Croal: The Game-Ratings Game | Newsweek Voices - N'Gai Croal

Posted By: kay c @ 05/08/2008 1:45:29 PM

Comment: I am a 39 year old homemaker and mother of 3. My 8 year old sone,river has been playing san andreas since he was 6. He loves the game. with him its all about the cars and other vehicles he can drive. I think it all depends on the child when you deside to let them play a mature game. he has never repeated anything from the game,he never sas a bad word and hes a realy good kid. He just plays it. endlessley. for hours n hours at a time. he truly loves the game.

Posted By: taylor35243 @ 05/08/2008 1:10:35 PM

Comment: Let me say, I was in line at midnight for the release of GTA IV. I am a 32 year old gamer. I am old enough to make my own decisions and take responsibility for my actions. Life is all about choices. Now on to my point... If a parent EVEN ASKS if their kids should play GTA, then that is a sign of a serious problem, or lack of parenting skills. Gamer or no gamer, it only takes a few seconds to learn about the rating systems for video games. GTA has a 'mature' rating. Plus, the media coverage alone should give parents a clear sense of what this game is about. No one under the age of 17 should be allowed to play this game. Parents, it is your job to enforce this. If you even have to ask, then you are not involved enough in your children's life. I don't get it. A movie is rated "R" or a game is rated "M", yet some still wonder if it's ok for their 13 year old. Has common sense become endangered?

Posted By: mjkittredge @ 05/07/2008 4:46:20 PM

Comment: This is silly. Once you send your kid to school, it's all over - the profanity 'innocence' and their ignorance about sex. Some other kid knows about it, and will tell your children. Your children probably won't tell you about their newfound knowledge, so you'll go on, blissfully unaware that your kid is a lot less innnocent and their is nothing you can do about it.

I played video games as a child. It didn't make me want to rip somebodies head off or swear profusely or have sex with prostitutes or shoot people. It was just fun for a while, and then I turned them off and went to go do something else. It didn't warp my mind or turn me into a monster, same as the Stephen King novels didn't, and the R rated movies didn't.

I'm fine. Your kids will be fine too. Knowledge is power.

Posted By: mjkittredge @ 05/07/2008 4:46:13 PM

Comment: This is silly. Once you send your kid to school, it's all over - the profanity 'innocence' and their ignorance about sex. Some other kid knows about it, and will tell your children. Your children probably won't tell you about their newfound knowledge, so you'll go on, blissfully unaware that your kid is a lot less innnocent and their is nothing you can do about it.

I played video games as a child. It didn't make me want to rip somebodies head off or swear profusely or have sex with prostitutes or shoot people. It was just fun for a while, and then I turned them off and went to go do something else. It didn't warp my mind or turn me into a monster, same as the Stephen King novels didn't, and the R rated movies didn't.

I'm fine. Your kids will be fine too. Knowledge is power.

Posted By: Dartman340 @ 04/29/2008 3:28:13 PM

Comment: My friend's 10 year old had let me play his GTA 3 on his Xbox. As I was striggling to learn the controls of the game, I tried to talk to one of the characters in the game, who was a scantilly clad woman. As I wondered why she kept walking away from me, I was told by this 10 year old that "I couldn't pick up prostitutes until after dark. it's pretty funny, because you take them to your car and it bounces up and down. You can even beat them up afterwards." This is from a 10 year old kid. My advice is to keep the kids away, they grow up too fast anyway.

Posted By: Dartman340 @ 04/29/2008 3:27:18 PM

Comment: My friend's 10 year old son was playing GTA 3, and offerred teh controller for me to play. After struggling to get the controls down, I walked up and tried to talk to a scantilly clad woman, only to have her say something and walk away. At this point the 10 year old said "You can;t pick up prostitutes unless it's dark. It's pretty funny because you take them to your car, and it bounces up and down and stuff. When your done, you can even beat them up." Keep this game AWAY from your kids... they grow up too fast anyway....

Posted By: Dartman340 @ 04/29/2008 3:26:51 PM

Comment: My friend's 10 year old son was playing GTA 3, and offerred teh controller for me to play. After struggling to get the controls down, I walked up and tried to talk to a scantilly clad woman, only to have her say something and walk away. At this point the 10 year old said "You can;t pick up prostitutes unless it's dark. It's pretty funny because you take them to your car, and it bounces up and down and stuff. When your done, you can even beat them up." Keep this game AWAY from your kids... they grow up too fast anyway....

Posted By: Dartman340 @ 04/29/2008 3:23:49 PM

Comment: My friend's 10 year old had let me play his GTA 3 on his Xbox. As I was striggling to learn the controls of the game, I tried to talk to one of the characters in the game, who was a scantilly clad woman. As I wondered why she kept walking away from me, I was told by this 10 year old that "I couldn't pick up prostitutes until after dark. it's pretty funny, because you take them to your car and it bounces up and down". This is from a 10 year old kid. My advice is to keep the kids away, they grow up to fast anyway.

Posted By: Carltonsheets @ 04/29/2008 3:10:30 PM

Comment: I found a lot of good information at familyentertainmentcentral.org, too. They go the extra mile in reviewing movies and video games, especially for language.

Posted By: Jolard @ 04/29/2008 2:19:16 PM

Comment: I am a parent of 4 kids, and I was in line to buy this game this morning. I will be playing it tonight. My kids will not be playing it at all. It is simply not appropriate for them. The problem is people still think of games as being for kids, when that is simply not true anymore. Just like other media (books, movies, TV) there is content targeted at children, and there is content targeted at adults. GTA IV is definitely targeted at adults and I can enjoy it as much as I enjoy movies targeted at adults. But it is not for kids.

Posted By: darudy @ 04/14/2008 11:12:25 PM

Comment: As a parent and old-school gamer, I've been directing my kid onto Text-based MUDs. They are smaller and often more restrictive on bad behavior than the big MMOs which seem to either ignore or silently encourage bad behavior. The MUDs teach reading, vocabulary, and problem solving. I personally play http://t2tmud.org