50°

A Response To The Daily Mail's Comments On 'Sinister Video Game Secrets'

Clipping Error responds to the recent Daily Mail article which commented on how thousands of children are getting violent video games for Christmas. He offers the opinion that parents should not buy games for their children that are beyond their age, and if they do they shouldn't be angry about the games for it.

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clippingerror.com
SaveFerris3837d ago

If a retailer sells a game rated 18 to someone below that age the retailer can be prosecuted, but why haven't parents been prosecuted for allowing children to play the game?

PeaSFor3836d ago (Edited 3836d ago )

easier to blame videogames than admiting bad parenting is the main problem, go get a porn movie for your 5years old kid then blame the porn industry for being not suited for kids....

WeAreLegion3836d ago

The retailer actually can't get prosecuted in the United States. It is not illegal to sell Mature games to minors in the US. It is just frowned upon.

SaveFerris3836d ago

I didn't know that. So in the United States, is the Rating system just a guideline with no real penalties?

WeAreLegion3836d ago

Yep. The ESRB is not recognized by any governing body in the United States. You will be fired by most managers if you are caught selling an M rated game to a minor at GameStop, however. Haha.

GameSpawn3836d ago (Edited 3836d ago )

Like Legion said the worst case scenario is that the employee who sold the game to the "child" would be fired or reprimanded.

However, kids under 17 (the minimum for M in the US is 17 - possibly because ESRB spawned out of old movie rating systems were there was NC-17) RARELY are directly sold games by retailers. The case is that parents (obviously old enough to the retail clerk) KNOWINGLY buy these games for their kids. What is appalling is the ones who are SHOCKED by the blood, gore, and violence AFTER the fact when the ESRB rating system has become a norm. The damn rating takes up a chunk of the front and back of the box - there is ZERO excuse for missing it. The parents are 100% to blame.

Rating systems should just be general guidelines, as there are some kids that are mature enough beyond their age to handle "M" rated games just fine, but this is where GOOD parenting comes in and knowing when a certain child is ready for these games if ever. Some kids have real mental issues and should never be allowed to play ANY games because they are too easily addicted; others have mental issues that make it hard for them to separate fantasy and reality, but again in the end the FINAL decision will always come down to the parent/caretaker and 100% of the responsibility rests on them.

LucasRuinedChildhood3836d ago (Edited 3836d ago )

If a parent believes their child can look at a movie, read a book, or play a game, etc, then that is it. People are becoming so obsessed with the defense of video-games against idiots like the Daily Mail, that they are not thinking about the validity of what they are saying. What you are saying reminds of those who say Hatred shouldn't be released, because it will ultimately push the acceptance of games backwards.

We played violent video-games when we were kids, and no, we didn't have bad parents. In my opinion, it's time to stop being hypocrites on this issue. The Daily Mail is just a dumb tabloid. C'mon. The rating system should ultimately just be a guideline, that only retailers should realistically follow. If you buy a game for your kid, the government should not be able to judge you for such. Don't encourage the Nanny State.

This article towed the right line, in my opinion.

WeAreLegion3836d ago

Taking The Daily Mail seriously is a mistake. It's just a shame people don't know how ridiculous they are. They're basically a tabloid.

Exaggerated stories like the one this article is responding to come around every once in awhile. They grow on social media because they support a popular, albeit misguided, opinion.

mixelon3836d ago

Absolutely a tabloid, and one of the worst as somehow (some) people take them seriously. Doesn't happen with the others so much. I have no idea how people end up trusting anything they say, they fabricate and bend the truth, stirring shit and drawing on fear. They're a much more insidious and damaging influence on society than games are.

Ogygian3836d ago

Definitely more damaging than games (which are not damaging).

Nowhere near as damaging as the social justice police infecting the internet at the moment.

Mikeyy3836d ago

Nothing can ever make sense. Parents should be held accountable for their hoodlum children running the streets at night and vandalizing and killing people. Yet they are not punished in the slightest.

Then the have the audacity to go on TV and tell us How kind and gentle their kid was.

SaveFerris3836d ago

Is this happening in your neighbourhood because that scares me like something out of A Clockwork Orange or Purge.

CorndogBurglar3836d ago

The bottom line is that the new generation of people in general are a bunch of sissies.

Dont believe me? Look back to the 80's. A little movie called Gremlins. Maybe you've heard of it? It was very popular kids movie. In that movie the main characters slaughtered gremlins wholesale, in all manner of ways. One was stuffed into a microwave and exploded. Another was stuffed into a blender and gut went flying everywhere. My point? Its a very violent yet beloved kids movie. Did that turn a whole generation of kids into raving, murderous lunatics? No.

People need to calm their tits these days.

LucasRuinedChildhood3836d ago

I wouldn't say its the new generation of people. It's a very loud politically correct minority with the potential to find anything offensive, that are mostly despised by the majority. It is very alarming though. People in the comments are calling for the punishment of parents, rather than just condemning this idiot tabloid publication, even though we've all played violent video-games when we were younger. It's hypocritical politically correct nonsense.

CorndogBurglar3836d ago

There are points to be made.

Even though I played any violent video game I wanted when i was little, if my parents knew that I was playing something like GTA (which didn't exist yet when I was a kid), then they probably wouldn't be okay with me buying hookers and some of the other content in that game. I'll give people that. But again, if parents don't want their kids seeing these things, then they should be more active in their kids' interests. Its that simple.

As for violence, I actually think that is the lesser of all evils when it comes to content in some games. Like I said above, movies and things were WAY more violent back in the day and it didn't turn people into lunatics.

Now, when it comes to sexual situations and things of that nature, I can totally understand parents not wanting their kids to be subjected to it at an early age. Especially being the father of a 5 year old. I get it.

But when it comes to violence, people need to relax.

mixelon3836d ago

Gremlins had to be massively rewritten to get the version we saw that was kid friendly. The original script had a human beheading, and wasn't remotely kid appropriate. It was Spielberg's involvement that got it cleaned up. Most of the violence towards humans in Gremlins was slapstick or off screen.

Nobody minds people killing evil little green men in comedic fashion even today, if they'd been allowed to kick a human head down some stairs (LOL) thatd likely be a different issue.

Its more about parents keeping track of their kids than it is the kids themselves imo.

Ogygian3836d ago (Edited 3836d ago )

So now the Daily Mail is accepting worthless left-wing pieces which include criticism of perfectly enjoyable "damsel in distress tropes" (it's in the original article).

What a waste of paper. Sitting on the fence is only going to find it impaled.

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290°

The Real Enemy of Gaming Isn’t DEI. It’s the CEO

From Horse Armor to Mass Layoffs: The Price of Greed in Gaming. Inside the decades-long war on game workers and the players who defend them.

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rushdownradio.net
jambola21d ago

maybe a real enemy is people who use terms like "the real enemy"
there can be more than 1 bad thing, t's not like a kids show with 1 big bad

senorfartcushion19d ago

This is very much a “dummy who volunteers themselves to the middle” comment.

The real enemy is a common phrase, people use it all the time.

Calm down.

jambola19d ago

i'm very calm
you seem very upset however

Notellin18d ago

You don't seem calm at all. Don't take this so seriously, you seem desperate responding to others defending your opinion that lacks any value or critical thought.

jambola18d ago

stop projecting
i'm not desperately dong anything, i'm tapping at keys on my keyboard bud

PapaBop18d ago

It's not like kids show with one bad guy? I present to you.. Bobby Kotick

ABizzel118d ago (Edited 18d ago )

DEI was never the problem and it was an ignorant take to begin with.

DEI is why games like Kena Bridge of Spirits, South of Midnight, and Ghost of Tsushima exist.

DEI is why we have a huge resurgence in Japanese, Chineses, and Korean developers producing games like Stellar Blade, Black Myth, and why Nintendo & Sony exist.

DEI is why more and more games have HUGE accessibility options with both Sony and MS fully behind this.

DEI was never a bad thing, the entire purpose of DEI is representation of all people, genders, disabilities, etc…

The problem was people used DEI as a default derogatory term to describe what they believed was forced representation, which allowed colorist, racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, and xenophobic fools to run away with the negative DEI narrative.

jambola18d ago

you don't get to decide other people's motivations
sorry to break it to you

ABizzel117d ago (Edited 17d ago )

To each their own, however, nothing you said invalidates why some people take offense to DEI incorrectly.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 17d ago
Sciurus_vulgaris21d ago

Executives seem to often have an obsession with perpetual revenue growth. There is always a finite amount of consumers for a product regardless of growth. Additionally, over investment is another serious issue in gaming.

Killer2020UK19d ago

The fact that they also rarely have any real expertise in game development compounds things. They'll look at what's been successful elsewhere, lack the knowledge to properly understand why they have been successful and then force a team to 'reproduce' their badly interpreted idea of that success.

We see it so often with sequels to games that were successful too. The team are left well alone, they have a break through hit and all of sudden the money men descend on the IP and completely railroad the dev team's ideas. Usually winds up being 'make the same game but MORE'

LoveSpuds18d ago

This is true throughout all of the corporate and public sector organisations to be honest. CEO's generally move amongst the corporate world without any need to have experience of a particular industry, they simply need to rely on their senior leadership credentials. A CEO of a retail giant will just as easily transition to a CEO role in the energy sector for example.

Not defending CEOs here to be clear, I think it's a huge part of the reason the western world is so fucked up. CEOs don't need to care about the sector they work in, in fact it's better if they don't care if they want to screw everyone to make profits.

GhostScholar19d ago

Companies don’t hire executives to break even. If the goal is breaking even then why start the company in the first place.

Soy19d ago

That's understood; it's getting record profits and expecting to always beat those record profits, and seeing anything less as a total failure. Then they lay people off and raise prices to reach those record profit levels again, just to sate shareholders. It's setting expectations way too high just to spike share prices, then inevitably falling short. It's feeling entitled to being more successful than everyone else. It's the CEOs doing all this to boost their own bonuses.

ABizzel118d ago

Growth benefits the company’s profits and therefore the company’s stock if publicly traded, which pleases the shareholders making them more and more rich, which is why Growth is always at the forefront of the vast majority of any publicly traded company.

More growth = More Money and the people at the top want all the money they can get. I can’t really blame them anyone would love to see their profits go from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, to multi-millions it’s almost like a gambling addiction.

But it also goes to show someone how morals can go out the window for a lot of these people, and how amazing some CEOs are when they catch this early and provide a balance solution that takes complete care of their employees across the board while keeping the business sustainable IE: Insomniac Games ALWAYS on the best places to work list. The rest of the industry could learn.

jambola20d ago

honestly, the "real" enemy of gaming, is ourselves
if nobody bought horse armor, shitty dlc would have died almost overnight
if we stood firm and nobody bought games from companies that were bad with layoffs, it would be solved
we're the idiots supporting awful business practices, we are the ones enouraging it

TiredGamer19d ago

I think the reality that we don't want to convince ourselves of is that without the rise of "horse armor" and DLC, game budgets would have essentially stagnated (smaller teams/smaller games), or game prices would have risen much more dramatically than they have. There was an incessant drive for bigger worlds, infinite detail, and hundreds of hours of "gameplay" over the last two decades, that while perhaps a natural evolution of things, needed a suitable funding stream to accomplish.

HyperMoused19d ago

What...CEOs make tens of millions and that doesnt include SLT etc etc...we now have multiple editions of games, in game currency, MT's, battle passes.....and what do we get..worse game than what was coming out 20 years ago....dont drink the cool aid, its this nickel and dime crap that is absolutely leading us to gaming destruction.

senorfartcushion19d ago

This is the worst possible answer to this conundrum. Blaming the masses is blaming the only people who are constantly “told” to buy.

Consumers are the only ones not to blame here. People make their own choices all the time. Disney movies are bombing and DEInis being blamed. Has that been enough to put Disney out of business? No and it never will.

Christopher19d ago

Disagree. Businesses are able to do what they do because people are bad consumers and don't think critically about purchases. Disney got away with doing shit stuff for years and it's just the last year where people got tired of it. It's not like it didn't work for 5 years or so for Disney to do the things they've done. They'll just move onto another way to get people to see movies and it will be just as bad but more profitable until people wake up and realize it.

TiredGamer19d ago

Consumerism drives business behavior. It's not so much "blaming" as it is observing behavior. The point I'm making is that the direction that games have gone are driven by the spending. Consumers are spending on DLC and they are driving the expectation of more glitz and padded out (lengthier) games. If they continue to pay, they will continue to drive that direction until a threshold is reached that forces a change in behavior.

senorfartcushion19d ago

Corporate advertising is the most powerful force on the planet.

This is N4G for god sake, every day there are arguments between people who are Team Xbox and Team PlayStation because they’ve been convinced that having an identity built on paying money to Sony and Microsoft matters more than having one as individual gamers who can play whatever they want.

And THEN we get to the corporate advertising part: to play whatever you want is to sink MORE into the advertising pits, making it so that you can more than one specific product.

jambola19d ago

ah you're right
they were told to buy it, it's clearly impossible to avoid that
if enough people stopped supporting, it would stop
disney not stopping would only be because enough people didn't stop

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 19d ago
victorMaje19d ago

Agreed. I’ve been saying for years, announce you won’t be buying the upcoming game because of the practices of the previous game, then you only have to stick to your guns once, see how quickly things change for the better.

We have to unite in what we shouldn’t purchase.

jambola19d ago

just imagine a world, fifa came out worse, nobody buys the next one until they see proof it's better and stick to it
or games being forced online for single player and nobody buys it
things would change so fast

HyperMoused19d ago

Just like scooby doo, you have shown us the real monsters are us

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 19d ago
Inverno19d ago

Greed and greedy people have and always will be the main issue for everything wrong in the world. Everything is a product to be exploited for monetary gain. Even when there are things that could help progress us along for the sake of making our lives easier that thing must be exploited for monetary gains. Anything that tells you otherwise is propaganda to make you complicit.

coolfool19d ago

I've never thought "DEI" (although the way most people use it doesn't match it's real definition) is the problem with games. Good games have continued to be good when they have a diverse cast, and likewise, bad games have continued to be bad. There isn't a credible example I've seen where a diverse cast has been the direct cause of a game being bad.

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70°

Why We Partnered With St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Matt Miller: "Every subscription to Game Informer now raises funds for St. Jude. We want you to know what that means."

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gameinformer.com
thorstein23d ago

I subscribed to this not knowing about how some of the proceeds go to St. Judes.

Really cool that some of the money goes there.

Even if people don't subscribe to the mag, it might bring people to the charity.

jznrpg23d ago

One of the main charities my wife and I donate to. They help a lot of children and being a parent of 5 children I can’t imagine what those parents go through. I’ll probably get a sub to GI because of St Jude and of course because I love video games.

80°

Dungeons and Dragons is About to Break a 6-Year Trend

Though Unearthed Arcana's content primarily consists of subclasses and spells, WOTC's latest UA drop is set to shake up Dungeons and Dragons' future.

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gamerant.com