It's not about knowing the difference between games and real life, I don't see where you got that from. It's the fact that it can desensitise people at a younger age, where the brain is still developing. Indeed, other media forms, (films especially) are just as responsible.
Sure, one can know the difference and not let it effect them, but morals and common sense override that. Childhood is the time during which these things form and develop. You don't want to mess with these core mental foundations.
Like I said, if your mind is weak enough to be swayed by a VIDEO GAME, then you obviously shouldn't be playing shooters, or any video games for that matter.
wow. if i had kids i would definatelly not let you babysit them. i'm not a psychologist but i know enough to know that it is a bad idea to let a 5 year old play games like gears or l4d2. Even stuff like goldeneye would be pushing it.
i would say it varies from 10-15.
it mainly depends on the maturity of the person playing, as crystal heart said. The only thing i disagree with is that parents have differant morals and even though they see that they're child is immature, they may let them play violent games anyway. One of my little brother's friend's parents lets they're son, whos 12, play gta. he's already pretty immature but i can see that playing those kinds of games has really done some damage to his brain.
People that have this crazy idea in their head piss me off. People think playing GAMES will make them kill people. Okay, so did the ancient romans have an incredibly advanced culture, and secretly had video games? I doubt it.
There's **** more important right now then limiting ppl to games.
I completely agree.
I'd say 10+ for normal shooters and then some of the more gory ones should be 14+. I'd personally say 16 but most people are exposed to gore more than me so the rating would probably suit being a bit less.
CoD or Halo are never going to damage someone mentally.
I don't agree with that at all, there are only a minority under 16 that are stupid using headsets.
I wouldn't bother with xbox live if I didn't have one because the main part of it for me is talking to friends.
Agreed. There is no way CoD or Halo could make somebody kill people. It's as simple as that.
I don't see what's so bad about shooters. After all, I've been playing Tyrian since about 6...
*Rimshot*
I played F-Zero around the age of 8. That game is rated T for absolutely idiotic reasons, so the rating system is, roughly half the time, moot.
For me, though? I started playing shooters (Tribes) around... 8. At 13, I started playing actually violent shooters (CoD. No offense to Tribes fans, but... There's a world of difference), though I've never played anything like Halo, simply because shooters bore me to death.
In my opinion, I feel like too much attention is given to shooters, anyway. Everyone's been raving about the new Black Ops game, and I've been silently waiting for Golden Sun to come out.
But meh. Y'all can do what you want, I'll stick to Touhou and AW.
I agree, you can't always count on the ratings, for the good or bad.
Children under 15 shouldn't play shooters, only saying this as my 6 year old step cousin plays COD on his 360. He won't let any switch it off. Once He hit his Dad for switching off.
That has nothing to do with the kid, and it doesn't apply to kids in general. The reason the kid is ****ed up with the 360, is due to the lack of good parenting.
your never too young for a shoot em up game
Indeed.
For all of you that think playing a video game causes people to be "evil killers" and whatnot, take a look into history. There have always been murderers, rapists, and all other sorts of evil scum, but video games have only arisen in the past few years(in a grand scope, of course), so how do you explain what caused these people's destroyed mental states? Did they have a time machine, go into the future and play some GTA? No. They were born mentally unstable, and nothing like a video game can sway their primal instincts to do what they want; killing and other terrible crimes.
Sure, video games may have an influence of some sort on children and adults alike, but they will never cause a normal, rational being to become a killer. Never.
