M-Rated Games

Mr. Sparkle · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 5:51 am

I live in Illinois, and our govenor is trying to ban them from children under 18. I'm 12 so this sucks.

StrongRad · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:00 am

I know that you're not supposed to be able to buy them if you're not 18... Still, banning something for someone under a certain age has no real effect... I mean, you gotta be 21 to drink, and I know of underage drinking. You gotta be 18 to smoke and I know of underage smoking...

I do see a point in banning M rated games for youngsters. Those games are designed for a mature audience, and no offense, 12 isn't that mature (although I am willing to bet my next paycheck that you're more mature than some of the 20-30 year olds I work with). Still, I don't see any real benefit to banning the games from those under 16 or 18. I mean, it's not like little Johnny's mom isn't gonna buy it for him, anyway.

Choc-o-Lardiac Arrest · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 8:01 am

yeah ur right dude, WHO CARES WHAT WE PLAY AS LONG AS WERE QUIET, i always yell to my father if he doesnt want me to play a certain game, AHEM,(GTA)CHOO! banning will have no effect at all. so, if the bill passes, protest it, and if that dont work, he||, most of the guys that work at wal-mart are either 18 yearolds, or 80 year olds with a stigmatism, wait, whats that mean anyways?

Occasional JD · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 12:37 pm

18? phphhhhhhhh. Get outa here. That rating system is...somewhat questionable.

ramrod · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 1:34 pm

JD, try not to double post please. People are leading a witch hunt against violent video games because they need a scape goat. This is not going to curtail anything.

Mr. Sparkle · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 2:45 pm

To clear up the definition of the ban is that parents can't buy M-games for children.

ramrod · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 2:57 pm

But how is that going to be inforced? Is the police going to go randomly into houses and see if any kids are playing GTA? For all the cashier at the store knows, the parent might be playing it themself, or buying it for an 18 + for a present.

Mr. Sparkle · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 3:16 pm

ramrod wrote:

But how is that going to be inforced? Is the police going to go randomly into houses and see if any kids are playing GTA? For all the cashier at the store knows, the parent might be playing it themself, or buying it for an 18 + for a present.

I really don't know how it's going to be enforced. But they will have a fine.

Evin290 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 4:14 pm

But wait guys! Mature video games damage the psyche and make children into heartless homocidal killers! [/sarcasm]

Seriously, if you're parents think that you should be able to play a certain video game, you should be allowed to play it. It's up to them.

PizzaTrophy · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 11:53 pm

They did the same with CDs with violent language outbursts. There used to be only an explicit language warning label, but now there is an 18+ label. It used to annoy me, but I bought them anyway myself before my 18th. Most shop assistants really don't care. They did a report on TV, where they got underage kids to buy 18+ CD and video games and porn, wearing hidden cameras, and not one shop assistant checked for ID. Then the reporters came out and blasted the shop assistants and the store managers for letting that kind of thing happen.

So a ban may work for selling TO underage kids, but not older brothers and sisters buying them for underage kids to play later. Are they gonna knock on every door and ask, "Are there underage children being exposed to violent video games around here?"
Don't think so!

Jerome · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:00 am

Mr. Sparkle wrote:

I live in Illinois, and our govenor is trying to ban them from children under 18. I'm 12 so this sucks.

Wait a moment. He can't do that. M-rated games are recommended for sale to people 15 and over, aren't they? He shouldn't be able to stop you from buying. You can't buy MA or R, but M should be fine.

Oh, hang on, you live in Illinois. I was talking about the Australian rating system:
G - All ages
PG - All ages, parental guidance recommended
M - All ages, recommended only 15 and over
MA - Only 15 and over
R - Only 18 and over
Well, that's what it is for movies anyway.

Occasional JD · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:08 am

Stick with the Australian system. Thats patriotic. For me at least.

Jitka · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:23 am

In the U.S., this is how the ratings system for video games goes:

EC: Early Childhood
E: Everyone
T: Teen, 13+ recommended
M: Mature, 17+ recommended
A: Adult, 18+ ONLY.

For movies:
G: All ages
PG: Parental Guidance
PG-13: Parental guidance, appropriate for 13+ audiences
R: Restricted, nobody younger than 17 admitted without an adult.
NC-17: Nobody younger than 17 admitted, period.

Occasional JD · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:12 am

Quote:

In the U.S., this is how the ratings system for video games goes:

EC: Early Childhood
E: Everyone
T: Teen, 13+ recommended
M: Mature, 17+ recommended
A: Adult, 18+ ONLY.

For movies:
G: All ages
PG: Parental Guidance
PG-13: Parental guidance, appropriate for 13+ audiences
R: Restricted, nobody younger than 17 admitted without an adult.
NC-17: Nobody younger than 17 admitted, period.

HELD BACK. LOW STANDARDISED TEST SCORES.

Jitka · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:14 am

occasional_JD wrote:

HELD BACK. LOW STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES.

Why? What's wrong with that? :-S

Dark Grapefruit · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 2:53 am

I think this law is hypocritical, because there is no such restriction on movies rated R/NC-17. Both are equally (unjustly) blamed for corrupting children, so why ban one and not the other? I think it's up to the parent to decide what's appropriate for children to see, not the government. This is just parents trying to foist responsibility on someone else, which happens far too often in North America these days.

Beyond the Grave · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:51 pm

Here's the common sense answer:

IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR KIDS TO BUY AND M RATED DON'T LET THEM. IT'S THAT SIMPLE FOLKS.

Rob · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:08 pm

Jerome wrote:

Oh, hang on, you live in Illinois. I was talking about the Australian rating system:
G - All ages
PG - All ages, parental guidance recommended
M - All ages, recommended only 15 and over
MA - Only 15 and over
R - Only 18 and over
Well, that's what it is for movies anyway.

Games in Australia are basically the same:

G - All ages
G8+ - Suitable for children 8 years and over.
M 15+ - Suitable for persons 15 years and over.
MA 15+ - Restricted to those 15 years and over.

I knows there's something even more restricted than MA 15+, but I forgot what it was.

ramrod · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 3:35 pm

Beyond the Grave wrote:

Here's the common sense answer:

IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR KIDS TO BUY AND M RATED DON'T LET THEM. IT'S THAT SIMPLE FOLKS.

Man, no need to all cap us...

The people that want to do this are using this as a first step. They're main goal is to have these games completely gone. They want us all to be robots, to have no fun. Just like they were when they were younger.

Utard · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 4:01 pm

If a game is M-rated for anything besides violence\blood I don't even touch it.

Cmarbagoi · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:34 pm

Hehehe... Brian Clevinger of NuklearPower.com (the guy who makes 8-bit Theater) just made a new t-shirt design based on the events that happened after GTA: San Andreas was released. You know, the one with the kid shooting 7 police officers and then blamed violent video-games.

Here it is:
http://www.zestuff.com/product_image.ph ... id=111.gif

Jitka · **Posted:** Tue Mar 29, 2005 2:45 am

That is one excellent shirt. It'd be great to be walking down the street and know that only half the people you see get the joke of your shirt.

Of course, that's what its like with an H*R shirt, too.

Choc-o-Lardiac Arrest · **Posted:** Tue Mar 29, 2005 5:01 am

say, what happend to that kid? i mean, did they let him go, or did they charge him?

Quote:

PizzaTrophy Said:
They did a report on TV, where they got underage kids to buy 18+ CD and video games and porn, wearing hidden cameras, and not one shop assistant checked for ID

wait..... Cd's? Games? Porn? heh, where do you live? i'd be in paradise, now if i only had the money.......hmmmm....... whats the child labor law age limit there?

No Toppings · **Posted:** Tue Mar 29, 2005 4:44 pm

jeez...illinois overnors sure are evil. I mean really, if i wanna have a Gutwrenching Gory Glurtfest in a videogame, what harm does it do? I mean really. There was more violence BEFORE GTA. Lets think... WWI, WWI, Civil War, Vietnam War, just dont get me started!I

ModestlyHotGirl · **Posted:** Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:54 pm

I think better parenting would solve this problem. Parents should know how mature their children are, and what kinds of games they should be allowed to play. In my opinion, too many parents are using the "buy buy buy" technique to quiet their kids' "I want it I want it I want it". Also, kids have way too much disposable income nowadays. Before I got a job at age 16, I had to ask my parents to buy me anything that cost more than $20 or so, just because I didn't ever have that much money. And I come from a wealthy family, so that's not the case. Regardless of how much money a family has, kids just should not be carrying hundreds of dollars on them.

Ricksea · **Posted:** Wed Mar 30, 2005 6:30 pm

You may not think so, but it's been proven that when people under eighteen are overly exposed to anger and violence, they become more mentally angry and violent themselves. Mature video games deal with a lot of violence, bloodshed, and other material that has been proven to darken the minds of young people on a somewhat permanent basis.

And this is coming from a fourteen-year-old so don't label this as an opinion of out-of-sinque adults.

thefreakyblueman · **Posted:** Wed Mar 30, 2005 6:39 pm

Ricksea wrote:

You may not think so, but it's been proven that when people under eighteen are overly exposed to anger and violence, they become more mentally angry and violent themselves. Mature video games deal with a lot of violence, bloodshed, and other material that has been proven to darken the minds of young people on a somewhat permanent basis.

And this is coming from a fourteen-year-old so don't label this as an opinion of out-of-sinque adults.

Absolutely. These games do have an impact on kids who aren't fully matured just as much as television (that horrible incident where the 8 year old killed his 4 year old sister after watching that insanely stupid pro-wrestling show), and there is no doubting that. (I too am 14, and though I do like some of the violent games, being able to pick up and kill prostitutes just goes too far).

Prof. Tor Coolguy · **Posted:** Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:56 am

I was just watching TV and I saw a commercial for "Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat" and at the end the announcer said it was rated "E-10" is this some kind of new rateing?

My Firebomb list:

1. ESRB for their sins they shall burn in hell
2. MTV headquaters

Mr. Sparkle · **Posted:** Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:42 am

Yup, new rating. I think it's for games like Ratchet & Clank which are sorta between Teen and Everyone.

TOTP'D :eekdance:

Prof. Tor Coolguy · **Posted:** Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:51 am

So what's next? T-15, sounds like a modle of Terminator.

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