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As a child did you play violent videogames?

I don't get this "It only counts as violent if it's rated M/18 and has gore in it" thing. Violence is apparent in most video games even if it is cartoon violence. Anyway, I played and completed Goldeneye 007 at the age of 8 years old, can barely get used to that game at all now.
 
Yep. Played Doom, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, other couple of PC games.
I prefer colorfull stuff, but one of my biggest experience was to try Diablo 1 on the town library computer.
Loved that game.
 
I played Doom when I was ~5 years old and got MGS when I was 10... RE2 around the same time.

My mom always emphasized that I had to differentiate reality from these games and I think that's important. Its important to note that kids with undiagnosed mental disorders will interpret what they see and experience much differently. A very complicated issue...
 
Never really saw violent games until my teens. Probably some obscure violent games that were out during the 80's, but I never played them. I did however play the Leisure Suit Larry series as a kid.
 
Mortal kombat, goldeneye, doom, duke nuken etc

Violence was part of my gaming child hood and I loved it.

Funnily enough, I dont play many violent games these days.
 
beason52 said:
I played Doom when I was ~5 years old and got MGS when I was 10... RE2 around the same time.

My mom always emphasized that I had to differentiate reality from these games and I think that's important. Its important to note that kids with undiagnosed mental disorders will interpret what they see and experience much differently. A very complicated issue...
Click to expand...

Yeah. And studies suggest a lot of the effects of violent video games on kids can be mitigated by doing just that too. I grew up playing violent video games and like everyone else I know that did, I don't feel like I was remotely damaged by them.

They probably helped shape some of my ideas, but that's art for you.
 
Yes.
Although the games I played growing up weren't very graphically realistic the intent was there. I knew I was shooting bad guys and blowing shit up.

I also grew up on the very violent old school Looney Tunes as well as Schwarzenegger & Stallone movies.

I also played 'guns' with the neighborhood kids. We used our fingers, then sticks, toy guns, etc.

I wouldn't hurt anyone and never use violence.

Now kids get in trouble at school and day care for even drawing historical battles and forget about using your finger at school to 'shoot' your friend.
 
Mature games didn't really exist on consoles when I was a kid, and I didn't have a PC until I was in high school. Things like Mortal Kombat and Eternal Champions were about as brutal as things got.

I guess I was technically underage when I was playing things like Resident Evil for the first time if you want to go by ESRB labels, but I was already 15 or so by that point.


I did watch a lot of violent/graphic movies though. Like almost every other 10 year old boy in the early 90s, my favourite actors were Arnold, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Steven Seagal.
 
I played a lot of PC games back then (now too, but less) and I think I played equal amounts of "Sim..." games (Sim City, Sim Tower, Sim Farm, etc...) as I played violent games. Also many adventure games (Sierra titles mostly) and whatnot, though those weren't violent at all.

I have yet to kill someone.
 
Well, the "M" rating didn't exist at all until I was 12 already anyway (1994), so only 5 years of time when it even would have been an issue.

Then, as now as well, though, most "M-rated" games don't appeal to me very much. Many of the games that have gotten "M ratings" have been, paradoxically, very immature. Things like blood and internal organs splattering everywhere, people cursing up a storm, scantily-clad women, and such like that.

Sure, there are some "M-rated games" which actually deal with "mature" matters. And, sure, I can enjoy a game like Diablo or something as well. But, for the most part, as I said, the content that typically gets games that rating just isn't content that appeals very much to me.
 
Well I was a kid when the NES and SNES were out. I don't really remember them being very violent. You fought things, but they were almost always robots or monsters. Like others, Mortal Kombat was the big deal. But I was a bit older - I think in the 8th grade when that came out. It wasn't until later high school that more genuinely violent games started to emerge.

terrisus said:
Well, the "M" rating didn't exist at all until I was 12 already anyway (1994), so only 5 years of time when it even would have been an issue.

Then, as now as well, though, most "M-rated" games don't appeal to me very much. Many of the games that have gotten "M ratings" have been, paradoxically, very immature. Things like blood and internal organs splattering everywhere, people cursing up a storm, scantily-clad women, and such like that.

Sure, there are some "M-rated games" which actually deal with "mature" matters. And, sure, I can enjoy a game like Diablo or something as well. But, for the most part, as I said, the content that typically gets games that rating just isn't content that appeals very much to me.
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I completely agree.
 
Not so much. Mortal Kombat 3 is the only one I can think of that was particularly violent. I played Goldeneye and Perfect Dark in middle school, too, but those feel pretty mild.
 
I was probably 12-13 when I first saw Mortal Kombat. I was drawn to it in concept, but the violence was pretty disturbing for me, back then.

But I kept gaming. My current obsession is Hotline Miami, so I must have gotten over my "game violence" thing at some point, lawlz.
 
Mortal Kombat, Doom 1-2, Wolfenstein, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem and pretty much any violent and gory game outhere. And guess what? i dont like real life violence.

The first time i saw Subzero decapitating someone with the spine and all its something i have burned in my mind, was really a pretty shocking momment, because it was completely unexpected from an arcade game, i was use to street fighter, ninja turtles, sega games and all those not too violent games.
 
Violent games when most of us were kids are MUCH different than Violent games today.....
Compare DOOM to Call of Duty....seeing a 2d sprite monster keel over in blood...or watch a realistic person clutch their throat and bleed out as they gasp for air

No idea what next gen violence will bring but damn, there really should be a new rating one of these days

EDIT: I was 10 when I got my first M rated game....Dino Crisis and Parasite Eve 2
 
I played Doom when it came out... I was 9. Also Resident Evil and such when I was 14.

I'm well adjusted and if anything, not violent enough ;)

This is why I reject most "violence harms children" claims. It seems to have had no effect on me at all.

I'm sure it can rile up people who already have violent tendencies, but so can sports, parties, etc.


sn00zer said:
Violent games when most of us were kids are MUCH different than Violent games today.....
Compare DOOM to Call of Duty....seeing a 2d sprite monster keel over in blood...or watch a realistic person clutch their throat and bleed out as they gasp for air

No idea what next gen violence will bring but damn, there really should be a new rating one of these days
Click to expand...

It's not a bad point.

Doom felt pretty intense back then, though. It's hard to look at it the same today... but most of us felt like we were in some highly-aggressive, blood-soaked dungeon, our hearts rapidly beating and a mind full of bloodlust ....and I don't really think it was far off from the impression a kid gets from CoD today.

But tech is a factor, sure.
 
sn00zer said:
Violent games when most of us were kids are MUCH different than Violent games today.....
Compare DOOM to Call of Duty....seeing a 2d sprite monster keel over in blood...or watch a realistic person clutch their throat and bleed out as they gasp for air
Click to expand...

Nah... the key point is that they're obviously not real. Nobody playing CoD thinks it's real, either.

As long as that distinction is obvious to the player, then there's no ration reason to believe there's a connection between media violence and real life violence. (No evidence from studies, either.)

I can't stand the sight of real life blood and gore. But I've played the most violent games out there.
 
Paladin CL said:
Mortal Kombat, Doom 1-2, Wolfenstein, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem and pretty much any violent and gory game outhere. And guess what? i dont like real life violence.

The first time i saw Subzero decapitating someone with the spine and all its something i have burned in my mind, was really a pretty shocking momment, because it was completely unexpected from an arcade game, i was use to street fighter, ninja turtles, sega games and all those not too violent games.
Click to expand...

I do think there are differences though. Subzero's fatality isn't quite the same as the focus on detail fighting Call of Duty and others like it are. Hell, Halo isn't even like that. I do think there is something problematic. But don't get me wrong, I don't think these shootings that have happened lately are a result of violent videogames. I think these shootings are a result of mentally unstable people having too easy access to guns. But I think violent videogames contribute to a culture of violence which desensitizes people in a global sense to passivity when it comes to violence. I also think it brainwashes kids into not thinking war is an abomination, and into to thinking militarism is cool.
 
I played Mortal Kombat on my SNES a bit as a kid, but I remember I wasn't very interested in it.

The first non E rated game I remember being interested in was Goldeneye, and that was only rated T. I was about 11.
 
Played Mortal Kombat 2 with my brother on my old 486. We destroyed two keyboards.

Now, I don't play FPS games or even fighting games and my brother's into sports games.
 
genjiZERO said:
I do think there are differences though. Subzero's fatality isn't quite the same as the focus on detail fighting Call of Duty and others like it are. Hell, Halo isn't even like that. I do think there is something problematic. But don't get me wrong, I don't think these shootings that have happened lately are a result of violent videogames. I think these shootings are a result of mentally unstable people having too easy access to guns. But I think violent videogames contribute to a culture of violence which desensitizes people in a global sense to passivity when it comes to violence. I also think it brainwashes kids into not thinking war is an abomination, and into to think militarism is cool.
Click to expand...

I think, if you look back in history, you'll find that young men have always thought militarism is cool. Aggression is not caused by outside forces. It's a part of who we are as a species, and society pacifies us to a degree.

There is no external cause, and there is no fix, either. It's in our genes. To believe otherwise is just irrational.
 
my family didn't give a fuck about violence so around 5 with quake, resident evil, silent hill, etc. funny thing is that i didn't really played them more than the first level in all that games because i didn't know english back then and it's way more complicated than mario.
 
Night_Trekker said:
I think, if you look back in history, you'll find that young men have always thought militarism is cool.

There is no external cause, and there is no fix, either. It's in our genes. To believe otherwise is just irrational.
Click to expand...

I have a cousin and from a young age he was just always attracted to the military fantasy. And I was, by contrast, always uninterested in it.

He joined the marines recently... I feel like it was always his interest and it wasn't really the result of propaganda. But who knows.
 
terrisus said:
Sure, there are some "M-rated games" which actually deal with "mature" matters.
Click to expand...

Alice: Madness Returns' fractured narrative threads ultimately weaving together to reveal the plot-centric themes of
child molestation and sex slavery
was rather brave.
 
JaseC said:
Alice: Madness Returns' fractured narrative threads ultimately weaving together to reveal the plot-centric themes of
child molestation and sex slavery
was rather brave.
Click to expand...

Wow, I wish the first game had even tried to touch on some of that. All I got was Alice in Wonderland: Hot Topic Edition.
 
Night_Trekker said:
I think, if you look back in history, you'll find that young men have always thought militarism is cool.

There is no external cause, and there is no fix, either. It's in our genes. To believe otherwise is just irrational.
Click to expand...

That's ridiculous. There are other cultures in the world who do not worship militarism like Americans do. And were exactly is this love of militarism coded? On our 24th pair of chromosomes?
 
I had plenty of violent Amiga games (Syndicate, Extreme Violence etc.) but the visuals were all so cartoony that my parents were never bothered by them. In fact the only game I ever had confiscated from me was a copy of Samantha Fox's Strip Poker for the C64 that my friend had stolen from his older brother. By the time the more visually violent games started appearing, I was already approaching my teens so I pretty much got to play whatever I wanted. I know for sure that things would have been different if I was a child of the PS2 generation.
 
genjiZERO said:
That's ridiculous. There are other cultures in the world who do not worship militarism like Americans do. And were exactly is this love of militarism coded? On our 24th pair of chromosomes?
Click to expand...

Let me get this straight: you actually believe human beings are the only species for which violence has nothing to do with instinct?

Not only are you obviously biased (Americans "worship" militarism?), you're completely delusional. Keep looking for that one thing we can eliminate that will lead us into a world without human aggression. I predict you won't find it. History is on my side here, and so it will be with the future as well.
 
Terra Firma said:
Played Mortal Kombat 2 with my brother on my old 486. We destroyed two keyboards.

Now, I don't play FPS games or even fighting games and my brother's into sports games.
Click to expand...


the 486 was still around when MK2 came out? Incredible

edit: oh fuck, of course. My memory failed me
 
I somehow managed to play a lot of Doom as a kid. The dark corridors and scarce ammo were what really scared me though. I don't think I quite knew what those red blotches that appeared on-screen were.
 
I think the first violent game i ever played was Doom on PC when i was about 7-8. It was when it first came out and a friend of mine's dad had it on his computer and let us play it.
 
Night_Trekker said:
Let me get this straight: you actually believe human beings are the only species for which violence has nothing to do with instinct?

Not only are you obviously biased (Americans "worship" militarism?), you're completely delusional. Keep looking for that one thing we can eliminate that will lead us into a world without human aggression. I predict you won't find it. History is on my side here, and so it will be with the future as well.
Click to expand...

Wait, are you honestly going to contend that military worship isn't a part of American culture? Have you ever been outside the US? Really have you? Attitudes about the military and its role are completely different. Do a google search on "militarism in American culture" if you don't believe me.

Anyway militarism is a separate issue from violence entirely. And you are such a well versed psychologist, sociologist and biologist wrapped up in one I'm surprised you've discounted the effects of socialization on children. I mean it's not like there's ample evidence that the things children are exposed to have an impact on their behavior. I mean it would be irration to believe otherwise.
 
Farrow said:
Yup:

2448683_o.gif


But I was also raised to know the difference between right and wrong. So they didn't have a negative effect on me.
Click to expand...

this game and others like contra. gameplay first, violence was never important for my enjoyment. i laugh when Ninja Gaiden topics drift towards dismissing every entry with toned down violence entirely.
 
Yeah I played a lot more violent video games when I was a kid than I do now. Doom, Duke Nukem, and Wolfenstein 3D were my favorites. My dad would make me turn off adult mode on Duke Nukem though. He did not want me to see pixilated boobies in the strip club.
 
Doom when I was around 11/12. Scared the shit out of me the first time I played it. There just hadn't been an FPS that detailed and brutal at the time. I remember feeling like I was getting away with something when I first played Duke3D and now it all seems so laughably tame.
 
Streets of Rage is the first violent game that I've ever played but I didn't start playing violent games regularly til I got a playstation for christmas.
 
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