Alert: Watch out for this game!

[janef81]

I am absolutely fuming about this video game called "Blinded by Fear" that my daughter stumbled upon. It is a horror game that involves players being immersed in a dark and creepy environment, and it is filled with grotesque and disturbing imagery. How on earth is this supposed to be suitable for children?!

My daughter was absolutely traumatized after playing this game. She has had nightmares for weeks, and she even started to develop a fear of the dark. I cannot believe that game developers are creating such inappropriate and harmful content and that parents are allowing their children to play it.

As a mother, I am appalled that this kind of game is even available to children. We need to stand up against this kind of violence and gore in our society. We cannot allow our children to be exposed to such harmful and inappropriate content.

I urge all parents to be vigilant about what their children are playing and to ensure that they are not exposed to this kind of horror. We need to protect our children and ensure that they are not subjected to unnecessary trauma and fear. This game is simply unacceptable, and we must do everything in our power to put an end to it.

Maybe not the same game though. But common sense media is really handy for checking things like that.

You thought a game called "Blinded By Fear" was suitable for a 12 year old? 🤣

She shouldn't be on steam

The game is not on common sense media which makes this game and developer even more insidious.

Unfortunately I will have to seek professional help for my child. She is seriously rattled. Something is not right with this game

If you child is that rattled by a game, then yes, professional help for the deeper issues at hand is certainly called for.

You could have Googled it first.

How has it lied?

It's not on commonsense media because it's a tiny, tiny indie game. Which no one would have ever heard of if you hadn't started a thread on here

Kerfuffler, the game is not rated correctly (intentionally) so that parental controls can catch it. This is clear misconduct by the developer.

I don't want to insight a panic, but clearly game developers are trying to get round the system here, to scare our children.

We're all mums here. This is not acceptable behaviour.

Reading the developer description is not enough. The title alone should give a big clue it's a scary one.

My dd is 18 now and we're a family of video game lovers, including the scary ones but she wasn't ever allowed to install anything I hadn't either checked out or watched footage of myself Do you not check any gameplay footage before installing games for her?

The issue isn't that the game exists, it's that so many parents don't supervise their children online, my sil once posted about tik tok allowing her 9 year old child access to inappropriate adults, or the App Store having age inappropriate games and thinks gaming YouTubers or twitch shouldn't be allowed to stream scary games and should moderate their content because she can't possibly supervise her 9 year old watching YouTube or playing online.

I love a good jump scare game and would rather parents take extra precautions to limit their child's access to social media and maybe supervise them on consoles and pcs too.

You do well ti raise concerns about parents allowing their children access to things they haven't checked but it's not the devs fault that some parents take their eyes off the ball and monitor the type of content their children are consuming.

And is likely why the OP is desperate for people to go to the game page on Steam, because it has nearly no followers and no concurrent players. It's a bit of a ghost town.

A quick Google without ever even going to the Steam website shows the game is horror themed and not rated. The first results in a search state that it's "a sci-fi, psychological horror" so I think it's pretty strange a parent with such stringent oversight on their 12-year-old somehow managed to miss ALL of this...

Even if the game is rated incorrectly it is still on you to monitor what your child buys and downloads, especially as she isn't old enough to have her own account according to Steam's terms and conditions. You seem perfectly happy with her ignoring THAT age limit.

Also if she's mature enough for most games then I can only assume she is able to read the tags on the game which label it as "Horror" as well as the description of the game where the first paragraph reads "Blinded by Fear is a sci-fi horror game". There is nothing wrong with the makers of this game and everything wrong with your attitude and lax parenting in this instance.

Do you have a screenshot or something where the game info says it's suitable for children? I'm not trying to trip you up it's just I've had a look on my phone and nothing about the the description or reviews seem to read like the dev is trying to trick parents into letting their children play it.

Nothing in the description suggests it's suitable for a child and the reviews fron what I presume are adults saying the almost had a heart attack also suggest it's not for children. The demo on YouTube also doesn't make it sound like something a child should play.

Had you bothered to check, this game is rated 17+ Mature

That's on PS4, XBox & Switch, so takes seconds to find.

If you'd simply watched the trailer you should have realised before it was half way through this was not intended for, or suitable for a 12 year old.

I'll also add that I had to enter my pin to exit the family view controls on steam to even view the game info. Do you not have that set up? It's something I had turned on to stop dd using steam without me present and I haven't got round to turning it off.

The dev has links to his social media on the game page, have you contacted him to discuss your concerns?

Best you throw all your daughter’s devices into the sea then, OP.
What a lame attempt to drum up clicks and mentions for some tinny little amateur game.

Yes. Mature enough she can't play a game about the theme of horror. You've already been told multiple times she is under the age to have an account. If you know she can't handle a horror themed game then don't allow it to happen and stop trying to pass the buck.

When I was a youngster I'd have been playing games like that a lot younger. How the times have changed.

Correct. As a mum, my version of acceptable behaviour is to monitor what my child does with any form of digital technology. As for misconduct, pot kettle black from the person who's clearly lied about her child's age to create the gaming account 🙄

I don't want to insight a panic, but clearly game developers are trying to get round the system here, to scare our children.

Don't worry, OP - I don't think anyone's panicking in the slightest over your super scary game.

There’s no risk of you inciting panic

why is this in mental health?

Just pay closer attention to what your child is downloading in future. We all make mistakes and we learn and move on. You now know you need to monitor more closely and pay more attention to what platforms and content your child is accessing. Just be grateful it's only a scary game that she accessed, it could have been much worse.

I thought this game was fine based on the game developer's description

"Interned, blind and alone. Fulfil your contractual obligation to the corporation that owns you. Your vision, modified by a cybernetic LiDAR device, is the only way to investigate the ANIMA, an abandoned futuristic mining facility with a dark secret...and even darker horrors."

Yeah sounds like sunshine and rainbows.

My guess is OP is either a troll or trying to promote the game.

I believe most games has strict age ratings. And I don't know the game your dd played, but it sounds like the game a 12 years old shouldn't be playing in the first place. So, it's not the developer's fault, they can make anything they want as long as it meets the regulations. You are the one who let a child play age inappropriate games.

... and that's why you stick to age raitings & always check out the games yourself!

I urge all parents to be vigilant about what their children are playing and to ensure that they are not exposed to this kind of horror.

Shame you didn’t take your own advice.