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Video Games and Saying 'no'
I read an article recently by Michael Lafferty, who claimed that video-games are not 'toys'.
I agree that parents are very nonchalant in what they buy for their young kids to play, and that people tend to ignore the ratings on the side of the box.
I should know, because after all, my parents did. I was playing the most violent games at the tender age of nine or ten that shouldn’t really have been in my possession.
Now though, I’m at the age where limits and restrictions don’t apply much to me at all, not that I really cared much in the past anyway.
Simply put, ratings are there as a general guide, and according to Lafferty, are outdated and out of touch with reality as it is, and people have the choice of whether they read them or listen to the ones who talk about their child’s safety and what they are exposed to.
We all know that the stores themselves will most likely not turn a customer down for the purchase of a game, stating “You’re too young.”, or “How old is your child?”. They hardly even do this with alcohol and cigarettes for crying out loud.
They don’t want to put customers off, and they don’t want to get a reputation. On one hand, they’re saviours and heroes for protecting the children of the nation, and on the other, they’ve lost potential customers, they’re losing profits, and going out of business as people shop elsewhere. Are they really going to turn someone down when they’re waving their wallet around?
Picking up games in the stores is becoming a thing of the past as well, as you can download it your PC with Direct-2-Drive, or you can order it online and have it delivered. I honestly don’t know why stores with shelves full of games exist. I hardly ever see anyone in there buying them, on the occasion that I go in and browse a store for something. You think they’d just have a big warehouse and an online presence without all these retail chains.
The customer wants his product, the developers, publishers, retailers and whoever else, want their money. Who is really going to say no?
It’s all very well politicians and others harping on about it, but in the end, it’s money that makes the world go round, not morals.
http://www.gamezone.com/news/02_19_09_05_22PM.htm
