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Violence and video games go together like peanut butter and jelly, or ham and cheese, or drinking and driving. Violent video games make up a large portion of the industry, so it's only natural that the brutal titles have made their way to kids. This has caused controversy from the days when the first Mortal Kombat would make your son a serial killer, to today when Call of Duty will make your son...a serial killer. You're probably asking "where are these millions of serial killers?". Good question, to which I reply: I don't know. I'm guessing they have killed anyone capable of finding them. But don't get me wrong, folks. I am all for little kids engaging in shockingly-real virtual combat. You have kids idolizing pop singers before they can walk ("Goo goo Lady Gaga"), why not violent video games?
Just look at his sweet, innocent face.
I recently picked up Gears of War 3 for my 7 year old nephew. I would sit down and play it with him, but that game is a bit too violent for my tastes. Either way, he had fun. Sure his hamster ended up in the microwave on the popcorn setting, but he had fun. And that’s what’s important. But, despite the flawless logic behind it, not everyone shares my viewpoint. You've got politicians who try and ban the violence in games altogether, kids who want to play the gory titles all day, and parents who still think their kids are playing "Super Mario with the neighborhood kids". Mom could flip over the box and see: "Mature for nudity, drug use, alcohol use, strong language, blood, gore, bloody gore, gory blood gore, and Al Gore." (Racist online interactions not rated), but she broke a nail on the way in, and she just had them done.
So, I believe that I have come up with a solution that will please everyone (of course I came up with the solution, I'm a genius!)
The key is to mix in enough familiar childish elements into all of the games, so that kids focus on that, and forget about that Armenian family they just ran over (already did!)
For example, The Last of Us is a critically acclaimed adventure from Naughty Dog, but its extreme violence could be seen as too brutal for children. So, instead of Joel mercilessly burning his enemies alive with a Molotov cocktail, we have him slowly degrade and humiliate them with a series of 'Yo Mama' jokes. "Yo mama is so fat that the zombies call her a family value meal!" Talk about your burns.
Grand Theft Auto V looks took take back the open world throne with the mature gameplay that players know and love, but some see it as "inappropriate for children". So why don't we make it more kid friendly? Let's put a character from Spongebob in there to replace that black protagonist (he was bad news, anyway. Did you see his wife beater?). How about Squidward? I can see it now. Squidward stealing a car. Squidward robbing a bank. Squidward slapping a hooker because she isn't into that "weird tentacle stuff" (find an Asian one, I hear they're cool with it). See, this pleases politicians because they'll see "that octopus thing from that one kids show" and think the game is perfectly suitable for kids! It also pleases kids because they still get their fix of violence, crime, and mass homicide divided into small enough pieces that the protagonist still seems like a hero in the end (Nathan Drake, anyone?) And single moms still get to keep their virtual babysitter: "Jimmy, I'm going to get a drink with Traci, there's chicken nuggets in the fridge!" Ah, the family bonding.
And that's the root of the problem. We need take all of the pressure off of the parents. Off of the dad who buys little Jack a copy of Red Dead Redemption because "he loves cowboys and stuff." Take the pressure off of the single mom who buys her son Call of Duty so he'll be preoccupied while she goes out, gets plastered, and pregnant with another Xbox Live warrior with an absent father. Congratulations, it's a b*stard!