clip of fake ammo into fake enemies so that I could release some very real stress... thankyou. Who knows maybe you kept some semi-psycho out there from going and shooting innocent Muslims. Kind of a reversal on what the media and the government seem to think about these games. Maybe we should take up the cry and let people know that Video Games SAVE PEOPLE

[tyger_claw]

SodaMoca,

All good points. Germany should enjoy Castle Wolf, Counter Strike is a good stress reliever and is also (as you pointed out) a very fake game. It actually made me think of something. Would people rather have me as a fake terrorist in a videogame or as a real terrorist in life?
Would people rather I run pedestrians over in a fake world in GTA3 or use my real car and run real people over? Videogames are an escape from this reality, to be able to do things we, in good judgement, would never do in our reality. Do we, as gamers, take on these roles and get personal with it? sure! Do we let it go past the power button? I hope not! As soon as we hit power off/quit/exit/etc. we left that reality and returned back to this one. The rules that used to apply in the game is not the ones we return to. And I'm pretty sure everyone has that grasp down.

[tyger_claw]

SodaMoca,

All good points. Germany should enjoy Castle Wolf, Counter Strike is a good stress reliever and is also (as you pointed out) a very fake game. It actually made me think of something. Would people rather have me as a fake terrorist in a videogame or as a real terrorist in life?
Would people rather I run pedestrians over in a fake world in GTA3 or use my real car and run real people over? Videogames are an escape from this reality, to be able to do things we, in good judgement, would never do in our reality. Do we, as gamers, take on these roles and get personal with it? sure! Do we let it go past the power button? I hope not! As soon as we hit power off/quit/exit/etc. we left that reality and returned back to this one. The rules that used to apply in the game is not the ones we return to. And I'm pretty sure everyone has that grasp down.

[VictorKaum]

Before people ban video games, people should look to the television. It's much more difficult for children to understand that tv isn't reality than understanding video games aren't reality. Every child playing video games knows that its about virtual reality (if the child doesn't there's something wrong, probably he or she is to young) with television this is a whole other story. The amount of violence showed on tv has increased with 300% since the 1970's while the real world violence hasn't increased with that percentage. In total there's even a decrease in overall violence. It's just the media that let people believe what's true or not. Call it a bandwagon effect, when enough people think some way, there are social sanctions if you think different.

[VictorKaum]

Before people ban video games, people should look to the television. It's much more difficult for children to understand that tv isn't reality than understanding video games aren't reality. Every child playing video games knows that its about virtual reality (if the child doesn't there's something wrong, probably he or she is to young) with television this is a whole other story. The amount of violence showed on tv has increased with 300% since the 1970's while the real world violence hasn't increased with that percentage. In total there's even a decrease in overall violence. It's just the media that let people believe what's true or not. Call it a bandwagon effect, when enough people think some way, there are social sanctions if you think different.

[ii-monk]

In the past in Greece many people ahve said that movies which shows cigarettes wouldn't be shown, but this of course didn't happen. Very stupid-i know- ever1 here though about this.