With some especially controversial games coming to store shelves for the holiday season, the dilemma of finding the right video game for your young one(s) can be a big one. With teen violence in the news and blaming fingers being pointed right at video games, its difficult not to be concerned about what games your kids are spending their time with. The ESRB (or Entertainment Software Ratings Board)) has a ratings system designed to deter younger gamers from games that may be inappropriate for them. Games with mature content including nudity, violence, and vulgar language may be given an “M” (mature) rating, whereas a game geared toward preschoolers that features learning activities, music and rhythm exercises and color matching would be Given an EC (Early Childhood) Rating.
One item of note with this system of ratings is that law doesn’t enforce them. Unlike going to a movie theatre, game shops won’t always turn away young buyers from purchasing M-rated games. I could almost never get into an R-rated movie in my youth, but kids these days don’t have any problems logging into a game of Halo 2 on Xbox live and fragging their friends into oblivion. (All the while, trash talking and acting like…kids.)
So how do you know where to draw the line? The answer is pretty simple, but going through with it is a little more difficult. First and foremost, you should pay attention to what they are playing. You could even go far enough to even play the games with them, but not every kid wants that, and parents may find some video games to be difficult to understand and get into. If they like a certain game, there has to be a reason behind it. Find out what that reason is, and you may learn a good deal about your child.
Some games are just too popular and too hyped to escape, and even though they are advertised on TV and in game magazines kids read, they probably aren’t suited for anyone that wouldn’t be considered a “mature audience”. Take Rockstar Games’Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as an example. Although the storyline is great and the voice acting is top-notch, due to the violence and drug use, I would not want my tot playing through this game. I mean, I love Scarface, but you won’t catch my kids watching it in my house. You can’t always trust the local news to tell you what is right or what is wrong for your kid, you really should find out for yourself.
Rockstar’s Bully is a new title that had a good bit of controversy behind it just before it’s release. Going by the name alone, people were to assume that the role of your character was that of a bully, and some people went to great measures to assure that the game would not be released. However, after just 15 minutes of gameplay, the player would find that this game is more of a video game version of Catcher in the Rye than it is a school aged-Grand Theft Auto clone, with a great story about an outcast student attending a prep school. Sure, there is violence, crude humor and prank pulling, but the idea of the game is to deal with bullies, not to be one. The game actually punishes your character for bad behavior, if you choose to engage in it. Basically, if you would let your teen read Salinger, you should be able to let them play Bully without having too much to worry about.
Some popular games really push the limits in terms of violence, such as the recently released Mortal Kombat: Armageddonfor the PS2 and Xbox. Although the action depicted on screen is hardly realistic, the violence is pretty intense and hard to avoid, and this is why the game receives an M Rating.
There are plenty of games available today that are family friendly, and you don’t have to limit yourself to one game console or platform. For more detailed information on what game ratings mean, and how you can use them to find out about what games are right for your children, you can visit the ESRB’s website. For more information about the games themselves, ask your local game retailer. Game store managers and employees tend to be really chatty; so don’t be afraid to ask about what games they would recommend.
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