Violent video games, your parents, and you

I was recently thinking about when I was younger and how I was not allowed to play games such as Mortal Kombat or any other excessively violent or bloody video game. During a time when pretty much every male classmate of mine would rant about how great the latest Mortal Kombat game was, or how great Killer Instinct was, etc., I was never allowed by my parents to play these games and these rules continued even as games had ESRB ratings and parents came to be informed of them. I remember at the age of sixteen my parents confiscated a copy of Resident Evil 2 that I had borrowed from a friend. It continued like this even when I was past 18, where my parents exercised their complete control over the house by saying I wasn't allowed to play rated M games while living there.

Needless to say their choice over my exposure to violence was inconsistent. My father was the type to let me watch the movie Alien at the age of seven, which was at that time the most violent movie I had ever seen and pretty much desensitize me to it from the start. But I wasn't permitted to play Mortal Kombat, and always felt like an outsider for my parents' strict rules.

They were a bit overprotective; I thought that then and I still think so now. They were incredibly strict and even some things that were targeted toward children, for example those previously popular Goosebumps books, were pretty much banned from our household.

I'm wondering how lax your parents were/weren't/are/aren't regarding violent video games, their ratings, and your age.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Elixir

Killer Instinct didn't even have blood.

I recall Killer Instinct having optional gore.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Quote:

ESRB Rating:
"Killer Instinct" is rated Teen, for Animated Gore, Animated Violence, Animated Blood

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/supe...t/overview.php

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Okay, please explain where in the game this Animated Blood appears, because clearly it's been evaluated to have some somewhere or another.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Okay you're right. The gore isn't optional, but it's there, which contradicts your original statement. I just downloaded the ROM and saw it with my own one eye, so please stop being retarded and derailing my thread, thanks.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The strange thing is that I know people who have experienced real violence and thus avoid violent video games, movies, etc. We on the other hand are desensitized toward violence in general. I hardly flinch when I turn an enemy's head into red goop in Resident Evil 4. Furthermore, thanks to the internet, I've seen my share of real gore, and to some extent feel that it often doesn't match up to cinematic gore, which is surprising.

I do wonder what my response to extreme violence in real life would be. Would I be more prepared than others because of my exposure to virtual violence, or would my exposure to virtual violence be shattered by real violence?

Originally Posted by Elixir

I'm not derailing your thread. The original version was released on the 2nd of Feb, 1995, according to gamepro. Then the second version which contained blood was released on the 21st of August, 1995.

The six month difference means that the majority of cartridges available would of been the ones with blood, as Rare would of distributed more as their game was in demand. My cartridge is the rarer version without blood, hence my stating that it didn't have it. So why didn't you tell your parents that there was a version without blood? If they're that protective of you, try explaining to them. Like I said. Jesus.

Maybe because I was perhaps ten and had no idea that two versions were released. Obviously if I see a version with blood initially, I'm not going to assume that there is a bloodless version, as there would be no reason to even imagine that unless it was told to me. It never came to be that I could tell them there was a bloodless version. Besides that, the event is so far past it is in itself pretty trivial. I'm not regretting not playing Killer Instinct ten years ago.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?