94 replies to this topic

[Catra Lanis]

oldradagast, on 19 April 2017 - 05:23 PM, said:

Is this a joke?

Do you know what I was doing at that age or younger? Flying GI Joe planes around, dropping plastic bombs on toy tanks as they ran over and blew away piles of GI Joe action figures while were shooting each other. Or, maybe I was playing with Transformers as they dueled to the death. Or, maybe using Legos to build models of WW2 naval vessels or star destroyers. Last I checked, I didn't turn out a murderous pyschopath, and neither did nearly every other person who did the same at that age. And what of the previous generations? Cops and robbers? The list keeps on going.

Through all of human history, children have been prepared for adulthood via various games and rituals that include everything from home-making to war. MWO, and all video gaming in general, is just another incarnation of that concept mixed with entertainment for everyone.

I remember when Mortal Kombat came out, and everyone over 40 freaked because cartoon violence was going to "destroy our youth." We'll ignore everything from cartoons that came before, with bombs and anvils, to the Three Stooges... no, it was going to be Mortal Kombat that spelled the end of civilization, because it was "clearly" the first form of violence anyone had every seen in entertainment... lol... Naturally, that game came and went and nothing changed. I honestly hoped we had moved beyond such silly ignorance as a society, but now we're to believe a game with robots shooting each other is going to be the end of all things? Come on!

That is something I recognize. I had a load of die cast tanks, mainly Corgi and Dinky Toys. It was probably enough to outfit a mechanized brigade. Then in the early 80:s the toy shops due to political pressure decided to pull them but now they seem to be coming back to the shelves.

[LordNothing]

a normal kid raised on violent video games will grow up to be normal. a kid who has been *****, molested, neglected, abused and ridiculed and then exposed to violent video games and movies will not grow up normal. i really dont think the violent movies and video games are the x factor there. of course that goes back to bad parents, many of those things are ignored, tolerated, even perpetrated by parents or at least allowed to happen and continue through neglect and failure to recognize warning signs.

then you got parents who allow their own vanity and pride to cloud their judgment about such things. "my kids are fine, im a good parent" they say, while maybe spending a couple hours with their kids a day and putting their blind faith in the institutions they have chosen to do their parenting jobs for them. especially with the primary perpetrators being family and close acquaintances one can not be too careful who they trust with their kids. that shady uncle who has never had a functional relationship nor regular employment is probibly not the best choice of a babysitter, even though you might save $50.

a corporate entity putting out an appropriately rated video game to be sold to an appropriate age group, and then parents ignoring those ratings. its easy to see where the blame rests. then imagine those parents in the above scenario. this kind of crap is not unknown, its in all the psychology textbooks.

Edited by LordNothing, 20 April 2017 - 05:45 AM.

[Telemachus -Salt Wife Salt Life-]

I only read OP

LAWL

[Coolant]

you have no idea how old the person was OP and it is judgmental of you to assume anything since the other person could be literally on the other side of the world.

[Mole]

So what, did OP make this thread just so he could shake his cane and complain about damn kids these days?

[Humpday]

Man you must be ancient. hahah The whole "videogames cause psychosis and create killers thing" was debunked back in the 90s lololol

WTF!? Plus back then we were playing mortal kombat, street fighter, doom, and contra and even super mario, megaman, ninja turtles were based on killing things, most of the time things resembling humans.

And you're worried about people blowing up robots? lololol Welcome to 2017 ya old fart!

Oh by the way, if you didn't know there are t!ts and sex in games now. Play god of war. You'll probably have to go to church after.

Edited by Humpday, 20 April 2017 - 07:21 AM.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Really OP? Its because games are not to blame when someone goes out and kills people. Its up to the kids and parents to basically know its just a game, and to treat and teach it as such. ****, I was playing MW2, and all matter of "war games" when I was like 5, MW2 in a Kit Fox and then a Mad Dog being my first time I played a PC game. I played Battletech for a few rounds as well. Is playing war games supposed to scar the kid or something? Only if they are stupid enough to believe somehow they are killing in the game. Gotta know the difference and you'll be fine.

[Jaster Me Reel]

Me thinks the OP got rolled by said "child" and decided he needed to voice his "concern" on da interwebs. Carry on.

[BLOOD WOLF]

LordKnightFandragon, on 20 April 2017 - 07:24 AM, said:

you never know what the reason is

Edited by BLOOD WOLF, 20 April 2017 - 07:28 AM.

[Gangben]

I'm ok with children playing videogames of all kinds. It's better to kill pixel-mechs than real people in real wars in real life.

[process]

B-but video games make kids violent and sexist!

[LordKnightFandragon]

LordNothing, on 20 April 2017 - 05:42 AM, said:

a normal kid raised on violent video games will grow up to be normal. a kid who has been *****, molested, neglected, abused and ridiculed and then exposed to violent video games and movies will not grow up normal. i really dont think the violent movies and video games are the x factor there. of course that goes back to bad parents, many of those things are ignored, tolerated, even perpetrated by parents or at least allowed to happen and continue through neglect and failure to recognize warning signs.

then you got parents who allow their own vanity and pride to cloud their judgment about such things. "my kids are fine, im a good parent" they say, while maybe spending a couple hours with their kids a day and putting their blind faith in the institutions they have chosen to do their parenting jobs for them. especially with the primary perpetrators being family and close acquaintances one can not be too careful who they trust with their kids. that shady uncle who has never had a functional relationship nor regular employment is probibly not the best choice of a babysitter, even though you might save $50.

a corporate entity putting out an appropriately rated video game to be sold to an appropriate age group, and then parents ignoring those ratings. its easy to see where the blame rests. then imagine those parents in the above scenario. this kind of crap is not unknown, its in all the psychology textbooks.

Its mostly poor parents or lack of parents that lead to the psycho kids.

[qS Sachiel]

Puresin, on 19 April 2017 - 05:08 PM, said:

When did i miss the meeting where we all decided to allow children (ages 16 and under in my book) to be playing WAR games?

I thought that we were supposed to be training or preparing children for school and university and life at that age, not preparing to play video games that include war and the total destruction of enemy mechs?

Seriously, I just played a game with a player that I can GARANTEE the child wasn't even of age to have gone through puberty. I know because he corrected me and told me he was a boy not a girl.

Yes i could have misjudged the age but there is definitely a sickness with the world when people are okay with children playing war games.

And people want to judge other cultures for giving weapons to children.......when we do no less but hide behind the statement that "it's just a video game" the only difference would be that in real life it would be scarier, there'd be kick back and true ammo limitations.

I even saw a post from a 13 year old complaining that he can't get logged into the game due to age restrictions. Whats even worse is there were players on there saying yeah he should be let in to the game.

p.s. this is not an attack at PGI. they actually have an age limit on this game. But the fact that I played with a garanteed child means that parents are just signing their kids up to games and violating age limitation. parents shouldn't be allowed to do that. The ones that do should be banned when they are caught.

not to mention the fact that the tier system means that I have to play with children who have NO idea about tactics and just want to run and gun and ruin the game for the rest of us who want to play an actual game instead.

p.p.s. Just saw the age restriction, it is indeed 13. That is seriously wrong. should be 15 with parental permission and proof provided or 16 and up.

13 can't drive a car but is allowed to pilot a mech and run around "killing" enemies. anyone else see the problem here?

Mechwarrior 2 was one of my first games.
Played it on DOS when i was 5.

Yeah nah, it's animated, no gore, only swearing/sex/drug references you get from VOIP...
go pop a prozac and back on the chair gramps.

The biggest risk to children in this game is being financially exploited (or their parents).

Edited by qS Sachiel, 20 April 2017 - 08:07 AM.

[JC Daxion]

heh,, i rarely have seen anyone young playing.. (or at least knew they were)


But this one time.. on HPG.. all of a sudden this kid, had to be 12-13 (before voice dropped) and he started ranting. I forget exactly what he was ranting about, but hearing the rant in that voice made me laugh so hard.


Personally i don't care.. I've certainly known many 12 year olds that act more like adults than adults.

[BlueFlames]

Age stopped being important when cranky old men started complaining about the children on their virtual lawn.

[Sunstruck]

Dude most of the kids that I know play this game do so with their parents making it a kind of family activity. There isn't anything vulgar in mechwarrior besides some of the bad mouths that shoot off over voip and chat.

I don't know about you but I seem to remember playing a lot of video games in my youth.

[Johnny Imba]

process, on 20 April 2017 - 07:40 AM, said:

B-but video games make kids violent and sexist!

Yeah like Rock'n'roll music did one generation earlier...

For the old generation its always the end of the world (as they knew it)

[HGAK47]

I remember when I was a kid, must have been about 6 or 8 or something, I found this amazing game on the Amiga where you are a big mech thing with missiles and chainguns in a side scrolling shooter it was called "Walker". Check out the youtube video below.

For the time the graphics were very bloody and gory and I absolutly loved it!

My point being that even at that age I was already mentally mature enough to be ok with it. Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 - I must have played that to death at the age of about 10 back in 1999 and that was a very deep game covering many aspects of adult life and deep topics.

I believe games can be a tool of learning. They are not always simple mindless fun, granted most are but some have a way of teaching you things.

[Tralik]

Pretty sure the OP is trolling, but just in case... I just went through the CoC and Terms of Use. There is no age requirement for MWO. In fact, the only mention of age requirement is for the authorized use of a Credit Card which is for anyone under 13 to Have parental consent.

This "issue" hits close to home for me. I play this game with my 12yr. old son. He's been playing since he was 11, a little over a year, and is getting very close to hitting Tier 1, and is one of the 6 highest ranking officers in our unit. By any objective measure, he is a good pilot. He also happens to be an excellent drop caller for our unit.

My experience is that age is clearly not the determining factor for skill or usefulness to a group. In fact, I've dropped with countless pugs and other players who were not only substantially worse players, but also far less mature than my 12 year old. I've encountered players who would refuse to take calls from a 12 year old that end up costing the team the match because they refused to coordinate or follow his lead simply because of his age.

My child does not appear to be the exception either. In our unit alone I think we have 5 or 6 father/son pairs. I've played with other young teens who seem to do quite well in the game, and I have yet to run into a young(er) player who was obnoxious or disrespectful. However, that is nearly a daily occurrence with adults.

[Mole]

Tralik, on 20 April 2017 - 11:21 AM, said:

and I have yet to run into a young(er) player who was obnoxious or disrespectful. However, that is nearly a daily occurrence with adults.

I've ran into a few damned obnoxious kids in this game. But I've run into far more damned obnoxious adults.


As for the OP, I cut my gaming teeth on Star Fox for the Super NES. On the original Mortal Kombat for PC. On Mechwarrior 2. On Wing Commander. On Descent: Freespace. On Star Wars. On Star Trek. On DOOM. On Duke Nukem 3D. I played with micro machines from massive tank battles to legos with massive battles at land, air, sea, and space. I used to go outside with my friends with foam dart guns or squirt guns and we would all play soldier. We dug foxholes, built fortifications with turrets and firing ports, had mock wars with other groups of kids in the neighborhood. I practically shot out of the womb playing wargames of some sort and I don't believe the story is any different for any other young male from any generation. You know what I do now? I'm in a loving and healthy relationship with a wonderful lady and I am a researcher in neuroscience. I have never committed an act of real life violence in my life that was serious enough to warrant a permanent memory of the event. I'm not a deranged killer because I grew up playing wargames. In fact, I played so many wargames and watched so many war movies that I realized at a very early age that playing war was fun but real war SUCKED. And I knew it was a place that I never wanted to be in reality. This is an opinion that I still hold to this day. Pretend violence is fun. It's really fun. But real violence is not. If somebody cannot seperate pretend violence from real violence into two completely seperate catergories then I say they have problems that go much deeper than any video games they were or were not allowed to play.

Edited by Mole, 20 April 2017 - 12:06 PM.