What happened to video games?

1. 52

   Lamarr Dockettposted 11 years ago

   What happened to video games?
   
   I'm an 80's baby. I remember donkey kong, tetris, racing games, and who can forget super mario brothers? It was fun without after affects. Today we have halo, call of duty, medal of honor and various other misguided games. What happened? Tetris helped children learn how to build. Call of duty is teaching children how to murder someone efficiently. Every child has violent video games. When a child dies because a little boy tries to shoot daddy's gun just like how he uses those guns playing grand theft auto, why is everyone the blame except for the game creators? Are ganes creating killers?

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2. 68

   Volitansposted 11 years ago

   Games don't create killer children. Irresponsible parents do. In your example, if daddy had taught his little boy about proper gun safety and how guns are definitely not toys, that child might not have died. Alternately, if daddy and mommy had used proper parental discretion and not purchased a game that is clearly labeled as being adults-only, then little Billy wouldn't have had the idea to begin with.
   
   There are still plenty of fun educational games out there. The Zoo Tycoon series lets kids build their own zoo - no killing or maiming in sight. There are multitudes of puzzle games out there just like Tetris. SimCity is still around, and the Sims puts in another level of involvement.
   
   So, what happened to video games? They became a big and diverse business, just like movies did so many years ago. Just like with video games, there are violent movies, educational movies, and hundreds of stops in between.

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   1. 59

      UberGeek Infoboxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I voted you up, but as for the killing or maiming in Zoo Tycoon, something my younger siblings like to do as a joke and they find funny (evil children -__-) is they grab a person walking around the park and stick them in the cage with the lions..and.

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3. 70

   Michael Smathersposted 11 years ago

   No, video games don't 'create' killers. People who already have violent tendencies, yes, they may be exacerbated. But I do agree that there's a serious glut of FPSes. It's the current fad, just like fighting games were in the early-to-mid 90s and RPGs were in the mid-to-late 90s.

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4. 68

   glenn wallaceposted 11 years ago

   I'm an 80's baby too, and from my point of view, what happened to games is that they largely grew up with me.
   Games like Mass Effect, Assasin's Creed, GTA ect, feature a good amount of sex and violence... about the same things you'd see in most R-rated movies. The majority of big budget games you see nowadays are made for adult gamers, ages 18-35.
   The majority of TV, movies, music and books are made with adults in mind too... video games have just matured to the point where it targets the same demographics, not just kids any more.
   
   Like Volitans says, it's really up to parents to be responsible and not give inappropriate games to their young children. Would you let your 12-year-old watch Saving Private Ryan? Probably not, so why would you let them boot up Call of Duty?
   
   There are still good, simple games out there for kids. In fact, thanks to digital republishing, you can get value packs of old 8-bit games for very cheap.
   If you're looking for great games that are kid appropriate, here's a few for a start: Skylanders (be prepared to shell out a lot of cash for this!); whatever the latest Pokemon game is; the new Star Wars Kinect game; the whole Lego line of video games; Castle Crashers.

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   1. 70

      Michael Smathersposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not going to go out of my way to avoid exposing my children to sex and violence-laden media. Sex, after all, is a part of life. Nothing inherently bad about it. I will, however, do my job as a parent and explain that the game is, y'know, fantasy.

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5. 94

   Winterfateposted 11 years ago

   I actually made a hub solely as an extended answer to your question:
   
   http://winterfate.hubpages.com/hub/Viol … ndividuals
   
   As a summarized answer: Games are not creating killers. I was born around twenty four years ago, and have been playing video games since the age of 3. Saying that games create killers is a common faulty cause and effect relationship, when it is more likely that violent people prefer violent video games (and that isn't a sure thing either).
   
   Also, there was a lot of violence in media before, it's just that it was not as sensationalized as it is now.

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6. 59

   UberGeek Infoboxposted 11 years ago

   As cartoony as Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers were they still involved fire breathing beasts that try to, well, kill your main character.  It is all goofy for the purpose of not seeming violent, but you also have to squash enemies to rid them from the game!  Does squashing them just send them to a happy place? NO it squashes them and kills them too! I honestly don't feel this way about those games because they are amazing and the classics, but it's just a point of view that can be taken and well, frankly, they are still around with new releases coming out for each series with different variations in effect.
   
   As for the violent shooting games nowadays, I agree with the views that some other Hubbers have answered with: the child will only be violent if that is what they were going to be anyway.  With your argument regarding the kid using daddy's gun like he does in GTA, why would the kid have any access to the gun?? The M rating is on these games for a reason; it is so that these kids can't play these games under their own power, but instead with the approval of an adult!  If the adult is willing to let their kids play the games then they have to stress to their children the fakeness involved in the games and the fact that what they do is bad and a "no-no."
   
   Games don't create killers-- Psychological problems and parental issues do.

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