Steve, What's Your Opinion On The ESRB Ratings?

[Matt Willard]

You mentioned in your "Polyamorous Relationship Q&A" that your five year old son plays Halo 3. Halo 3, for you gamers out there on the forum (all six of you), is rated by the ESRB as "Mature", meaning that the game has content considered suitable for people aged 17 and up.

Now, I can already predict that you don't really take these into consideration but I'd like some specifics. And believe me, I'm not a guy to anally judge video games by their content. I played Doom when I was ten-I know you gotta be a disturbed person to let fictional video games affect you. Halo 3 is quite mild compared to other, more violent games, but all the same, we are talking about shooting aliens at point-blank with a shotgun here.

Mmmmm...mindless shotgunning.

Anyway, I'd like to hear your opinion on the matter.

[Erin Pavlina]

I'll throw my opinion in. When Kyle plays video games like this, I use them to teach him about teamwork and being "the good guy." I learned from fantasty and sci-fi novels (filled with violence actually when I think about it) and I never became a violent person. Steve and I play Halo a lot too and I don't have violence issues either.

Waht's really cute and funny is that sometimes Kyle and Emily will play "house" in the game. Kyle will pull into the bunker in his tank or on his mongoose and say, 'Honey I'm home." And Emily's character will be inside the bunker "making dinner." They take walks around the "neighborhood" and go for rides in the car (i.e. tank) to get ice cream.

I'm not one of those people that believe that video games cause people to become violent. Lots of things cause people to become violent. Kyle knows it's just a game and I'm careful to explain that we don't go around shooting people for any reason, that that is something you only do in the game.

We tried getting him interested in the Lego games, like Lego Star Wars, but he doesn't understand the puzzles too well. And he likes playing Marvel Superheroes with us, but we don't play that often because it's kind of annoying that you can't save the game whenever you want.

[Matt Willard]

Well, I often find that the main deal with the whole violent video game argument is that it's usually a result of parents who use the thing as a babysitter and don't take the time to explain that it's only fiction as such. IE, parents who don't do their jobs and they need a target to stick the blame on. It's great to see that you allow your children to expose themselves to a variety of genres, even the more violent ones, considering their age.

By the way, when they're older, try to get them hooked on Okami.