Goodfella wrote:Actually, now that games are rated the under the same system as films, if the sales assistant suspects the game is for the child they MUST refuse the sale. The fact that a child is present at the time of purchase is not sufficient evidence that the game is for them but if the sales assistant observes the child pointing out the game for example, then the sale should be refused. Sadly this doesnt happen and we all have to listen to 12 year olds online. |
Next Gen: Forget graphics, I want adequate Parental Controls • Page 2
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DPRBassman 82 posts
Seen 2 years ago
Registered 14 years ago -
@Goodfella So you think a game where heads get chopped off with a spurt of blood isn't violent? -
TarickStonefire wrote:
There's a difference between sneaking a few minutes of watching a film when you get the chance and a child going out, spending £40 on a game then playing it on their console so you don't notice . There's about 5 times in that process that a child can be stopped, below the age of 14 or so.
sajasanman wrote:
Ah, the ol' "parents should be standing over their kids' shoulders 100% of the time, managing every aspect of their lives" argument.
Fuck parental controls on any consoles.
Parental controls should mean exactly that - parents controlling what and which games their kids play. If you choose to let them play online or play at friends houses whose parents you don't know, well that's your choice. Parenting skills don't equal good parenting controls.
That's not really practical, and kids are resourceful, so I don't see why it's such a bad idea. I remember parental controls on our VHS machine back in the day, to stop me wiping over tapes or trying to watch that pirated copy of Robocop when I got home from school before my parents got home from work. Didn't stop me though, I found the manual and looked up how to disable it.
With consoles capable of more than just playing games, don't see why some good controls to lock out certain features is a bad idea. -
Goodfella wrote:
I own it.
MrTomFTW wrote:
Have you played Night Trap?
They're still games full of murder, torture and rape though. The retro graphics can't hide that.
I think you are confused (or some liberal lefty loon jumping on the Rape Simulator label that it was given, but lets not open that can of worms), there is no rape or any act of violence in it.
That seems to be a common misconception though with people who haven't actually played the games they are quick to comment on or condemn. -
You think if games were more advanced in 1982 they wouldn't have been gory and dodgy? -
Here's a lovely family friendly scene from Night Trap where a young girl in a night dress is attacked by 3 men (vampire like "Augers") and they push a drill into her neck, draining her blood.
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Our twins are getting to the age now where I might let them play some games. Though they aren't old enough to play solo yet. But once they are I'd like the console set up so they can't see restricted content. Not because I don't trust them - there's also the issue of finding stuff by accident - especially in the next-gen where you don't need to find the disk to play a game.
I haven't explored the controls on PS3, but the ones on X360 are needlessly fiddly. It should be much simpler. There should be a main account, and sub-accounts for children. The main account should be password locked. And then I can set content levels and a timer for each of the child accounts separately.
X360 has some of these elements already, but the implementation is poor. -
So by that definition you'd say films like of Psycho aren't violent either? -
Goodfella wrote:
When I worked at EB many years ago we WOULD refuse to sell a violent game to an adult if we thought it was for a child. A store is completely within its rights to do so - the same if the store believes the customer is buying alcohol or cigs for a child. There is no right to be served in a shop. Customers offer to trade and it is up to the store to choose whether to accept for any and every transaction.
I lose count of the amount of parents I see in Game saying to their 7 year old kid "is this the Call of Duty game you wanted?" and promptly takes it to the guy behind the counter who knows damn well it's for the kid but can't refuse selling it to the parent.
Some parents shouldn't be parents. *sigh*.
Thankfully back in the late 90s many parents were actually glad we did this as they were often unaware of game content. Often having been bullshitted by their child.
This happened very regularly in fact. Sometimes a customer might be cross with us and say they'd just go somewhere else. But we had a very busy store that valued our customer service and my boss was happy to filter out the arseholes..gif)
Edited by Maturin at 09:57:46 01-06-2013 -
I like the idea that only 20 years ago we lived in a land of fluffy kittens: as I said, GF, do you really think that if UE3 had been around in 1990, the devs would never have made a violent game? It takes the usual boring declineism and makes it even more myopic - loony left indeed. -
GF, i don't understand you. You say there is too much violence today, in a thread about parental controls: i.e kids playing violent games.
Then you dismiss all possible negative readings of scenes in old games that for some kids could be very scary. So what if there is no blood? A 6 year old has an imagination. -
The implication
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Goodfella wrote:
Of course it is violent. There's more to violence, both verbal, physical and sexual than seeing the act in close up.
Violent, not really, slightly distressing to some, maybe. -
RedSparrows wrote:
I'm often amazed at what scares our children. Some things in programs made for their own age can frighten them if they misunderstand it.
GF, i don't understand you. You say there is too much violence today, in a thread about parental controls: i.e kids playing violent games.
Then you dismiss all possible negative readings of scenes in old games that for some kids could be very scary. So what if there is no blood? A 6 year old has an imagination. -
The Psycho shower seen is very violent.
A naked woman is stabbed to death. Blood pours away. The music and effects are designed specifically to enhance the horror of the scene. She dies, violently.
That, to some people, is scary. -
Maturin wrote:
As a kid i was terrified of Cruella de Ville in the Disney animation.
RedSparrows wrote:
I'm often amazed at what scares our children. Some things in programs made for their own age can frighten them if they misunderstand it.
GF, i don't understand you. You say there is too much violence today, in a thread about parental controls: i.e kids playing violent games.
Then you dismiss all possible negative readings of scenes in old games that for some kids could be very scary. So what if there is no blood? A 6 year old has an imagination. -
RedSparrows wrote:
Our youngest (four next month) hides when the big combine harvester bull appears during Pixar's Cars.
As a kid i was terrified of Cruella de Ville in the Disney animation. -
Somebody is forgetting the massive conservative freak-out over Mortal Kombat.
Isn't it funny how, 20-30 years ago, it was always the right wing that said things were too violent and wanted them banned? And now it's all "loony leftism".
There's always been violence, and people watching utterly inappropriate stuff. The difference is that now we have the technology to try prevent it, and 9/10 cases the method sucks. I mean, my son's friend is the child of 2 cops, and I've never known him play a game that's not a 15 or 18. He's 9. This kid has finished every Dead Space, every Call of Duty, recently started Borderlands 2... I once ran into two kids at their primary school discussing their favourite assassination in the Assassin's Creed series. They must have been all of 7.
If Kinect can really read somebody's age and ban them from games on the One, then bravo MS, that may be the first good use of such technology, and I'm all for it.
.gif)
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