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ScreaminRaider · 07-13-2005, 08:41 AM

Today, I saw a piece on the news talking about a teenager that murdered a police officer because of the game, Grand Theft Auto. The family of the officer is suing Wal-Mart, GameStop, Sony and the company who designed the game. I have several views on this. First, I understand their anger towards these companies. The company that made the game was very irresponsible. This game condones shooting people, Stealing cars, and has sex scenes that can be unlocked by a cheat code, not to mention the vulgar language that would make a Marine blush. I'm sorry to those gamers out there that are addicted to this crap, but It should not be allowed on the shelves of stores. However, there is one more area that people forget. The Parents. The designers, and the stores that sell the game may be irresponsible, but It is the parents responsibility to say "hey, this game has a big 'M' on the front of it, maybe you shouldn't play this game." Too many parents today sit there kids in front of the TV and let it do the parenting for them. For example, I was in a game store one day, and a kid about the age of 6 was asking his mom for the newest GTA. I'm was thinking that she was going to flat out say no, but she said YES!!! I was shocked. So was the store clerk. He told her that the game was too mature for her kids, and she told him not to tell her how to raise her kids. Something is wrong with this picture. What happens when this kid goes out and shoots up his local playground at the age of 8? She'll say something like "I didn't know," or "It's the stores fault for selling me the game." Some parents will say "My child is smart enough to know the difference between the game and reality." There have been too many incidents where a kid kills another kid by pointing a gun at them and pulling the trigger. They'll say later that they thought it was unloaded. This happened to a guy my brother and I grew up with, named Matt. He was standing outside of a party, and his friend 'jokingly' pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger assuming that it was unloaded. Matt died on that front porch. Matt was a very smart young man that had a promising future ahead of him, but he was taken from this world too soon. Do you want to know what the kid who shot him had in his Xbox? Yes, you guessed it, GTA. How many times does something like this happen before we all figure out that this crap is damaging to our society? The companies that sell the games like this are not going to take it off the shelf by simply writing about it in our blogs. We need to stop buying it. If nobody buys it, then they won't sell it. But, I know that won't happen. There will always be some irresponsible parent buying games like this for their six year old, until one day, their six year old is taken away from them.

discuss....

07-13-2005, 08:41 AM	#1 (permalink)
ScreaminRaider Piano User Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: San Antonio, Tx Posts: 407	Are the Games at Fault? Today, I saw a piece on the news talking about a teenager that murdered a police officer because of the game, Grand Theft Auto. The family of the officer is suing Wal-Mart, GameStop, Sony and the company who designed the game. I have several views on this. First, I understand their anger towards these companies. The company that made the game was very irresponsible. This game condones shooting people, Stealing cars, and has sex scenes that can be unlocked by a cheat code, not to mention the vulgar language that would make a Marine blush. I'm sorry to those gamers out there that are addicted to this crap, but It should not be allowed on the shelves of stores. However, there is one more area that people forget. The Parents. The designers, and the stores that sell the game may be irresponsible, but It is the parents responsibility to say "hey, this game has a big 'M' on the front of it, maybe you shouldn't play this game." Too many parents today sit there kids in front of the TV and let it do the parenting for them. For example, I was in a game store one day, and a kid about the age of 6 was asking his mom for the newest GTA. I'm was thinking that she was going to flat out say no, but she said YES!!! I was shocked. So was the store clerk. He told her that the game was too mature for her kids, and she told him not to tell her how to raise her kids. Something is wrong with this picture. What happens when this kid goes out and shoots up his local playground at the age of 8? She'll say something like "I didn't know," or "It's the stores fault for selling me the game." Some parents will say "My child is smart enough to know the difference between the game and reality." There have been too many incidents where a kid kills another kid by pointing a gun at them and pulling the trigger. They'll say later that they thought it was unloaded. This happened to a guy my brother and I grew up with, named Matt. He was standing outside of a party, and his friend 'jokingly' pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger assuming that it was unloaded. Matt died on that front porch. Matt was a very smart young man that had a promising future ahead of him, but he was taken from this world too soon. Do you want to know what the kid who shot him had in his Xbox? Yes, you guessed it, GTA. How many times does something like this happen before we all figure out that this crap is damaging to our society? The companies that sell the games like this are not going to take it off the shelf by simply writing about it in our blogs. We need to stop buying it. If nobody buys it, then they won't sell it. But, I know that won't happen. There will always be some irresponsible parent buying games like this for their six year old, until one day, their six year old is taken away from them. discuss.... __________________ Jonathan Wright