"In the real world it would have been played by 10 year olds"

The videogame industry is becoming more puthified every day. There's no reason not to expect more and more censorship. It makes no sense to ban any game- just allow parents and gamers to decide on their own what stays and what goes.

Besides, there's no harm in setting up a game and just randomly killing characters for shits and giggles. I used to do it all the time with Perfect Dark. It's a game. It's fun. If some kid goes off and kill a few people in creative ways, so be it- he would have done so anyhow, and even if he would not have done so, that doesn't excuse banning MY responsible fun.

What really cracks me up about all this is the way leaders of the national communities support training real live kids to kill other real live kids when they think it's appropriate to do so, but when the violence isn't state-sanctioned, it's unacceptable.

Also, must suck to be Nintendo. They've been pandering to bedwetters for years now while Sony allowed just about anyone to develop games for the PS platforms. Now that Nintendo has finally grown up and begun to release games for adults, they get caught up in this crap.

 

On the one hand, regardless of what the guvamint says or doesn't say, I am in charge of whole swaths of my kids experiences. I decide what is appropriate to play in my house; I decide to whose house it is appropriate to go to play games there.

OTOH, parents are usualyl never as quick to declare their responsibilities...only their rights. I am also prepared to be responsible to and for the outcomes springing in any measurable way (and reflective of the significance of such measurement) from those things to which i expose my children.

How many parents are willing to tell us - society - that THEY will foot the bill should their choice of corporal punishment, or violent gaming, be demonstrated to lead to their child's choices later on in life? I know, I know, there IS no evidence indicating that...fine. Nonetheless, I wish that parents would declare their lifelong (or 18-year long, but parents' chocies durign the formative years essentially equates TO a lifelong set of impacts on their children) responsibilities as quickly as they leap to their rights.

Society is left with the outcomes should parents choose incorrectly. and its then that parents look to society to help. Maybe we should balance that with society playing at least SOME role on the front end. Ratings, to me, is arguably reflective of that role.

Banning games is, to me, too far. Except when it isn't. I do think that there are games that I could conceive of that should be banned. In the USA, the same approach to speech might be employed to game production. No freedom to center a game experience around the employment of hate speech, for example... I don't know; I certainly don't feel like I have THE answer. I DO know that in these discussions declaring our responsibilities, to ourselves, our kids and one another is often absent, and we are usually left with "it MY right to do/see/play/consume whatever I want." IOW, the economies of the dynamic, bereft of the citizenship that must be central to it if democratic sensibilities are to win the day.

 

I can agree with everything you've said here to varying degrees, but I really think you've marginalized the part I bolded. It's the decision, devoid of any supporting evidence, to ban the sale of this game that galls.

My parents wouldn't have needed evidence to forbid me from playing some of the games that are available today, and I know I'm the better because of their decisions. But I have no problem playing/watching/doing a lot of games/movies/things that they would not have approved of when I was a kid now because I'm an adult. My status as an adult is what gives me the freedom to enjoy things -without the need for them to result in any growth or positive effect on society, but simply because they're fun- that children have no business doing. Somewhere along the line, "You can do this when you're grown" became "Is this good for anyone?" I'd argue that that ain't always the question we need to be asking.

 

This is censorship and thus it is wrong.

Some parents won't be responsible enough to make sure their kids don't play this game so lets ban it for everyone? Really?

Well then, I suggest we ban really sharp kitchen knives as well since I'm sure there are parents stupid enough to let their kids play with those.