Video games.

[d-ray657]

Originally Posted by flacaltenn

MerryLander:



Really? This is all about kowtowing to business? Then can I get a ruling on SouthPark?

BTW: I toned it down because of your sensitive hearing. Hope this is better.

The industry already has provided parents with a rating system on each package. Completely voluntary (after being threatened with legislation of course). When TV did the same thing, the govt TRIED to enforce it with V-chips and that just added $6 to every new TV. I've seen shows rated TV-14 where the main topic was self-mutilation and oral sex. (on the ABC Family Channel no less. )

It's like enforcing diet and excersize and all those other parental duties. You've got to have your kids experience satisfaction for consuming HEALTHY things. When they read library books and their grades go up --- they get it. When they ditch the chocolate and greasy fried cheese balls (and start taking vitamins), their faces clear up.. If they don't see the harm and experience the benefits, they think you're just blowing smoke.. Like we do on the boards here...

Personal opinion is that the harm doesn't come from the games. The harm comes from what the games are replacing in terms of useful activities.. A kid with a gaming addiction is a kid who isn't challenged for time.. I know -- I was addicted to NASCAR racing. Built myself an entire enclosured space for the game. It was like a mouse on crack..
I grew out of it after a year or two.. At age 48!!!

When we implemented a TV moratorium (including video games) on Sunday through Thursday nights, my older son got interested in skateboarding. He had to find something to do when he and his brother could no longer plop down in front of the TV after school. They both lost weight. This was 7th or 8th grade.

He told me that the thing he and his friends liked about skateboarding was that they are the ones coaching each other, and they are making the rules of the game. Kinda sounds like what sandlot baseball was like before parents and sponsors took it over. He still played organized baseball, but our nightly sessions of playing catch were becoming an endangered species. I had to admit that that kind of separation is a healthy thing for an adolescent.

Regards,

D-Ray

[hillbilly]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

When we implemented a TV moratorium (including video games) on Sunday through Thursday nights, my older son got interested in skateboarding. He had to find something to do when he and his brother could no longer plop down in front of the TV after school. They both lost weight. This was 7th or 8th grade.

He told me that the thing he and his friends liked about skateboarding was that they are the ones coaching each other, and they are making the rules of the game. Kinda sounds like what sandlot baseball was like before parents and sponsors took it over. He still played organized baseball, but our nightly sessions of playing catch were becoming an endangered species. I had to admit that that kind of separation is a healthy thing for an adolescent.

Regards,

D-Ray

I remember visiting kinfolk in the big city. My kids went ape-shit over seeing the other kids scateboards and ''had to have them''. Well, after trying to convince them that they would be of no use to them where we live .. we later picked up a couple for them. I proudly stood outside to say, '' I told you so ''. After that, they payed more attention to what I decided to get or not to get them. Gravel roads are a bitch to scateboard on.

[flacaltenn]

Originally Posted by merrylander

there you go again

What good is the rating system if the stores sell regardless of the age of the buyer? That someone includes rape etc. in a video game tells me a great deal about them.

Fixed your formatting. Hope you don't mind..

I understand that it's not a combo lock. I'd LIKE the retailers to cooperate -- just like the movie theatre owners do with ratings systems. But the fact is that the ratings do the job of informing parents who give a shit of what the intensity of the game is. Doesn't help if the kids' friends have it at their house. For parents who don't care -- I'm not gonna badger them OR do their parenting for them..

If they want to see rape and cartoon characters with ball sacks on their chins -- they have SouthPark on 3 different channels..

The maddest I've ever been at another parent was on a rare trip to Walmart where I saw a 10 yr old in a SouthPark teeshirt with obscenities on it.. (and please note -- the guys who create that crud are Libertarians and I still reserve the right to pummel their choices and their punk asses).

[hillbilly]

Originally Posted by flacaltenn

Fixed your formatting. Hope you don't mind..

I understand that it's not a combo lock. I'd LIKE the retailers to cooperate -- just like the movie theatre owners do with ratings systems. But the fact is that the ratings do the job of informing parents who give a shit of what the intensity of the game is. Doesn't help if the kids' friends have it at their house. For parents who don't care -- I'm not gonna badger them OR do their parenting for them..

If they want to see rape and ***cartoon characters with ball sacks on their chins*** -- they have SouthPark on 3 different channels..

The maddest I've ever been at another parent was on a rare trip to Walmart where I saw a 10 yr old in a SouthPark teeshirt with obscenities on it.. (and please note -- the guys who create that crud are Libertarians and I still reserve the right to pummel their choices and their punk asses).

Oh God, that reminds me of Family Guy. Thank goodness my kids prefer King Of The Hill.

[flacaltenn]

Hillbilly:

Surfin' ain't no fun when there's rocks under those waves. That's why I gave it up when I moved from Florida to California... That and I thought wetsuits made me look too much like shark food..

[flacaltenn]

Family Guy is absolute Disney compared to South Park.. At least there's a point to the stories. I relented to that one when my daughter turned 16. Rush Limbaugh even did a voice-over for Family Guy once. So it has the "moral majority" seal of approval!!!!!!

You know--- Pete is one of the stars of King of the Hill. I think they use his house as a set...

[hillbilly]

Have to admit, at least they sit at the dinner table.

I notice more families these days that just eat in front of the TV, or carry a plate to their rooms.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H237iZwKtjs

[d-ray657]

I'll agree that South Park is profane and not for children. I have watched it once or twice, and I have to admit that it is pretty funny. Importantly, the show contains - actually specializes in - satire, including social and political satire. That places it well within the scope of that communication for which the First Amendment is most important. Obviously, it is up to parents whether their kids watch it.

To exposure to profanity, violence and sex in video games is in IMHO, different in kind, not just degree. Really, however, my knowledge of the content of video games is an extrapolation of what I have seen on gaming commercials. I have no interest in playing them. It appears, however, that gamers are invited to take part in violence and mayhem. It is the participation that makes the exposure different in kind. In the end, however, it is communication of maker's ideas and creativity, for which it is entitled to protection.

Regards,

D-Ray

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

I'll agree that South Park is profane and not for children. I have watched it once or twice, and I have to admit that it is pretty funny. Importantly, the show contains - actually specializes in - satire, including social and political satire. That places it well within the scope of that communication for which the First Amendment is most important. Obviously, it is up to parents whether their kids watch it.

To exposure to profanity, violence and sex in video games is in IMHO, different in kind, not just degree. Really, however, my knowledge of the content of video games is an extrapolation of what I have seen on gaming commercials. I have no interest in playing them. It appears, however, that gamers are invited to take part in violence and mayhem. It is the participation that makes the exposure different in kind. In the end, however, it is communication of maker's ideas and creativity, for which it is entitled to protection.

Regards,

D-Ray

Only an absent or derelict parent would allow a kid to watch South Park.

Great show BTW.

[BlueStreak]

I miss Beavis and Butthead. "Squidbillies", anyone?

Having said that, I can remember my mother and all of the other biddies in my hometown going on a crusade against "Alf". They thought he was just the most disgusting example of absolute depravity around.

She must not have been paying attention to the lyrics of Frank Zappa coming from my bedroom ten years earlier........................................... ......

Dave