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I stopped a kid from getting GTA V

I'm glad you weren't around when 8 year old me got to see PREDATOR in the theater thanks to my mom being clueless as to what it was about. :p


SHTICK AROUND!
 
She asked you your opinion and you were honest about it. Had it been a situation where you chose to involve yourself then that is none of your business, but honestly If I had been asked that question I probably would have said no it's not really meant for kids or something like that.
 
Gta v is reallllllly not for kids. Like not at all

Trevor's intro scene? Jesus Christ, I'm pretty vulgar and even that made me uncomfortable
 
You did the right thing. In these kinds of situations I usually also try to recommend an age-appropriate replacement. I'm not much of a racing game aficionado, but Forza or Gran Turismo could be reasonable replacements along the lines of "a game about driving," and they hopefully look mature / realistic enough to keep the kid happy.
 
TheDanger said:
So I was in the game section in a local store today browsing through (I do this from time to time even though I know all the games anyway for some reason), then this kid and his mum come to the Playstation games and the kid wants GTA V. Then she says it says 18 on the box bla bla, then the kid was going on about how it's just about driving
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Times has changed, but excuses for being able to buy/play GTA totally hasn't. I love it.

You made a right decision, OP, although it definitely sucks for a kid. Hope he will understand it later.
 
Nah you did the right thing here. I was 12 when I bought the original isometric GTA and there was a massive controversy over that. GTA V man, there is no way that is suitable for an 8 year old.
 
The kid will be traumatized by this event and will never forget OP. In 20 years time he'll have his revenge. RIP OP.
 
Excellent job, OP. I would have done the same thing with this face expression as I watched the kid walk off, soaking his shirt in tears:

hjOStEG.gif


You did the right thing.
 
I think a lot of parents don't understand how the ESRB system works, or even know it exists. I'm sure she asked you because she probably sized you up and figured you'd tell her the truth if the game was appropriate for someone that age. I would have done exactly what you did and explain some of the things you can do in the game, and then allowed her to make her own decision on whether that's something she thinks he child should be involved with.

I usually try to equate ESRB ratings to movie ratings for people, because they are generally much more familiar with that system. I bet if you'd asked her if she'd buy an R rated movie for her son she probably would have said no.
 
I don't see anything wrong with what you did. It's not like you told her not to buy the game for the kid, she decided that herself. All you did was educate her on what got the game an 18 which I think is fair game, you done the right thing instead of lying about it.
 
There's no real moral conundrum here. It's not really about whether or not an 8 year old can healthily digest entertainment built and marketed towards a much older audience (I'd be lying if I said I didn't have early exposure to very violent software), it's that the decision falls on his guardian (in this case his mother), who in turn asked for your advice and you gave it honestly.

The alternative is you give a dishonest answer, denying her appeal to your advice for the sake of pandering to a kid who wishes to subvert his guardian's role of caretaker. Ergo, unless you get your rocks off fucking with parents who are just looking for how to best raise their kid, and figure you know better than they do, you did the "right" thing.
 
At my first job a similar thing happened when a guy came to get a copy of San Andreas for his kid. I respectfully mentioned that the game was for adults and a 10 year kid shouldn't be playing it.

His response was "Look, de boy want de game, just give me the fuckin game"

The kid ended up getting the game after his dad made a scene.
 
You were just an information box. If it were me, I would have let her know the games involve drug dealing, prostitutes, and killing cops. I think the games are garbage for all ages, personally.
 
Hyoukokun said:
You did the right thing. In these kinds of situations I usually also try to recommend an age-appropriate replacement. I'm not much of a racing game aficionado, but Forza or Gran Turismo could be reasonable replacements along the lines of "a game about driving," and they hopefully look mature / realistic enough to keep the kid happy.
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.

You should have gotten his mom to buy him a Wii U and a copy of Splatoon, OP.

"You' a kid now, you' a squid now, you' a kid, you' a squid, you' a kiiiid now". It would have been an easy game to sell the mother on.
 
90% of the time I play GTA V it's just a T rated racing game because I bounce around the online lobbies doing crazy stunt tracks or off-road races.
 
It's an 18 rated game, I don't understand why she felt the need to ask.

If a parent is willing to be buying something with an 18 rating then they really need to be looking into these things themselves rather than relying on somebody who may care about nothing more than selling as many games as possible.

I can't help but feel that it may have ben a very different story if you'd sold her kid an 18 rated blu-ray and he'd gone home and watched it in his room. I wouldn't be surprised to see the parents turning up and being understandably furious with you.
 
You done the right thing. Its the mothers decision and you just told her whats possible in the game and she decided thats not something her kid should play.
 
You did the right thing, but lil kids rarely go murderous on gta v in my experience, my brother lets our 5 year old nephews play his copy and really they just love driving around, even tho they know that the game is about stealing cars and crime (like when they want another car they go "uncle, can you steal that one for me?") but they generally don't do malicious things, thats more 12 year old stuff.

I think there is an old article on Cracked.com about how "kids play games now" and the author recalls the same, like he let his son and his daughter play and they would just drive around making up their own stories while they drove around.

You yourself admiting playing GTA games at that age...it's interesting having hands on experience of how much games don't really turn us into angry violent monsters.
 
You cruel, cruel thing, OP.

Jokes aside, I did the same thing when GTA IV came out. I was in my local game store just checking some new releases and the same thing happened. A 10 (or so) year old told his mom to get him IV and prevented her from doing so.

My 8 year old self would've hated you too, lol.
 
spoonztt said:
At my first job a similar thing happened when a guy came to get a copy of San Andreas for his kid. I respectfully mentioned that the game was for adults and a 10 year kid shouldn't be playing it.

His response was "Look, de boy want de game, just give me the fuckin game"

The kid ended up getting the game after his dad made a scene.
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Well why did you give him trouble, you think he couldn't read the number on the cover? If you ask me it was none of your raasclaat business.

lol
 
OP, you totally did the right thing. The Mum would have been horrified when she got it home and witnessed the content which is completely unsuitable for an 8 year old. Well done
 
Probably would have done the same myself. But then I'd tell them to go buy a copy of ALIEN and let him watch it, like I did when I was his age.
 
Good job. I'm an adult and I feel some of the content is too hardcore for me. I won't even play the game if my son is not sleep or out with his mom.
 
Sephzilla said:
I would have done the same thing you did, OP. Though I would have felt like a massive hypocrite because I played a lot of 18/older games when I was too young too.
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mreddie said:
To be honest I would have done the same and I got Vice City when I was 12.
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Here's the thing though, the gratuity and how violence is depicted in video games are massively different from when I was younger. I say this as a 10 year old who played Vice City years ago. I didn't do the story cause my older siblings did that stuff but I still played it nonetheless.
 
Would you have stopped a 12 year old? That's when I first played GTA III lol.

Seems like you just gave her the facts, can't fault you for that, although you're definitely the dude young me hated hahaha.
 
You didn't really say anything that bad/wrong, you just answered her question and said it how it is, you could have said a lot more. Of course that kid will hate you but who cares lol.
 
If they went home after that and the mom didn't buy the kid a game i'd feel bad OP.

When I was a kid and I would go to a game shop with my mom i'd be so sad if she wouldn't buy me anything.
 
theRizzle said:
I think a lot of parents don't understand how the ESRB system works, or even know it exists. I'm sure she asked you because she probably sized you up and figured you'd tell her the truth if the game was appropriate for someone that age. I would have done exactly what you did and explain some of the things you can do in the game, and then allowed her to make her own decision on whether that's something she thinks he child should be involved with.

I usually try to equate ESRB ratings to movie ratings for people, because they are generally much more familiar with that system. I bet if you'd asked her if she'd buy an R rated movie for her son she probably would have said no.
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That's why I love PEGI system.

TheDanger said:
Then she says it says 18 on the box
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See? The first thing parent has noticed was PEGI 18 rating, as far as I understand. It literally says "not suitable for people under 18" and it's not possible to pass thoughts like "oh, I think my boy is already mature".
 
I would've done the same thing. I was playing stuff like GTA 2 and Team Fortress Classic around that kid's age, but my older brother turned gore off in TFC when I'd play, and I mainly played GTA 2 to drive around and run from the police. Compared to even the opening of GTA 5, I'd say nothing I played until I was about 14 or 15 came close to that.
 
You were asked, decency dictated that you give an honest answer. I mean yeah I feel bad for the kid and all that, but it really isn't an ideal game for an eight year old. Honestly I'm kinda curious why so many eight year olds want to play GTA games. They're not exactly marketed towards them.
 
I think it was good of you to inform the parent so she could make an educated decision. Or just honesty for the sake of honesty.

As for whether or not an 8 year old should play GTA, I dunno if it really matters.
 
family_guy said:
Then we have the kid who killed his dad because he took his Halo game away.
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Yes, because as we all know, it must have been video games that reshaped his brain into a killing machine, definitely not bad parenting, lack of education, and shitty living environment.
 
You did good, OP. Speaking as both a gamer and a father of four, I can quite confidently say that games more often get into the hands of kids that probably shouldn't have them because the parents genuinely don't understand what's in them. I don't really understand it but they almost literally don't see the difference between Grand Theft Auto and, say, Spider-Man or something.
 
You did the right thing but you totally should've made out with his mom in front of him too just to drive the point home that you are going to fuck up his day
 
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