I receive "Computer Gaming" magazine on a regular basis and I am not too thrilled about some of the games that have recently come out and some of the upcoming games don't look any better because a lot of them are rated "M" (for mature audiences) because of their content.

Some of the graphics don't look that sharp either.
Others look very real and kinda gory.

This convervation is centered around the subject
mentioned above.

What is your opinion?

I commented on this on the Mad as Hell Over Pixels board. Nocturne looks pretty good, but Rainbow Six doesn't, although it's still a fun game. I don't think it's too gory cuz although you don't see brains exploding all over the place if you shoot the terrorists in their heads, or blood splattering on walls from body shots, you do see blood spilling out on the floor.

I'm still relatively new to gaming and even though I've got several I don't play them all that often, but I've noticed that many more seem to have parental advisories on them, like Nocturne does, telling if the game has simulated gore, nudity and/or language. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but then I don't have kids, so it doesn't bother me. If I did have kids I'd be very careful what games I'd let them play.

Still yet another board that no one's posted on for a year now.

Possible reasons no one's posting here:

1) We don't play or keep up with video games.
2) They're not getting more violent.
3) They're so obviously violent it goes without saying.
4) They're violent, and we like them that way.

"All your basal ganglia are belong to us!"

I don't mind excessive violence or blood on games cuz I'm an adult and it doesn't bother me at all. Sometimes it's just funny if anything. Besides, I live alone and have no kids, anyway.

For those with kids they should monitor and decide what games the kids are allowed to play. If your kid goes to a friend's house and plays more violent games than you let him at home he may not tell you, unless you ask and even then he may lie about it, or try. Even if you've raised you kid right he might be tempted to play violent games at friends' too, unless you called ahead and asked his friend's parents not to let your kid play the games. Hopefully, he would respect your wishes and not play those games at his friends, building trust between you and him. But, you know, kids are kids.

4) They're violent, and we like them that way, at least I do.

I think people make to big of a deal about violent video games. Me and most of my friends played games like Duke Nukem when we were younger. None of us is a violent person at all, never have been, never will be.

What always gets me is that this society is so gung-ho over violence but still very prudish about sex. Violent films and TV shows are much more prevalent on "free" TV than ones with sexual content, even theatrical films edited for TV. The violence isn't always all that toned down but the sex and nudity are either totally excised or digitally covered up. Why? Violence kills a hell of a lot more than sex does. If you die of a heart attack during sex, well, what a wonderful way to go, huh? But that's a natural way to die, though not very common. But being brutally murdered, or killed by someone by whatever means isn't natural, so why glorify it?

What people figure is that their kids aren't going to go out and kill somebody because they see characters in movies do it. But they may go out and have sex with somebody because they are constantly bombarded with images of it. The problem with such logic is that since you can't stop people in the media from talkingabout/aluding to/referencing/joking about: sex. All they can do is "sanatize" the depictions of it which just makes young people want to do it more because they want to see what all the fuss is about.

Yeah, I know. That's why you should tell your kids about sex, starting when they're toddlers, but in simple terms, and then slowly more explicitly as they get older so that by the time they're teens there won't be any mystery about sex so they'll be less likely to have it till they're adults and ready for it. But don't demonize it to them their whole life cuz that'll either screw them up like crazy or they'll have sex one day just to spite their parents. Or maybe they'll be totally afraid of it and become nuns and priests.