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[Badlucktroll]

My parents never EVER screened for violence. They were hippies and they figured i was intelligent enough to know the shit wasn't real. My dad even would buy me tickets to see R rated movies with friends. He bought me and a buddy the tickets to see "Event Horizon" when i was 11. I felt lucky in that regard, and i turned out OK.

 

[Rekki-Maru]

Here in town where I live there used to be a locally owned small chain movie and game rental store that I used to help out and work for since my wife was the manager at the time. One of the big things was that customers would leave notes or special instructions on their account about how their kids could rent R or Mature rated films and games mainly because we used to always call the parents when they tried to rent these items and really rather than us bother them they would let their kids rent anything.

I remember when GTA: San Andreas came out and surprised at the amount of kids (9-12 years old) were always calling to check to see if it was in or had been returned. There was the time when it was in and a young kid with his mom went to rent it one day and I made some small talk with them them while bringing up the mom's account asking her if the game was for her son since it's rated Mature. She asked me why it was rated Mature and I laid out it pretty much the ESRB description "Strong violence, blood, gore, sexual content and nudity". She then looks concerned and asks me what kind of "sexual content" and I tell her the game features prostitutes and strip clubs you can go to. She then gives her son "the look" like he was trying to pull something over her but she just turns back to me rolling her eyes and says "its ok. It's just a video game. It can't be that bad."

An hour later the game gets returned in our drop box. lol

ESRB, needs to update the ratings system. They should just use the same one MPAA uses, OR there needs to be an R equivalent instead of the outdated pg-13/R quasi-horseshit M rating that confuses people.

 

[Conezays]

Or the guy who was obsessed with Tomcat Alley on the Mega CD. I worked in game retail for 3 years. Literally EVERY SINGLE WEEK (including my very first day) he would come in on a Friday and ask if any games had been released that were like Tomcat Alley, then start going on about how nothing has ever been as immersive since that game, then start acting out the lines from the game, in the middle of the store. For about 45 minutes.

Unbelievable...and amazing.

 

[Krejlooc]

ESRB, needs to update the ratings system. They should just use the same one MPAA uses, OR there needs to be an R equivalent instead of the outdated pg-13/R quasi-horseshit M rating that confuses people.

the mpaa owns their rating system. the esrb would prefer to use it, but cannot.

 

[Mahonay]

I played M rated games growing up (at least when they created the ratings system after the MK controversy). Games at that point, for the most part, were never at a high enough fidelity to make things truly disturbing. By the time GTA III came out I was already 15. I mean I played stuff like Blood Omen: Legacy of Kane and Loaded on PS1 at a younger age, but that stuff was catoonishly violent compared to what you get today. Also my parents never got a drift of me playing those games. That was before they banned minors buying/renting M rated games. I often would rent that stuff from Blockbuster on my own.

If I were to have kids, I would most probably not allow them to play any kind of M rated game until around 15 and 16. I know they'd definitely still find ways to play them, but I could at least instill in them the general idea of violence being wrong.

My mother today still thinks video game violence (or just video games in general) is a menace to society. If it weren't for my dad I don't know if I ever would have gotten that first NES, which blossomed into a life long love of video games.


But fuck those retail stories are horrific.

 

[Why would you do that?]

Wait, what. Weren't they still DMA Design back then? IIRC the R* name and logo didn't come along until a reprint of GTA3.

I'm not 100% sure in this but I'm pretty sure:
- DMA and R* were two different companies.
- DMA developed GTA and GTA2, and R* published them.
- R* bought DMA sometime around DMA's development of GTA III. I forgot if it was before, during, or after development.
- DMA became R* North. Their logo is just like the yellow R* logo, but R* North's logo is blue.

 

[Nanashrew]

I dunno about you guys, but I could be a deceitful, underhanded little a-hole when I was a kid. I got rightfully punished for my actions and was taught why what I was doing was wrong and the content I was consuming not good for me.

Reflecting on things I did as a kid like that shows how immature I was that I would do almost anything for my own self satisfaction. It's no different from kids from long ago or kids today but it's important to teach them the importance of what they consume and what things they are doing that could be wrong.

I don't have kids but if I did, I'd imagine they would inherit those awful traits of mine and when that day comes they'll get punished too because I know the tricks.

There are a lot of weak arguments in here on maturity and the whole reality vs fiction stuff that is just messed up.

 

[Koppai]

Glad I work at Best Buy, so far no terrible stories to report in, but will be on the lookout.

I had some girl be rude to me about amiibo "but it says Coming Soon on the website" and I am telling you, "Coming Soon" will change to "Sold Out" when it launches. If it's sold out on the website, you cannot order it in store. DUH.

 

[Cipherr]

Seems like a policy set to backfire to me. I know that if I was that kid the next time I begged for a game GAME would now be on my blacklist. All things being equal my parents normally went where I asked to go.

No one cares or ever will care about some angsty angry childs 'blacklist'. So shelve that empty threat. If your parents don't want to buy you a certain game after seeing whats in it, tough luck.

LOL every thread about GTA and parenting has this response. I WAS /MY KIDS ARE SO MATURE FOR THEIR AGE.

My three old knows the difference between reality and fiction in what she sees on TV!! That is NOT an indication of maturity. You know what maturity is? Accepting NO for an answer from your parents because they know more than you, care for you, love you, and have more wisdom in this life than A CHILD WHO WANTS TO PLAY A VIDEO GAME.

Truth bombs.

 

[Rekki-Maru]

I played M rated games growing up (at least when they created the ratings system after the MK controversy). Games at that point, for the most part, were never at a high enough fidelity to make things truly disturbing. By the time GTA III came out I was already 15. I mean I played stuff like Blood Omen: Legacy of Kane and Loaded on PS1 at a younger age, but that stuff was catoonishly violent compared to what you get today. Also my parents never got a drift of me playing those games. That was before they banned minors buying/renting M rated games. I often would rent that stuff from Blockbuster on my own.

If I were to have kids, I would most probably not allow them to play any kind of M rated game until around 15 and 16. I know they'd definitely still find ways to play them, but I could at least instill in them the general idea of violence being wrong.

My mother today still thinks video game violence (or just video games in general) is a menace to society. If it weren't for my dad I don't know if I ever would have gotten that first NES, which blossomed into a life long love of video games.

I think it was Night Trap that made people freak out more, but MK was part of it too.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

The kids reaction makes it clear that he wasn't mature enough to handle the game, good on that employee.

Truth. And the people arguing that he should have been more deceptive, or should be more deceptive in the future are the worst. If he was mature enough, he could have an adult conversation about the game with his parents. I know I did growing up, and I was generally allowed to play and watch things that I wanted to because I was articulate enough to talk about the content actually in the games.

 

[Almighty]

No one cares or ever will care about some angsty angry childs 'blacklist'. So shelve that empty threat. If your parents don't want to buy you a certain game after seeing whats in it, tough luck.

I am confused what threat? Or do you think I would of told the clerk "I am never shopping here again. You are blacklisted." if that's the case then you are being stupid. Because yeah that threat would of meant jack and shit to that clerk and anyone else. What I was saying is that purely from a bottom line perspective a store policy like that seems like it might backfire. I had plenty of places to by games from back when I was a 13-14. Assuming everything was equal my parents didn't really care where they bought my games from. So it would of been easy to avoid that store in the future. I imagine it is even easier today with the rise of the internet.

 

[vareon]

Kid needs to convince his parents better than "his friends play it too".

 

[orthodoxy1095]

I am confused what threat? Or do you think I would of told the clerk "I am never shopping here again. You are blacklisted." if that's the case then you are being stupid. Because yeah that threat would of meant jack and shit to that clerk and anyone else. What I was saying is that purely from a bottom line perspective a store policy like that seems like it might backfire. I had plenty of places to by games from back when I was a 13-14. Assuming everything was equal my parents didn't really care where they bought my games from. So it would of been easy to avoid that store in the future. I imagine it is even easier today with the rise of the internet.

How is it easier these days to avoid getting age-checked?

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

I used to work at Game Crazy part time while in college before they shuttered. One day a kid who looked about 12 years old came in to purchase Grand Theft Auto SA. At this point, we were enforcing the "have to be 18 years old or over to buy M rated games rule," which hadn't really been enforced in the past. Anyway, I told the kid that sorry, he needed to show up with a parent or guardian to purchase the game. He looked disappointed and left. Several hours later, a mini van pulls up and what can only be described as a classic soccer mom gets out and storms in the store. She starts yelling that she had to leave work early to come to the store just to buy this game, when she already allowed her son to head down by himself to pick it up. I explained that the game M and had mature content and we weren't allowed to sell it to anybody under 18. She slammed her purse down and shoved her card at me, still fuming. I just shrugged and did the transaction.

Another time, also with Grand Theft Auto SA, a kid of around the same age as the one above came in and I told him the same thing: he needed a parent or guardian to purchase. He says OK, then walks out. He returns what couldn't have been five minutes later with a guy in his early 20s who had been standing out in front of the video store, well before the kid showed up. He says it's his guardian. I look at my manager and he's just like, whatever, so I sold it to him.

 

[daman824]

I played mortal kombat on the saga genesis at an incredibly young age.

Video games and other forms of entertainment are the least likely to actually change the way a child views the world. Most people forget how smart they were as a kid. My kids will be able to play most M rated games at 13/14.

People need to just chill out. When I was in middle school I heard "fuck" and "motherfucker" at least 20 times a day at school. I knew those were bad words, and that I shouldn't say them in public. I also knew shooting someone or cutting their head off was a bad idea and a dick move.

 

[Why would you do that?]

I think the clerk with GTA did the right thing.

My mother was rather on top of things when I was younger. When I was a young kid, she would play Wolfenstein 3D only when I wasn't in the room. When I was 6 or 7, she would play GoldenEye with my brother and cousin, but I could only watch.

When I was 11, I was able to play Perfect Dark, but only if my mother was in the next room. Perfect Dark is rated M, but it wasn't as bad as GTA III + at all, which she would have never let me play if it was out at the time.

Basically, she was on top of what I was doing in the games and she kept an eye on the content of the questionable games I played.

Not every parent is like that, of course. That's why the ESRB ratings exist, obviously. The problem is, even for the parents that do read the ESRB ratings or are involved more heavily in the games their children play in other ways, simply knowing that a game is violent doesn't tell the whole story. I mean, there's a big difference between Perfect Dark and GTA, or Halo and Postal, all rated M, and all likely with "Violence" in the rating description, among other things. Even with T rated games, there's a big difference (e.g. Smash Bros. Melee/Brawl and Twilight Princess vs. Arkham City and GoldenEye), though that was somewhat alleviated with the E10 rating.

I think it's easy for a parent to think that an M rated game might be OK for their child to play just by looking at the box. However, it causes a bit of a problem if a parent just sees, "okay, this game is violent" but doesn't know just how violent it is. Therefore, I think it's a good thing the clerk showed the video to the parents.

 

[Industrialist]

Resident Evil II UK launch day. Queue of 30 people outside the store at 9am on a weekday morning. Front and center is a man and his child - can't have been more than 7 or 8.

Kid marches up to the counter with a copy of RE2. I say I can't sell it to him, so he hands it to his dad, who buys it and tells me about how he's kept his kid off school for the day so they could come in and pick it up at opening time.

King of parents.

 

[Almighty]

How is it easier these days to avoid getting age-checked?

Parents are still buying the game so age check is not a problem. What I mean by easier is I had to go(with my parents) to a brick and mortar store to get my games. Today that kid doesn't even need to have his parents leave the house. On top of that if he had them buy it online he would probably be playing GTAV right now. Unless Amazon for example recently added a video pop up showing the worst scenes from a game with a big are you sure button underneath.

 

[Kieli]

My parents bought me Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance as my first console game.

I was like 12 or something.

It was awesome.

 

[Surface of Me]

My Gamestop bros were all cool when I had to convince my mom to let me get M games, some even enriched my arguments. I eventually just started going to Blockbuster though, since they didnt give a shit and I could go in to get M games by myself.

 

[Big One]

First story: Yeah fuck bad parenting.

Second story: Honestly if the parents were ok with it after you explain the rating, sell that shit. It isn't your duty to parent their child whatsoever, and it's not like they can't return the game later if they find it too much for their son. You shouldn't ever try to get emotionally involved with a customer like that...or else you'll get situations like was just described and now the entire store goes to hell.

Third story: Pretty disgusting overall. There's bathrooms in the mall so there wasn't any reason to try to go into one of the businesses to go.

 

[ClayKavalier]

Mother of the year, just leave your kids at another store and then be shocked when they aren't there because you weren't looking after them

Like a lot of the stories, you'd be amazed at how often that happens at any retail place.

I had the misfortune of working at a Goodwill for a year once and parents were constantly dropping their kids off by the kids books and taking off.

I also got to experience public defecation firsthand at that job.

Perhaps if you read the full post you'd understand it is about getting a full understanding and making an informed decision rather than one based on a knee jerk reaction to what was likely a biased video. If you only show the bad they get the impression that there is literally only bad and nothing remotely positive to be derived from the game.

Can't wait to see your explanation of how playing GTA positively effects a child.

 

[Kensuke]

An M-rated game now isn't the same as an M-rated game 10 or 20 years ago. Yes, many of us played GTA and Mortal Kombat as kids and we're all fine. GTAV and Mortal Kombat X are very different games though. The violence is no longer cartoony, but hyper-realistic. I wouldn't want a 12 year old to constantly see those brutal fatalities. He or she might not be equipped to deal with those kinds of violent images yet. Same goes for GTA.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Parents are still buying the game so age check is not a problem. What I mean by easier is I had to go(with my parents) to a brick and mortar store to get my games. Today that kid doesn't even need to have his parents leave the house. On top of that if he had them buy it online he would probably be playing GTAV right now. Unless Amazon for example recently added a video pop up showing the worst scenes from a game with a big are you sure button underneath.

I would think the rise of the internet would make it easier for parents to know what they're buying. You went into a store a decade ago and you were limited by the information on the back of the box, and whatever the clerk knew. Now, you go on Amazon and you can see look up screenshots and videos instantly. There are even entire websites dedicated to giving a "parent review."

I guess some parents probably really are so braindead and stupid as to let their kid have free reign of their credit card on the internet. But I would hope those parents are in the minority.

 

[Nanashrew]

I played mortal kombat on the saga genesis at an incredibly young age.

Video games and other forms of entertainment are the least likely to actually change the way a child views the world. Most people forget how smart they were as a kid. My kids will be able to play most M rated games at 13/14.

People need to just chill out. When I was in middle school I heard "fuck" and "motherfucker" at least 20 times a day at school. I knew those were bad words, and that I shouldn't say them in public. I also knew shooting someone or cutting their head off was a bad idea and a dick move.

I was the worst and cussed all the time when I wasn't around family and probably hurt a lot of people because of it. I was intelligent and an excellent liar and even convinced my mom that I wasn't the one to place glass straight up in a crack in the street popping the neighbor's tires and she defended me earnestly. I deceived a lot of people.

I learned everything from the media I consumed. I didn't have many friends growing up at all. Parents need to be more involved and luckily my mom and my grandmother were able to snap me out of all that crap to help me grow up better and straighten out. I still tried to fight it though and even tried to run away. I've been placed in many basket holds crying and screaming at the top of my lungs with sadness and contempt for not getting what I wanted when I felt I deserved it. I created a cycle of self satisfaction through underhanded deeds when I didn't get my way which only harmed me and put me in terrible states of mind which further drived me into the cycle.

I'm probably what you would also call the extreme case that could have easily been lost for the rest of my life.

 

[ClayKavalier]

An M-rated game now isn't the same as an M-rated game 10 or 20 years ago. Yes, many of us played GTA and Mortal Kombat as kids and we're all fine. GTAV and Mortal Kombat X are very different games though. The violence is no longer cartoony, but hyper-realistic. I wouldn't want a 12 year old to constantly see those brutal fatalities. He or she might not be equipped to deal with those kinds of violent images yet. Same goes for GTA.

The torture scene alone is justification for the employee taking steps to educate an adult. I'd be extremely grateful if I almost unknowingly let my kid play that and someone let me know.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Poor kid . Christmas ruined.

 

[Almighty]

I would think the rise of the internet would make it easier for parents to know what they're buying. You went into a store a decade ago and you were limited by the information on the back of the box, and whatever the clerk knew. Now, you go on Amazon and you can see look up screenshots and videos instantly. There are even entire websites dedicated to giving a "parent review."

I guess some parents probably really are so braindead and stupid as to let their kid have free reign of their credit card on the internet. But I would hope those parents are in the minority.

Yeah I could see my mom or dad googling GTAV or hearing about how terrible it is via Facebook and refusing me if I was that age today. For this argument though I am assuming that if that kids parents didn't do their research before that clerk did it for them they weren't going to do it at the last minute shopping at Amazon. Since I don't know either of them I could be wrong, but that is the assumption I am going with. I guess while I am at it I am also assuming GAME isn't the only option for him or holds some special place in the parents hearts as well.

 

[AniHawk]

one morning i opened by myself. mornings at gamestop during weekdays are really slow, so there isn't much to do except hang out by the register and organize the shelves. a little before noon i see this lanky, scraggly-haired guy walking by the window and i knew he was going to come into the store. when i saw he had a bag with him, i made my way around the register because fuck that i wasn't going to deal with a gun in my face.

so he comes in and i say hi and ask if i can help him with anything. he sets his stuff down and says no that's fine, and then looks at me dead in the eyes and says, 'i am a world-famous alchemist.'

...oh...?

he proceeds to show me a bowl he pulls out from the bag. it had been spray-painted gold, and he tells me that he has used this bowl that was completely made of gold (going so far as to show where it had 'melted' in uneven drips) to turn grass into beans and bricks into bread. apparently he's on the run from the government due to his powers, and this particular bowl is $200, but he was willing to sell it to me for $25. i declined, going as far to show him my empty wallet. we talk a little and he eventually leaves, muttering to himself that he should use the bowl to turn other things into gold and other valuable items.

 

[MicH]

Good on that clerk informing the parents about the game. Can't believe people are shitting on him in this thread. Really?

I work in retail (not a game store though) and have experienced people shitting on the floor. That shit is just disgusting. I don't know how the hell people do it

 

[Nanashrew]

one morning i opened by myself. mornings at gamestop during weekdays are really slow, so there isn't much to do except hang out by the register and organize the shelves. a little before noon i see this lanky, scraggly-haired guy walking by the window and i knew he was going to come into the store. when i saw he had a bag with him, i made my way around the register because fuck that i wasn't going to deal with a gun in my face.

so he comes in and i say hi and ask if i can help him with anything. he sets his stuff down and says no that's fine, and then looks at me dead in the eyes and says, 'i am a world-famous alchemist.'

...oh...?

he proceeds to show me a bowl he pulls out from the bag. it had been spray-painted gold, and he tells me that he has used this bowl that was completely made of gold (going so far as to show where it had 'melted' in uneven drips) to turn grass into beans and bricks into bread. apparently he's on the run from the government due to his powers, and this particular bowl is $200, but he was willing to sell it to me for $25. i declined, going as far to show him my empty wallet. we talk a little and he eventually leaves, muttering to himself that he should use the bowl to turn other things into gold and other valuable items.

OMG

 

[TeddyShardik]

That's a huge chunk of customers for you. They want to be treated like kings and behave like savages.

 

[kubus]

I've had the GTA story happen so many times. Very depressing that lots of parents don't know what kind of game GTA is. It's funny how they always react the same when I explain it to them, followed by them turning towards the kid and saying "But you told us it's a street racing game!"

Strangely enough I've also experienced the complete opposite. An old lady with her grandson came into the store and she told him she would buy him one game. The kid was overjoyed, as I would be in that position. Later they came to the register, and the boy was holding Zelda Skyward Sword. Nice choice kid, I thought. But then the unthinkable happened. The grandmother saw the PEGI rating and she took the game away. She said "This is a 12+ game, and you're only 10. Choose something else." I was flabbergasted. I mean, technically she was correct, but... You know. I tried to explain that Skyward Sword is a perfectly safe game for a kid like him, but she absolutely wouldn't listen.

Eventually they left with a Transformers game for the Wii.

 

[Altered Juice]

even as a kid I knew to stay away from my parents whenever they were buying me an m rated game at GameStop. "That will be $49.9- oh is this your son?"

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

Can't wait to see your explanation of how playing GTA positively effects a child.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/02/video-game.aspx

Playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children's learning, health and social skills, according to a review of research in American Psychologist.

While one widely held view maintains that playing video games is intellectually lazy, such play actually may strengthen a range of cognitive skills such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception, according to several studies reviewed in the article. This is particularly true for shooter video games, which are often violent, the authors found. A 2013 meta-analysis found that playing shooter video games improved a player's capacity to think about objects in three dimensions just as well as academic courses designed to enhance these same skills, according to the study.

Come on man. Don't be that guy who thinks someone's position is absurd without actually doing some research into the topic before hand.

I personally feel video games enriched my childhood. And yes, I played GTA when I was young. I played shooters. I played doom when it first came out and got nausea from playing it too much (like half an hour to be honest lol).

 

[MMarston]

Re: the GTA thing, the one response I've gotten particularly fed up with in this thread is the whole "I did it, I'm totes fine" because of two particular reasons.

First, there's an old saying that the "insane people don't think their insane." Now, this is an exaggerated analogy but what I'm trying to say is our perception of being socially/morally in check is relative to your own perception, even with the obvious standards in place. Like you could think you're a model citizen but be a total ass simultaneously. Again, this is an exaggerated analogy, not necessarily saying that the people in this thread are actually loonies. I'm just pointing out how this kind of thinking is a fallacy given this. Hell, it doesn't even need to be something as explicit as shooting people up - just being aggressive, anti-social,etc.

Second, and hopefully more understandable is that not everyone is like you. So you turned out perfectly fine even if you played M games since 12? Alright, great for you. That said, that doesn't mean there aren't still a good chunk of kids out there who can actually end up harming themselves from the content depending on their tolerance, or worse, end up harming other people due to immature thinking. So yeah, just cuz you can, doesn't definitively mean everyone can.

 

[Pellegri Testament]

Second story: Honestly if the parents were ok with it after you explain the rating, sell that shit. It isn't your duty to parent their child whatsoever, and it's not like they can't return the game later if they find it too much for their son. You shouldn't ever try to get emotionally involved with a customer like that...or else you'll get situations like was just described and now the entire store goes to hell.

Let me ask this, how would you go about telling yelling parents that you can't refund even close to the full amount of the game, because it's considered used the moment a customers pays for it? I've seen plenty of times where a store will "go to hell" just as bad whether it's angry parents or a screaming child that had the maturity of a baby and clearly didn't have it in them to show that just maybe, they were actually mature enough for said game.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/02/video-game.aspx

Come on man. Don't be that guy who thinks someone's position is absurd without actually doing some research into the topic before hand.

I personally feel video games enriched my childhood. And yes, I played GTA when I was young. I played shooters. I played doom when it first came out and got nausea from playing it too much (like half an hour to be honest lol).

Because everyone is obviously the same as you right? Those "studies" are such fucking bullshit when ignorant people think that everything is "A ok" for everyone, just because they took an insignificant amount of people and tested them over a short period of time. Not everyone has the same family life, the same friend circle, or the same mindset. Every single person can be affected by a medium differently than someone else, no amount of these studies will prove otherwise.

 

[Nightbird]

When it's fine for violent Games to be played by 12/11/10/6 year olds, then why are Ratings still needed? It's pointless to have 'em when everyone turns out fine, isn't it?

So, let's drop the M/T/E/18/16/12/6/0 Ratings, and just paste a big "It's ok." on the Cover all right?

 

[ClayKavalier]

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/02/video-game.aspx





Come on man. Don't be that guy who thinks someone's position is absurd without actually doing some research into the topic before hand.

I personally feel video games enriched my childhood. And yes, I played GTA when I was young. I played shooters. I played doom when it first came out and got nausea from playing it too much (like half an hour to be honest lol).

OK, so playing shootings games MAY "boost children's learning, health and social skills."

The may implies the results are not definitive.

The only other activity that playing games was compared to was attending a class meant to "boost" the same things. What was the curriculum? How was it taught? What are the benefits of playing a game compared to playing outside in a group? To reading?

And even if we naively take it at face value that playing shooting games is beneficial to a child's development, do you not see the difference between playing like a game Splatoon, which mechanically isn't far at all from most other shooting games, and GTA?

You're making an enormous leap from "This study says maybe games are beneficial" to "This is perfectly acceptable for a young kid to play through."

FWIW I think playing some games as a kid may have been beneficial to me. Playing a ton of puzzle and racing games might have improved my reflexes. Refusing to use a guide to beat Zelda games may have rewarded me for thinking something through and not giving up.

The problem for your line of reasoning is playing games in general and playing any particular games doesn't exist in a vacuum. If you can get similar benefits from doing something that does not involve torturing/ killing innocent people, hiring prostitutes, etc. I'm thinking most parents would rather their kid take advantage of that method.

Edit: Here's some choice quotes from your article:

By highlighting the positive effects of playing a wide range of video games, it is not our intention to gloss over their very real potential for harm.

For example, two large-scale survey studies have found that 3% of Dutch (van Rooij, Schoenmakers, Vermulst, van den Eijnden, & van de Mheen, 2011) and about 8% of U.S. youth (Gentile, 2009) who play video games exhibit pathological symptoms of addiction (i.e., damage to family, school, or psychological functioning)

The authors also openly admit that any positive findings they report are potentially biased due to the methodologies of the studies.

Maybe read an article before posting it and chiding someone for failing to do research.

 

[Almighty]

When it's fine for violent Games to be played by 12/11/10/6 year olds, then why are Ratings still needed? It's pointless to have 'em when everyone turns out fine, isn't it?

So, let's drop the M/T/E/18/16/12/6/0 Ratings, and just paste a big "It's ok." on the Cover all right?

So when someone does let 8 year old Johnny play GTAV and screams "WTF. How can a game like this exist." the industry can say "Hey we put right on the box that the game wasn't for children."

 

[Hollycat]

This thread makes me want to read the Acts of Gord again.

 

[cloudstrife]

An M-rated game now isn't the same as an M-rated game 10 or 20 years ago. Yes, many of us played GTA and Mortal Kombat as kids and we're all fine. GTAV and Mortal Kombat X are very different games though. The violence is no longer cartoony, but hyper-realistic. I wouldn't want a 12 year old to constantly see those brutal fatalities. He or she might not be equipped to deal with those kinds of violent images yet. Same goes for GTA.

Thank you. This cannot be stated enough.

 

[Ladekabel]

Oh my God! That neck-boob story is amazing!

 

[Hasney]

The GTA one reminded me of working at GAME.

This guy came in and this was back when they had the 10 day refund no questions asked policy and he wanted to return The Sims on PS2 and exchange it for GTA 3. No worries, I just asked if there was any reason and he said that he didn't like that 2 people could lie together in the same bed so it's not suitable for his 7 year old. Keep in mind this was the ORIGINAL Sims so there wasn't even any whopee or anything.

So I explain to him that it was an 18 rated game and there's a stupid amount of violence in it. He's fine with that. A lot of foul language, cool. I suddenly remembered there was prostitutes and he flipped out about why they would put that in a video game!

He walked out with A Dog's Life.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

I guess I will concede that the "there are worse things out there" is a weak argument, but I stand by that I think the clerk was being a busybody. Though it's not like I would of said anything if I was in that store when this went down. As it falls under my mantra of not my chair not my problem which is also why I disagree with what the clerk did.

He was just following the law and regulations...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19042908

Video game ratings using the Pegi (Pan-European Game Information) system have become legally enforceable in the UK.

Retailers that sell titles with ratings of 12, 16 or 18 years to children below the age limits will be subject to prosecution.

While he may not have been selling it to the Child directly, he did the right thing making the parents aware of the true contents of the game. The parents made the decision.

 

[Kurtofan]

as someone with an ibd I don't feel sorry for the bathroom story.

 

[Almighty]

He was just following the law and regulations...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19042908



While he may not have been selling it to the Child directly, he did the right thing making the parents aware of the true contents of the game. The parents made the decision.

Well I think he went a little far after he told them its rating, but if he did it to make sure his ass was legally covered or because he was legally required to then I can admit my initial impression was wrong.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I wonder how many people have been fired over the fake ID stunt. I believe that happened to an employee I use to work with. He got fired when he didn't realize it was a setup. They do it ever so often. I've never run across it when I worked there. I say fake ID, but it is really someone testing out the ESRB 17+ with an ID that isn't of age. If the employee fails then they are immediately fired. I don't know if its setup by GameStop or the ESRB. You could call them an "ESRB Sting".

Years back I'd make up a line about "defending good from evil", but sadly I've forgotten about those days. I got use to my parents just getting the game for me. My dad would look at me once or twice and that was it. I had a lot of games pre-ordered by myself at Babbages, so all it took was taking the slip and giving it to my dad. He'd just do all the work.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Well I think he went a little far after he told them its rating, but if he did it to make sure his ass was legally covered or because he was legally required to then I can admit my initial impression was wrong.

The perception of PEGI ratings and ratings on games in general in the UK is still really blase. I've worked in retail in the past (both for Virgin and Game) and the amount of times parents don't even realise there's a rating on the DVD/Game box was amazing. They'll hear 'Blood, Sex & Violence' and just think it's the kind of stuff you'd see in your typical action movie, when we most of us know video games often can and sometimes do take it way beyond that.

However, growing up I grew up with Nintendo consoles so was never really subjected to 18+ / Mature games issue. Yet, my friends has Playstations and my cousin had a Megadrive with Mortal Kombat so I still played them 'underage'. Like other people have said it's a different time compared to what it was 15-20 years ago. I still remember morning news kicking off about GTA, and MK having it's blood turned green. I can't say I ever feel the NEED to have an 18+ game when I was a pre-teen/early teen, although I probably had a ton of 18+ movies by the time I was 14.