to wonder why youd have COD black ops for kids way under 18?

[bettymoody]

or is it really not that bad?

I was going to say Red Dead was way better.

It's not an 18 - but I loved Brutal Legend. Why has hardly anyone played it?!

I want someone to address my dilemma. (Can't think for self emoticon)

wassaaxolotl... when you corrected that piece of information you left out the bit where most players then beat up/kill the prostitute and get theri money back

Oh, yeah, Doom 3 was awesome! First 18 I ever played. First FPS, too.

The mental effects were brilliant, too- see, I've always had nightmares. Spiders the size of humans, zombies, nasty aliens, etc. (I blame my mother letting me watch horror films with her when my age was in single figures.)

But the first nightmare I had of monsters after I played Doom 3, I had a gun in the dream. Instead of being hunted, and terrified, I got some other people together, went down into the sewers, and killed the monsters. Amazingly empowering. I woke up overjoyed at our victory, instead of shaking.

Never had a monster nightmare since.

thisistyesterday Well, thankfully you've done it for me.

no, no, I do indeed know all that - hence the dilemma. I can explain all the above to 13 yr old ds and he will understand it, but it is a big part of his friendships and he would be literally cut off from the peer activity of the day. He would also point out that as it doesn't affect him personally, it would be unfair to stop him. Currently, I limit it and make sure other activities go on as much as possible.

I would much rather the stupid games didn't exist, and I did buy nice ones about evolution and love, but of course no one plays those.

So then what? That's the dilemma.

I keep thinking he'll grow out of it, after all, who really wants to sit on their own with headphones on shooting things for hours on end? But I keep hearing about grown men who are still into it.

AAAggghhhhh.

I don't agree with not buying copies of things that might affect somebody else negatively.

I would think why is obvious. Namely that if the moral rule that anything that might affect somebody else negatively is banned, nobody would ever leave the house let alone buy anything fictional ever.

I think in some primitive part of my brain I thought it the modern equivalent of bows and arrows or soldiers, something sort of Iron Johnish that needed to be worked through.

Hully - he would survive if he didn't have the games, he'd just play them at other people's houses or read about them online and keep up that way. Or even hang out more with other people who don't have them.

When he is 13 it is your choice whether you let him own copies as well.

Don't be so harsh on yourself! It's not the end of the world. Lots of evidence of not homicidal violent game players here.

Get him and his friends into City of Heroes? It's a MMORPG, and basically, you create a superhero, and go around the city, saving people, with your superpowers. It is subscription based, though, rather than a one-off purchase.

Rated 12, I think. Possibly 16. It has an anexpansion called City of Villains where you create a supervillain. And go around being an utter bastard. Rated 16.

But I think you could arrange things so that he only had the Hero bit.

I'm not being harsh, I'm trying to understand what I think! Then I might be able to work out what to do..

I am very liberal too which doesn't help. I would feel odd banning things. We don't really do banning all that much.

I'll suggest City of Heroes, but they've all got the cod thing. I bought one in Sainsburys today as it was £27 if you spent £30 on shopping and I thought it was a bargain.

Should have bought wine.

No, Lenin, of course it's not.

What do you like about them, Riven?