Hacker News Reader

Comment by tsmarsh | Hacker News Reader

I had a similar 'revelation' with violence in video games. I knew a lot of games were violent, but it wasn't until I found my 2 year old son watching me murder human after human with a crossbow in Tomb Raider that I 'got it'. It has ruined AAA video games for me.

I solved the problem by buying a Wii U. I'm not sure why that's better. I have killed hundreds of pikmin, squashed hundreds of goomba and worst of all, used the blue shell in anger. It's still incredibly violent, but I'm not willfully enjoying a murder simulator.

View on HN

I could be wrong but it seems you have issues with the idea of games for adults and games for kids. The fact that a game is unsuitable for your child to play, or even watch you play, prevents you from enjoying certain games seems just wrong. Did you stop watching movies rated PG-13 or higher as well?

And why is it wrong for young children to understand the concept of life and death? I mean, an overly gory game is one thing but I don't think my ten year old slaughtering opponents by the dozens in Minecraft is going to cause her to grow up with psychopathic urges.

You missed his point. Once he saw what he was doing from his child's perspective, he was uncomfortable with it. Note that this is distinct from being uncomfortable with his child seeing what he is doing.

I had a similar reaction after not playing many games during grad school, which was 2003 - 2010. After graduating, I picked up a PS3. Some games it wasn't too much of an issue (such as Mass Effect), but in others, it was startling (such as Bioshock Infinite).

I think you missed my point, which is if he was uncomfortable with his child watching him play such games, don't let them watch such games. His negative reaction to "AAA" games in general because of that is what I found odd. If he no longer found the games appealing due to that then I suppose that's cool. But there are games in that space that don't fit that style of gameplay.

Again, I think you're missing it. He's not uncomfortable with his child watching him play such games. (Well, maybe he is, but that's not his point.) It was knowing that his child was watching him play such games that gave him the perspective for himself to see playing those games differently. He gained new perspective.

Why killing needs to be presented as a game? You want to teach children about life and death? Get then to a slaughterhouse. No? Why not? It's just teaching them about life and death...

Well, considering many children learn to kill and dress game early in life; I don't see a problem with that. Depends on the child and the parent. But I appreciate you trying to show my point is invalid by trying to get me to disagree with a completely different example.

> many children learn to kill and dress game early in life

Can you give some examples? I'm genuinely curious about the first, "learn to kill", type of games.

he's talking about hunting. in real life. game is the word for animals that are hunted.

"But I appreciate you trying to show my point is invalid by trying to get me to disagree with a completely different example."

And I liked how you substituted a completely different meaning of "game".

rytis brought up slaughterhouses. talmand replied about hunting. the use of the word "game" in hunting is a coincidence.

Uhg this. Recently decided to pick up some of my old favorites (Quake Live, Counter-Strike) and didn't realize fully what I was doing until my two daughters, ages 6 and 8 were peering over my shoulder watching me throw grenades, shoot rockets and snipe opponents (complete with blood effects).

Honestly, I don't think they even blinked, as they are exposed to a lot of media these days, but it certainly gave me pause, and started my quest for more appropriate games (for them).

To contrast this, I have several nephews of varying ages and they would do backflips at the chance to play one of these extremely violent games. Not sure what that means, or says but a man with daughters lives a different life than a man with sons. Not that my daughters don't enjoy shooting rockets and blowing up bad guys, but it doesn't have that same "power" over them as it does with young boys (which I've witnessed first hand as a boy myself and uncle)

Reminds me of my 2-3 year old watching me and getting to play GTA 5. I am sensitive to exposing him to that kind of violence, and boy is it a challenge to play that game without inciting violence or even cussing while driving around. An entire play session would be me driving out of the city as carefully as possible, then heading to some of the more abandoned parts of the map. Finding a tractor or giant dump truck and letting him drive it around, to which he absolutely loved. No ai characters were killed in these play sessions and very few were incited to yell at me...

There are recent AAA games around that attempt to get away from the kill-kill-kill dynamic. A good example is Dishonoured - there's a bonus for completing missions without killing anyone, and the entire game can be completed non-violently.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com