Wired Columnist Ponders Fatherhood, Violent Games

April 9, 2007
Every gaming parent eventually faces the dilemma described by Wired columnist Clive Thompson.

What games can your child play, and at what age?

Thompson describes switching off Gears of War when his fifteen-month old son entered the room. But the experience left him wondering:
Gamers like me have spent years railing against ill-informed parents and politicians who've blamed games for making kids violent, unimaginative, fat or worse. But now we're in a weird position: We're the first generation that is young enough to have grown up playing games, but old enough to have kids.

So it turns out that, whoops, now we've got to make sober calls about what sort of entertainment is good or bad for our children. And what, precisely, are we deciding? I started making calls to my gamer posse find out.

Thompson checked in with Kotaku's Brian Crecente as well as Wired editor Chris Anderson:
As you'd expect, I found that joystick-wielding parents are much better than Hillary Clinton at parsing the nuances in various types of combat games. Brian Crecente, the editor of game blog Kotaku, takes an approach that most gamer parents described to me: They treat games as they would movies. If they're too adult in content for his 5-year-old son, he won't let his child even watch them being played...

Chris Anderson... suggested a even more intriguing strategy: the "Lego Rule."

The Lego Company, it seems, has a policy of not producing toys that replicate 20th century weapons. "You can have swords, and you can have laser guns in space, but no actual 20th century guns," Anderson says. So his four children can play games like Halo, since it contains only futuristic, fantasy war, where you're killing only green- or blue-blooded aliens. The same goes for Roman swordplay titles. "But it clearly walls off Grand Theft Auto."
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Comments

[...] I don’t have any kids (it’s very difficult for me to avoid putting in the obligatory “that I know of!” wink, elbow jab joke here) but family questions seem to be encroaching on my life of late.  My girlfriend’s two sisters are impressively fertile with four (soon to be five) kids between them and a number of my friends have recently been or will soon be married.  I’ve always been a gamer and now even that pillar of misplaced youth has begun the steady march towards parenthood - case in point, GamePolitics recently featured a post about gamer parents dealing with violent game questions. [...]

Heres a thought if a game is labeled mature why are you letting a 8 year old play it?

the point is the age guidelines are good enough to help keep content out of the hands of kids,if you are a gamer and played the game and see it as ok for the kid to play fine...but saying one thing and changing your mind 2 min later is...kinda dumb...

@ Terminator 44

They probably couldn't tell the difference. I just wanted to point it out, although I have to disagree with it lookin like an M8

@Deathnote29

Actually, I think it resembles a M8 much more. Just as the MA5B resembles the FN2000.

But, I don't think the average young child would be able to tell the difference, though.

"You can have swords, and you can have laser guns in space, but no actual 20th century guns,” Anderson says. So his four children can play games like Halo, since it contains only futuristic, fantasy war,"

Is it just me, or does the Battle Rifle in Halo2 bear a striking resemblance to a FAMAS

While I'm still about seven or so years off from having kids, I see myself still being into gaming in the future, so I'll be informed enough to decide what I'll let my kid play on a game by game basis.

I'm surprised GamerDad wasn't mentioned either.

I have no problem with parents fully controlling what their kids watch, but I'm struck a bit by Kotaku's comments... I suspect we're close to the same age, and I definitely played plenty of violent games to little negative effect when I was a kid. This wasn't due to parental irresponsibility, but just to the conscious choice they made to let me play them.

So I wonder a bit if this discussion distracts us from the more crucial question of whether the violence matters in the first place. There seem to be plenty of studies indicating that it has little effect, and very few well-designed studies that really prove a link between violent media and much of anything (once you control for pre-existing violent tendencies).

-Geoff
http://www.alinktothefuture.com

We've said it before, and I'll say it again: It's up to the PARENTS to raise their chidren, not opprotonistic, vote-grabbing politicians like Hilary Clinton and Rod Blajovich.

Wow ... I can hardly believe that GamerDad hasn't come up anywhere in all of this ... I mean, these guys treat it like it is NEW - and GamerDad has been looking at all of this stuff for years!

Exposure leads to experience.

The Parents who grew up in the 1950s weren't exposed to the Pop culture of the 1970s. So they had to muddle through the music, movies, and TV exposures with their own children. The Parents of the 1970s could tell you about the culture of the 1950s easily enough because they had prior experience.

The kids growing up in the 1970s and 1980s could tell you a lot about the culture they grew up in. But once they became Parents in the late 1990s, early 2000s, they had little in common with their children because it was new to the Parents. They have common links in general, but no specifics.

There are some Parents who understand this fully. They learn about their own children, examine various aspects of the culture, and make decisions for their own children. It isn't always the same decisions that other Parents make. Each Parent has their own growing up experiences, they own children who are individuals themselves, and their own views of the current culture versus the past culture. And each Parent develops their own style. The Lego Rule works for one Parent, and another Parent might pick up on it and try it too. But it won't work for every Parent. And that's ok.

nightwng2000
NW2K Software

Another mark against the Lego Rule: People still get killed with swords.

It's not so black and white. It's all about the ratings. Let your kid grow up playing Mario or Sonic or even Barbie horse adventure. Don't let your kid play Gears of War or GTA. It's like saying your kid can watch the Power Rangers and not 300. Don't lump all games together. Some are harmless, others violent. Squishing mushrooms isn't going to corrupt your kid, but beating up prostitutes would.

I don't know if that rule sits well with me. Why is brutal, bloody, modern day violence worse than brutal, bloody, futuristic/ancient violence? I think the level of violence would be a better factor than time period when deciding what your children can play.

I LOVE the lego rule!!

Granted, I would let any potential children of mine play God of War, but the lego rule looks interesting.

No big suprise our legislators can't be arsed to get things right, it would require time *GASP* enjoying themselves, playing a game!

The Lego rule!? Lemme see, I have a Lego Tommygun here, and a pistol here...

Damn you Lego Batman toys!

I'm not a parent yet, so I may be talking out of my ass.

How is it really a dilemma? I don't think anyone here would argue that too much gaming is unhealthy, just as to much time in front of the the TV is unhealthy.

I also don't believe that it is a decision of good and bad, but what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate..... I can't really find the right words to explain that statement but for some reason its makes sense in my head, maybe thats just severe lack of sleep talking...I'm gonna stop rambling now.

I guess I have just always had an untested Idea of what is appropriate for younger audiences and where I draw the line.

As for the lego rule.. Halo is a pretty bad example, the human weapons are pretty much 20th century with different wrappers, ok not really they are 20th century.

Feel free to correct me if I'm being an idiot, or if I'm being obtuse or something.

shadow of rome and God of War 2 disproves the Lego Rule

Well spoken, sad to think this argument will never be referenced by anyone in power.
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Andrew EisenThat article is over five years old, Uncharted. A fun blast from the past though.02/12/2012 - 10:47pm
Uncharted NESCritics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm
ZenI felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm
DorthLousPassed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am
TechnogeekBrutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm
RedMageIt looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm
RedMageBrutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm
ddrfr33kHas anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm
GuamishI think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm
Andrew EisenIt'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm
james_fudge$1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am
Uncharted NESGermany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am
Andrew EisenDamn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm
Andrew EisenAudrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm
james_fudgeI hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm
Andrew EisenHey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm
Andrew EisenToki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm
james_fudgeThanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm
DorthLousWill do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm
Andrew EisenI appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

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