Something America needs to do.

[url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/04/news_6130334.html]China to ban minors from violent games[/url]

If America did this, it would be beneficial to gamers everywhere that play online. People like Mrs. Clinton would finally shut up about teenage violence related to video games and older gamers can game in peace-- without annoying kids.

Eh, it's a step in the right direction. It's not going to garuntee anything of course. But definitely something America should think about.

Any help to get the media out of video games is good.

Personally, I think that anyone citing a video game as a reason for their real-life violence should face the consequences contained within the game they referrence. Say they gun down a school full of people citing grand theft auto as the source of their evil. What happens if you do that in the game? A crapload of cops show up and blast the ever-living **** out of you. Therefore, death by firing squad should be the penalty. If you base your own morality off of a fantasy world, you should be treated as you would in that fantasy world for your transgressions.

[Quote=Prince Shondranai]Personally, I think that anyone citing a video game as a reason for their real-life violence should face the consequences contained within the game they referrence. Say they gun down a school full of people citing grand theft auto as the source of their evil. What happens if you do that in the game? A crapload of cops show up and blast the ever-living **** out of you. Therefore, death by firing squad should be the penalty. If you base your own morality off of a fantasy world, you should be treated as you would in that fantasy world for your transgressions.

I agree with you 120%. I dont think the game should be blamed for the major stupidity of someone who goes and copies a game (like Grand Theft Auto) and starts gunning down people. By rights its the persons fault for being such an idiot as to killing tons of people. Its common sense for goodness sake. Video games are not to blam, its mainly the parents for allowing their children to play. But its not just children that copy games and kill people, its also imature stupid idots.

I find it quite stupid that people blame video games, when there is violence in movies, music, and other stuff. (But people are still batteling against gangster rap).

There is no right to say that video games caused someone to kill or do something really stupid. By rights it was the person who commited the crime and not the video game he recently played. Its mainly imature people who play video games and copy what they see. That goes for both young and old people. Older people can be quite imature too.

Yeah I think im getting a little off topic.

Anyways back to the point at hand. I dont really mind it that you have to be 18 to play gory games online. (if that ever happens in the US) I have never played my PS2 online yet so I dont really care all to much. But If the fact that you have to put your credit card no or whatever to verify your age? I hate that idea. Im to scared about people who steal others Identities, so I would never play online unless it was a E, or T rated game. But if it keeps kids off of M rated games, then I guess thats good.

But whatever our pathetic president or governments do, I dont really give a ****.

In all fairness there are alot of exceedingly stupid and obnoctious "adults" playing online, if not more than stupid obnoctious children.

Being 18 or older only proves you've been lucky enough to live for 18 or more years, nothing else. Knowledge and intelligence come with experience, Wisdom is the result of properly combining the two. Any one who believes that age alone intitles a person to respect and makes one mature they are all sadly mistaken.

The real big issue is that people in general are just stupid and obnoctious and to be a decent person requires time and effort, more time and effort than which the vast majority of our wretched species is willing to devote to any one such cause.

So really, stupid people should be banded from playing "highly suggestive or violent games", because their grip on the delicate concept of reality is so slight they were prone to violence or suggestion in the first place by any media, video games, TV, peer or just plain on their own.

I think you missed the point a bit.

Yeah, just a little. :|

The point of the article was to prevent children from seeing killing violence, taking the blame away from video games. My view was that the amount of Halo 2 players that are adults are smart enough to know that lagging out and quitting mid-game on Team matches is not cool. It would considerably lessen frustration.

Bah, if you want to get technical, I meant negative coverage by the media. :|

I think that is a pretty good idea, anything that means peace of mind for gamers is good, I think it's a pretty good idea.

I honeslty don't understand why stopping minors playing mature games hasnt happened before. In England theirs an age certificate rating on games just like films. A 10 year old wont be able to purchase the 18 rated GTA so why is it America lets it happen? Just pure stupidity.

Most people don't care I suppose. That's why it happens.

Aioros wins the thread. Flawless victory.

I don't get it. If they're only preventing them from playing violent mmo's or online FPSes or what have you, how is that any different from killing NPC's? You're not doing any physical damage to anyone in playing a pvp game online, so it really shouldn't make any difference.

Far as I'm concerned, it's a silly implementation I don't care about because I don't play anything online, but if they're gonna carry this out, they should at least ban children from playing any game involving killing. whatever

I think that it should just be assumed by the courts that M-rated video games are not being sold to minors without parental permission, regardless of how often M-rated games slip through the system. That's someone else's job to worry about, not the court's after-the-fact. Studies should continue, and penalties should be administered to stores that sell the games to minors, but at no point during a trial for a crime should any blame be pointed at a store for selling the game to someone they shouldn't have. Parents should be held responsible long before any retaillers.

Nothing long-term will happen in regards to this whole fiasco. Videogames are our generation's rock and roll music. People will posture and shout for reform, some more labels will get slapped on the back of your games, and life will continue on as always.

This kinda would be a blow to people like me who play PvP in Guild Wars. It said online games and stuff where the objective is killing to be 18, but I'd rather keep the 13 year old Monk who's a good team player then the 22 year old guy who calls you a "fag" afte ryou mess up. I'm not sure if this would effect MMORPG's, and don't mean to sound stupid if it does.

I remember my days of buying Mature Games when I was like 10. There was never really a problem. Even now I don't get carded or anything. May I just look old I don't know... Anytime a friend wants chew or something and he doesn't have his ID I go in and end up not getting carded. But back to the subject I remember buying those games well before I was 17.

Whats really the difference between M and A? 1 whole year. OMFG You GREW UP SO F*CKING MUCH IN 1 YEAR. WHOOPTEEDOO..

And yes being in retailing, we had to pull all of our San Andreas Games for PC/Xbox/PS2 and had to get them relabled.

A ban on anyone under eighteen playing violent online games is a good thing. This isn't even about the rating system.

Oh yeah, China's a reeeeeal good example of how America should be SARCASM! Man Fate, you turn 17 and suddenly you're ready to cut off everyone younger than you. When did YOU start playing violent games? Me, I've been playing games that could be considered violent since the 80s. I'm just as surprised as anyone else that I haven't gone out on some murderous rampage yet. While we're at it, we better get a rating system for books, and ban minors from reading books deemed innappropriate for them BY THE GRAND COUNCIL OF MORALITY. They had us read "The Outsiders" in grade school, a book filled with adult situations, murder, and sexual tension! Shit, that book alone must have increased violent crimes here by at least 30%.

All sarcasm aside, I don't think "adults" give minors enough credit. I'm almost 19, but not too long ago I was a minor too. I could handle violence on TV, and in books, and in video games--sex too. I could grasp it, and it didn't warp my mind. The people who become warped and deranged are the people who live sheltered lives. You keep your kid locked away from reality, and when he has to go out into it, he's gonna crack.

Let's keep the rating system, but ditch the state-imposed parenting. Let the parents do their own job.

It's not that I turned eighteen all of a sudden that has me thinking this way. It's only a ban on violent video games online, which I think is a good idea to keep the media out of online-game lawsuits with deaths and ****. I can say I was pretty mature at that age, too, but if I could benefit in the future by having violent online video games banned to minors, I wouldn't argue. :/

I don't want to shelter anyone. I just want the media out of our faces.

The media is is out to exploit everything, and so are politicians. If not with video games, then with something else. You give in and you just hand over all the power.

I can only see this problem getting way out of hand in the future.

Sure, it can be annoying when from time to time, you have to put up with some 14 year old who can't stop eating the microphone, but I think there would be a severe uproar if this happened in America.

Yeah, it would be better to play games with out all the little kids being immature and stuff, but then again, it could hurt the gaming industrie, for people may not register just because they have to show ID and such.

If their willing to pay a monthly fee, I doubt proving their age would top them.