Grand Theft Auto and Parenting


Guest MormonGator
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Guest MormonGator

I am not a parent, but what kind of parent lets their teenage child play such a vile game? 

 

 

It's all over Facebook that a 15 (!) year old "convinced" his father to let him buy this. I can't imagine letting a 15 year old play this! 

 

I'm a video game junkie, but this is absurd. Thoughts would be welcome. 

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Guest MormonGator

As youngsters, my brothers borrowed the game from a friend. My mom discovered the game. She happened to be friends with the loaning friend's mother. Friend's mother was unaware her son owned the game.

Everyone got in trouble.

 That's awesome. As kids, we played Mario, Zelda, and sports games. No violence or vulgarity at all. I can't imagine what these kids are going to turn out like. 

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Guest MormonGator

Don't even get me started.

 It's shocking. You are training your children to be desensitized. 

(No, not you personally Eowyn  :D

Edited by MormonGator
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Guest MormonGator

I wouldn't allow my boys to play it when they were younger.  They borrowed the game once and I made them take it back immediately.

 Yeah. I'm a grown man and I won't play it. It's actually disgusting. Like getting your self worth by looking in a toilet. 

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 It's shocking. You are training your children to be desensitized. 

(No, not you personally Eowyn  :D

 

And that is contributing heavily to a culture where kids/young adults are perfectly okay with going into a school or mall and shooting a bunch of people. 

 

Dangit, you got me started.

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I've been battling my husband for getting the kids Assassin's Creed and Halo.  This was 2 years ago when my oldest kid was only 12!

 

My husband was big on Socom and we had a really nasty year-long fight over it - this was before the kids were born.  I lost that battle then.  I lost the Assassin's Creed battle too.

 

I really don't understand why the boys in my house - all morally straight guys - think it's an awesome way to pass the time to kill people... Granted, they really don't play too much video games.  They probably spend 2 hours max on it a week.

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Guest MormonGator

I've been battling my husband for getting the kids Assassin's Creed and Halo.  This was 2 years ago when my oldest kid was only 12!

 

My husband was big on Socom and we had a really nasty year-long fight over it - this was before the kids were born.  I lost that battle then.  I lost the Assassin's Creed battle too.

 

I really don't understand why the boys in my house - all morally straight guys - think it's an awesome way to pass the time to kill people... Granted, they really don't play too much video games.  They probably spend 2 hours max on it a week.

 Yup, I agree. I like some games that are a bit edgy (You can't make a game about WW 2 and have the Nazis and Allies cuddle each other) but I don't play the really violent ones. I probably spend about 4-8 hours a week gaming.

My personal preferences are RPGs, turn based strategy and sports.  

Edited by MormonGator
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 Yup, I agree. I like some games that are a bit edgy (You can't make a game about WW 2 and have the Nazis and Allies cuddle each other) but I don't play the really violent ones. I probably spend about 4-8 hours a week gaming.

My personal preferences are RPGs, turn based strategy and sports.  

 

Lately, the kids have been playing Clash of Clans on their phones and Agario on their computer more than they're playing on the xbox.  I don't get agario.  It's circles eating each other.  Pacman and Galaxian (the games I played) look more "techy" than agario.

 

But, I'm ok with it... at least they're not pretending to be assassins.

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You know, I've heard a lot of bad press on it.  But I have no idea what the game is really like.

 

HOWEVER...

 

The comments I'm seeing on here are almost verbatim what I heard many people say about D&D.  Just replace "violent" with "demonic" OR "witchcraft" or whatever.  So, at the risk of starting a threadjack, can someone tell me just how bad GTA is and if it is more violent than other video games or D&D?

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But, I'm ok with it... at least they're not pretending to be assassins.

 

Last night our ward celebrated trunk or treat early (Tues. are our weekly activity night).  Out of about 40 kids I saw 6 ninjas. 7 superheroes, and various other people with weaponry fake and real.

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Anatess said they're not pretending to be assassins.

 

Ninjas are assassins.

 

This may not be obvious to most.  But I believe Anatess understood the barb.  And I hope she understood the jest as it was intended.

Edited by Guest
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You know, I've heard a lot of bad press on it.  But I have no idea what the game is really like.

 

HOWEVER...

 

The comments I'm seeing on here are almost verbatim what I heard many people say about D&D.  Just replace "violent" with "demonic" OR "witchcraft" or whatever.  So, at the risk of starting a threadjack, can someone tell me just how bad GTA is and if it is more violent than other video games or D&D?

 

The title of the game itself gives you an idea...

 

Grand Theft Auto is a game where the objective is to rise in the ranks of the Criminal World by committing crime - stealing cars is just one of them.  So, the more you commit crime, the more successful you are in the game.  So you're murdering, pillaging, running a drug cartel, etc. etc. complete with graphic images. And if that's not bad enough, one of the games in the series let's you torture people - kneecapping, dental extraction, waterboarding, what-have-you...  Another one of the series allows you to restore your health by paying for a prostitute and then killing her to get your money back.    Another one has a cutscene with full frontal nudity.  Another one has hidden code that you can activate by applying some mod you can get from the internet that allows you to enter a mini-game within the game where you can have sex with your girlfriend and record a sex tape.

 

And that's just a very few...

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Last night our ward celebrated trunk or treat early (Tues. are our weekly activity night).  Out of about 40 kids I saw 6 ninjas. 7 superheroes, and various other people with weaponry fake and real.

 

Hah hah... yeah... my son is gonna be Arno for Halloween.  He's got some cosplay costume... sigh.

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Guest LiterateParakeet

Oh my stars! It's far worse than I imagined. Thanks for eloborating, Anatess.

Now I understand Eowyn's comment earlier and I agree with her. You can spend hours and hours (as some do) playing a game like this and expect it NOT to effect you.

Edited by LiterateParakeet
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I personally find GTA distasteful. I have no problem playing many First Person Shooters though. Maybe I have a bit of a double standard.

If I was like my grandfather, I'd be talking about how air soft, paint ball, lazer tag, water guns, rubber band, potato guns and nerf weapons were all immoral.

Edited by Crypto
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Husband enjoys playing some first-person shooters. I myself enjoy a few rounds of "Gears of War". But, we're adults in a better position to make these calls for ourselves and accept the consequences.

 

Last year in my classroom I had a Student of the Week whom we would interview, letting the other students come up with the questions. Movies, shows, and video games were fairly popular choices for questions. Now, I teach 2nd grade. While it wasn't widespread, I did have cases of kids listing extremely violent video games as their favorites. The interview that still stays in my mind wasn't actually a video game, but a little girl of many issues stating "American Horror Story" as her favorite tv show.

 

And yes, the other kids listing other violent/disturbing/not for kids shows were also the ones who were more than a bit quirky.

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 The interview that still stays in my mind wasn't actually a video game, but a little girl of many issues stating "American Horror Story" as her favorite tv show.

 

 

 

 

I tried to watch that the first season it appeared. There were 2 scenes in what I think was the 2nd episode that finally made me say no more--one was of a man...um....enjoying himself. And the other was of a woman enjoying herself. I was absolutely shocked....no nudity shown, but there was NO QUESTION what they were doing. 

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Steve Carrel said that he was really disappointed in a parent when he heard a little kid (he estimated 8 years old) point to him and say "40-yr-old virgin!"

 

He went on to say, "I think the movie was funny.  But it is really raunchy!  Why are you letting an 8-yr-old watch that?  It is rated R for crying out loud.  Totally inappropriate for kids."

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I tried to watch that the first season it appeared. There were 2 scenes in what I think was the 2nd episode that finally made me say no more--one was of a man...um....enjoying himself. And the other was of a woman enjoying herself. I was absolutely shocked....no nudity shown, but there was NO QUESTION what they were doing. 

 

I think we managed about 4 episodes of one of the seasons. Enough to know a 2nd grader should not be watching it to the point it's her favorite show.

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I am not a parent, but what kind of parent lets their teenage child play such a vile game? 

 

 

It's all over Facebook that a 15 (!) year old "convinced" his father to let him buy this. I can't imagine letting a 15 year old play this! 

 

I'm a video game junkie, but this is absurd. Thoughts would be welcome. 

 

My husband and I have played one of the series. We weren't impressed, not our style, pretty raw in all and every aspect. I would not want my son to play such a game if I have any say in it. Thankfully, I'll have a say for awhile, and then he'll be his own man.

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