I'd like to start off by saying, this is my rough draft for an essay I did in my Honors English Class, and wanted your guyses input and thoughts about it. It's far from perfect, any suggestions, comments, and improvements would greatly be appreciated.

Modern Warfare, Halo, Gears of War, and other “M” Rated games have been criticized, put down, and have been judged poorly. Are they really that bad of a game for the general audience? Do they set a bad tone for young children playing them? Or do they really “fry” your brain and give you negative thoughts? These are only some of the criticisms that are brought up when they talk about these sorts of games, but are they really that bad and harmful? Is it really the games fault that causes this, but the parents themselves letting their children play them at young ages? Video games were made with the players in mind for enjoyment and entertainment, not to corrupt minds, they have ratings to tell the person what they are going to encounter when purchasing the game, and reviews of every game have been made to give the person a more in depth preview of the game.

Mature video games have some content children should not see without supervision, gore, violence and occasionally sexual content. The ratings on video games are there for a reason, for the public to see what they are going to buy, and if it’s safe for their child to play. Is it really the childs fault that they have been playing a game, that is too much for them to handle, just because their parent doesn’t read the rating, and allows them to continue playing them? In my opinion, the only reason ratings were put on video games, were because people were complaining over how violent a game was, so what do they do? They created the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) to put ratings on games for the general audience to see what age it is recommended for people to play a certain game. For example, rated E(Everyone) games, is for everyone, Rated T(Teen) for children 13 and up, and Rated M(mature) for children over the age of 17. Ratings are for those complaining parents, and don’t need to continue over their children gaining a bad influence over them, they need to review the rating on the video game, and determine if their child is mature enough to play them.

If memory serves right, in California, there was a law passed that didn’t allow children to purchase video games without being the eligible age. It’s basically the same concept of purchasing alcohol, you need to be a certain age before you are allowed to. Thus, the ratings being put into effect again, so this gives parents a sense of relief knowing that their child isn’t allowed to purchase anything they aren’t old enough to buy. I’m sure a majority of us understand where parents come from when they complain about it being the video games fault, but in reality it’s just the poor choices of both the parent, how the child got the game. Laws are being passed to limit children from being able to have mature games, but they can only do so much before getting to the point where they need to ban them completely, and the families complaining over this need to their part as a parent or guardian in making sure they’re up to date on what their child is playing.

What parents need to start being more up to date, when it comes to their child wanting to get a game, is to look at the reviews and see if it’s appropriate for them to play, or if it’s above their comfort zone. There are tons of gaming review site all over the internet, all sharing out what they think on the game, and they go in depth when it comes to their rating purposes. You could either read a review, or watch them, but they are surely their. I have even walked into a gaming store myself, and asked them why so and so game is rated this, and they willingly told me. There’s one more excuse crossed off from the list on why parents are complaining over the video game being this and that, when they haven’t taken the time to look through everything before they judged.

Now to express my personal thought about video game violence: I believe that there are limitations to how violent a game to be, and there are a number of games out there that cross that line for me, but I’m personally for video game violence, not because I enjoy the violence, but the experience it gives you. First person shooters for example, they’re all based on the same concept, to shoot one another, let it be humans, aliens, or even mutants, all the same thing, killing one another for whatever objective, but the thing about that, some games give you a sense how things were and are now. They give you the realistic view of what soldiers have to go through in war, the different technological advantages they had or have, and just what it was like to be in the battlefront. It gives me a sense of appreciation that I’m not the one out there fighting, and won’t take what they do lightly or for granted. Another reason why I’m for video game violence, it gives people just one more genre of gaming, let it be an adventure, first person shooter, fighting, fantasy, or anything of that nature, it gives the gamer a different way of gaming. Yes there may be gore, and blood splattering, and dismemberment, but that’s all up to the person playing to tell if it’s real or not, which it isn’t, and should always be considered to just being a video game, nothing more. Video games to me is another way of self expression, so why should that be taken away from us? We prefer to express ourselves that way, but we don’t complain (at least I don’t) about your ways of expression, so we should still have the privilege.

Parents aren’t entirely to blame when it comes to their children being in contact with violent video games, the child themselves are also a part of it. For example, the child could always go to a friends house and play violent video games, without their parents ever finding out. So the question is, how do you prevent them from playing them, when the parent isn’t around? The one thing that comes to mind into preventing their children to playing these games when they aren’t around is to talk to them, let it be clear that they aren’t to be playing them if they are not suppose to, if they understand, well, then your job has been accomplished, and if they don’t, well than punishment is the next resort.

Parent don’t make the desision all on there own whether or not to buy these games. The child they buy the game for does have some influence over them. He can bother, pester, bargain and beg and he will sometimes get that game. This will work depending on both the will of parent and the determination of the child. They both have to be on equal terms for him to get the game.

Video game violence, I think, will always be around as long as there is a willing person or company who still will continue making them. The gamers who play these games will continue to play them and support them as long as the games are still out there. So completely banning them will more than likely never happen, but there are ways to make your child not come into contact with them, some being pretty obvious, and others taking a little more work to get through, but it is possible. Both child and parent need to be on the same level when it comes to what they are able and not able to okay, and be mature about it. Video games were made with the players in mind for enjoyment and entertainment, not to corrupt minds, they have ratings to tell the person what they are going to encounter when purchasing the game, and reviews of every game have been made to give the person a more in depth preview of the game.