Ian - Born to do it.

Kids these days, eh? You hear about them Drinking, Smoking, Swearing. They’re getting worse, and it’s all because of Manhunt 2. Of course I jest. Manhunt 2 isn’t even that good! Why would anyone want to play that?! (*points to joe, jovially*). I jest again. I haven’t and probably won’t ever play Manhunt 2, or 1, so I can’t judge it’s effects on children which is what the media seems to be getting its knickers in a twist about. It is, however, not this which I have chosen to discuss in this post.

To illustrate my post, I’m going to look at the quandry of the parent, whose has purchased a new console for their little bundle of love (At least, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are very guilty of this). What game do you buy for them to play on it?:

• Burnout Paradise? A game which has a strange fetish with car crashes surely can’t be good for your child’s mind
• Gran Turismo? Looks far too complicated, considering it’s “The Real Driving Simulator”
• Any shooter that has existed EVER? They’re excessively violent/I don’t want to be seen as a bad parent/I want to buy that for myself only <-Delete as appropriate 
• Resident Evil? Clue is in the name, really.
• Ah-ha! Viva Pinata! It has family co-op modes and is a game about gardening! Nice and constructive! Sold.

Viva Pinata is indeed quite a good game, but I ask just how many 10 year old boys are going to admit in the school playground that they play a game about gardening and being nice to animals whose names have been twisted so they sound like sweets. Considering that parents who have grown up playing games which omitt the use of electricity altogether, it must be hard for a parent to decide what is appropriate for that child (without the child backlashing and whinging about how they can’t play GTA IV when it comes out because you’re heard stories about Grand Theft Auto.

To continue the example, applying it to my next door neighbor, who is 11 (well, his gamertag has the number “96″ in it), enjoys playing Army of Two, Gears of War, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, but isn’t too keen on the aforementioned racers or “garden-em-ups” if you will. He doesn’t really like any of the simpler, more casual offerings of Xbox Live arcade, and I haven’t heard him say a single word about anything he’s played on his Wii that he likes. Mentally, his game taste should make him about 18-20, but I can assure you he is still very much 11.

What games are children into these days? We just don’t know. Violent games are denounced by the media/Anne Diamond*, and gamers strike back at the scornful comments of these games by saying that it’s the parent’s fault for buying the games in the first place (Something which I agree with to a certain extent, but not nearly as passionately as most other gamers). But the question is, what else is there? The reason the Wii is doing so well is because parents hear that it’s a family friendly console that has lots of lovely clean games that (to quote the deity that is Shigeru Miyamoto) “Even your mum can play”, and word of mouth gets round, and consoles get sold (or sold out, to the extent that Used Wii’s did at one point go for about £40 more than the RRP on ebay - at Christmas).

But apart from Viva Pinata, Classic Puzzle Games, Movie/TV/Anime tie-ins and Racers, what is there for kids to ask for without having their parents go “aren’t you a bit too young for that” (but buying it anyway!!!!!!!!!!! *calm yourself, Ian*). Maybe a HD makeover of “Sonic the Hedgehog”, that’ll be good (surely he didn’t think the latest remake of Sonic was “good” I hear you cry. Even my brother hated it, and that’s saying something). How about Tomb Raider? It’s not particularly gory, and it’s fun and exciting. Tomb Raider Anniversairy was good, but it was only that, good. it wasn’t “Awesome” or “Spectacular”, it was just more Tomb Raider.

Not that I give a damn, as I’m old enough to buy whatever game I want, but can we gamers validly say that it’s the parents fault for buying “violent games” for their kids in the first place? Could the game industry be doing more to make games that are 3+/12+ age releases so that kids aren’t so desperate to get their parents to buy them GTA IV?

*Anne Diamond’s recent article in the Daily Mail (Best newspaper ever) - As my friend Mike put it - “How balanced a selection of games, 5 shooters and a beat-em-up”

~ by mallowman87 on April 3, 2008.