The Games of my Life

On PBS: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked. A wonderful article that all the Hillary Clintons of the world should read.

The Guardian (no, not the Ultima VII villain) has an article (saw it on Slashdot) called Do your bit for the games industry this Christmas - which is also a way to avoid bad games.

Now, it’s probably an oversimplification, but it’s certainly stuff to think about. Besides, there’s an important question: who says that games bought for Christmas have got to be Christmas games? You know, you don’t die if you buy / give / are given a 2-months old game - or if you buy that Christmas blockbuster in February, after it’s been patched (if it’s a PC game) and is probably cheaper - not to mention all the reviews you can read before buying it.

I’d also suggest avoiding sequels and clones, but that’s probably asking too much.

I’m tired of this stupid argument by ignorant people, so I just had to copy this comment I just saw on Slashdot (it’s by an AC so I can’t give proper credit, unfortunately):

What the fuck does a game’s rating have to do with who it’s aimed at? Just because a game doesn’t feature exploding corpses, lakes of blood, automatic weapons, random senseless violence, demonic possession, bouncing boobies, or gratuitous sex, it doesn’t mean that it’s “for kids”. In fact, games with stuff that earns them an M rating are exactly the kind of games that are intended for kids, specifically teenagers between 13 and 18 - the hormonally imbalanced “I want to be grown up” lot, who think that playing a game where you go around beating up prostitutes makes them more of a man.

Games that are aimed exclusively at young children (in the way you seem to think Nintendo’s games are) are extremely rare, and far more likely to be released for everything that’s electronic and plays games (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, PC, GBA, DS, PSP, possibly others). Stuff like the endless stream of Spongebob Squarepants or Disney games, or whatever. These games are absolutely awful, because they’re developed with the idea that kids are too stupid to know any different, and they largely sell because parents who don’t know any better buy them. Anyone over the age of 6 finds them unplayable, and even then they aren’t very good games.

That’s not even close to what Nintendo’s games are like. Nintendo’s games are designed for everyone. They aren’t intended to exclude everyone over a certain age as kids’ games are, and they aren’t intended to exclude everyone under a certain age either. In order to be playable by everyone, they need to qualify for the appropriate ratings, so that means they can’t include content that would kick their rating too high.

If you thing those ratings are the same as the age ratings on a toy, or a jigsaw puzzle, or whatever (the ones that say things like “Ages 6 - 11″ or “12 and up”), you’re seriously deluded.