News Video games 'good for children'

One day the press are espousing all games are evil, and the next they're good for children. This from the beeb:

Computer games can promote problem-solving and team-building in children, according to games industry experts.
The message forms part of the Edinburgh International Games Festival, which is holding events for schoolchildren to create their own games.

Children at the Royal Museum will be designing characters, as well as writing dialogue and storylines.

The games industry has denied claims that it is responsible for creating couch potatoes and promoting violence.

Last month, the Dixons group decided not to sell a controversial Edinburgh-developed video game, Manhunt, because the family of a murdered boy linked it to his death

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It obviously depends on which game they're talking about...

And games don't make people KILL, I mean what about movies eh?, ****in' stupid newspapers and crap make my blood boil , oh and stupid parents aswell

 

games dont kill people, people influenced by games kill people. Whereas, bullets dont kill people, bullets influenced by inertia kill people.

You have to face it sometime: people in a fragile state of mind can be driven to kill and the games makers are then "accessories". All I mean to point out is that there should be stricter control on game certification, IIRC its not illegal to purchase and play a game for 18yrs if your say... 12, the certification is merely a guideline. At least in the UK/EIRE as far as I know.

how many times have you been in a game store where a child asks the parent to purchase a game well beyond their age, then just handing it to the child?

 

Well everyone has the ability to control themselves for whatever reason, and to make intelligent decisions, obviously if you're going to get violent I suggest that you DON'T play Serious Sam or even more violent games.

Tbh, I don't even think those games are violent, it's GRAPHICS, it's not reality...

 

Liquid K9: Or maybe a law against mentally unstable people having access to stuff that might "set them off". I know that's pretty much impossible to properly implement, but look at how useless the current age restrictions are - and there's nothing to say that the next *insert various evil here* induced killing won't be perpetrated by someone over 18?

ou7blaze: You obvoiusly havn't played doom3 yet then

 

key word: played... i wish we could convince the suits that we are just PLAYING games... not living them...

 

you clearly dont think that the mentally disabled/retarded/vunerable count in the great scheme we call life, then?

You may be able to control yourself, but that is you - you cannot judge everyone by how you interperet the world. Many people live their entire lives engrossed in bitter clinical depression, by your reasoning these people are depressed because they want to be, regardless of chemical/social or biological reasons why.

I dont understand how games get by without any certification system judicated by law, its hypocritism to limit the use of one medium of entertainment (movies) but not is spawn (games). All that is needed is a law saying the mentally unstable should not be allowed any games which are provocative of voilent and/or illegal actions.

Thats not true of everyone though. Many people have taking gaming to such an extreme as to actually consider it a career and lifestyle choice, such people are probably more interested in the gameplay rather than the content, however you get the meaning. The problem with 'the suits' is that they think of games the same way as they used to think of hacking - it being able to cripple anything and anyone by mere suggestion. Which of course is completely ludicrus and as such people no longer think that way (as much) any more about hacking, however they're still stuck on the idea that games are devil spawn.

 

The problem for me is that they try and regulate games by age and only age, which makes no sense as (except for natural selection ) there is no reason why even most of the people with problem would be under 18, or 21, or 15 or whatever arbitary number of years anyone decides on.

 

its not arbitrary, its based on sociolagical, psychological and phsyological factors. To begin with, the human brain expands as a person ages and with expansion comes comprehension, perception and distinction - things which are not available earlier on in life. Add to that the social changes, sex is considered completely taboo for under 15s in some areas of the world while it is common place in others and as such games should with suggestive content should be limited to their respective demographics. Also, psychologically people mature as they get older - theres no disputing that; under 12s are more likely to be negatively effected from grotesque scenes as can be seen in Doom 3 or more apparently in the Silent Hill series.

Age is a very good way of limiting people, though it should not be the only.