man...couldnt have said it better, whip out the yarn....

I have let my six year old play all the time. He likes crashing the cars and motorcycles. He likes to see how many stars he can get.

A very thought out and valid opinion. I agree strongly.

Basically I believe in gradually acclimating kids to age appropriate things. Otherwise the escalation into things that they are definitely not ready for happens way to quick.


I own the GTA double pack for XBox as well as many other M rated games, so I'm certainly not down on the games themselves when played by appropriately mature people.

Currently my kids are ages 3 & 5, and they have been exposed to age appropriate video games so I'm not opposed to them playing games either.

Its our job to prepare our kids for what's out there so that they can handle it, but not to necessarily to supply these things to them at such early ages.

To the original poster, do you let his friends come over and play GTA also. If so do you have their parents' permission?

ummmm.....
seems like the OP was scared off by all the harsh responses....
maybe he just wanted to spark some heated discussion and he's just having a good laugh at all the responses.

I've got to agree w/ Decker though.
Whether or not a 10 year can handle it is not really the question, but SHOULD he handle it.
With ALLLLLLL the other games to play, and things to do, there's absolutely no reason the OP should be considering this game for his CHILD.
(I have a 12 year old sister and I don't think I'd be confortable w/ her playing this game either)

lol....hold on, timeout here. First off, I have not allowed him to play this game yet. Nor have I played this game. So I figured I'd ask a forum of people who do have experience with this game for their personal opinions. And I do in fact appreciate SOME of the replies. Actually I appreciate them all, but what is up with the suggestions of Pokemon, Willy Wonka, Harry Potter and oh yes, take him to a bookstore and let him get a good book. Not that these are bad ideas but you guys ought to take your boyfriends out and get together and knit a big "sissies and proud" quilt.
He is a ten year old who plays organized football, baseball and basketball. He also plays war with his buddies. Would you guys have me tell him not to play these games or tell him no more dodgeball. I just asked a question I was not taking a political stance on the subject. Maybe this is why more people do not look for others opinions on subjects before making decisions. They realize that they will have to deal with opionated *******s like yourselves. Of course that is just my opinion.
Well thanks again, and am looking forward to talking to you all again.

:eek:

Well... you did ask; and btw, there is a significant difference between dodgeball and GTA.

I'll post pics of my sissie quilt when it's done. :)

You had indicated in the original post that he had played (presumably) GTA III and I think that is what the majority of posters were commenting on.

To be honest, I don't think you can compare organized sports in presumably age appropriate school or league settings with GTA III.

And no you are not taking a political stance but most of the other posters are not either. However, I think that what we do as parents is as important or more so than somebody spouting their political opinions.

There's a difference between dodgeball and GTA: VC. Kids, as a whole nowadays, spend too much time watching tv, playing on the computer, or playing video games. Are those things bad? Not inherently. I let my little boy [who admittedly is not 10 years old, he's 15 months] watch the Wiggles and Dora and Mr. Rogers. I don't mind him watching me play Culdcept or Final Fantasy X. He's even gone over and grabbed the controller and held it like he's seen me do. I even let him watch VH1 Classic sometimes because he likes to dance to some of the music.
But the issue is when a person, child or adult, has only a few sensory inputs, and devotes all his attention to those. Bad in an adult, worse in a child.
You asked for opinions, and then when people express them, you call them "opionated *******s". I'm surprised people actually responded. These are not political opinions, these are opinions based on experience with the game and knowledge/understanding of children. If someone said 'No, and GTA should be BANNED and you should be SHOT for even thinking about it!' that's a political opinion.
He's your son, you know his maturity and fantasy/reality level more than anyone else; off hand, I would say 10 is too young to play GTA [any of them.] If my boy were 10, of the games I have, I'd probably let him play anything but GTA [I have both GTA III and GTA VC.] But perhaps your boy is more mature and advanced than most ten year olds, if so, the decision is yours to make. Even if I were to let my boy play GTA, it would not be the only game he played, or the only thing he was exposed to.
And to those who link Tipper Gore and the PMRC to people expressing their opinions on this thread: I grew up on 80's metal, Stephen King, Atari, and AD&D; never killed myself or anyone else. The first game I played was Combat. Again, there's a difference between asking opinions of cohorts who are either/both A> Familiar with the game or B> parents themselves, and a politico's wife wanting government censorship of musical artists.
And cheapskate makes a good point. GTA, while certainly groundbreaking gameplay and fun, does contain a lot of aspects of life that many people, I'm sure including people here, wish didn't occur in real life [carjackings, gang warfare, killing of bystanders/cops, etc.] They do. Your boy is ten years old. There's enough time to find out about all the horrible things people can do to one another later on, slowly, rather than being tossed into a virtual representation of them.
I also agree with Young Vito, however--the old Eden syndrome, if you tell a kid 'No', odds are, he's going to do his best to go for it. And he will run into it somewhere else. So is it better to introduce him to it yourself, where you can play with him, and use it as a base for discussion, or avoid it and hope he respects you enough to obey when you say 'I don't want you playing GTA.' [I definitely would either play it first, or at least play with him.] I don't believe 'Well, they'll do it anyway, so it doesn't matter' is a valid argument, but the rest of it ultimately has to be your decision. Which it seems like you already made, because you asked for opinions and then insulted those who gave them to you.
I also somewhat agree with Young Vito, in that 'crazy people are crazy before video games' [are we still allowed to say 'crazy'?], in that playing one video game isn't going to turn a kid into a psycho killer, if he has enough positive influences in his life to balance it out, maturity, and can tell fantasy from reality. But I disagree with YV's comment about the library.
While I was growing up, I used to love for my mom to take me to the library. No, it wasn't 'cool' like you imply [but then, I've never needed validation from the 'cool' people to feel good about myself], but it was actually very cool. Here, in this one room, I could read newspapers from around the country and the world; magazines about almost everything; and of course the books. Thousands of books. From wordplay-oriented things like 'The Phantom Tollbooth' [I still reread this one every couple years], to the light fantasy of Piers Anthony, even to non fiction detailing every country in the world and every age of history, as much as I like video games, ten minutes wandering in any library can expose someone to so much more, and ignite one's imagination, than any video game.

I'd actually almost be more worried about what else metman is teaching him: that expressing opinions and saying 'I don't think a 10 year old should play GTA, and here's why' makes someone a 'quilt-knitting sissy.' Way to continue caveman/alpha-male tough guy ideas of 'masculinity.'

Metman86 needs to understand this, which from his previous post, obviously doesn't.

rotfl

Well what did you expect from ******s who are growing up and playing GTA III and Vice city? :)

You know.... the PS2 can be doubled as a DVD player... and there are many DVDs you can show your kids that are rated Mature as well. Just an idea. :D

This thread is so good... I'm officially nominating it as one of this week's:

http://www.michyland.com/Quilt/piecevl4.jpg

If you have a thread you think deserves to be one of Sissy's Treasured Memories, please write and let me know. :)

I don't think that the people of dvdtalk realize that there is NO difference between dodgeball and GTA: VC.

Theres a difference. Dodgeball only had 2 buttons (throw/catch and jump) while GTA has 6 or more.

The difference is that Dodgeball is a great game and VC is not. :p

Plus, in Dodgeball, you can buy a hooker, have her service you, then kill her and take back your money. Can you do that in GTA:VC??

metman86

I'm not really sure what makes you think that this game (or any game in the GTA series) is appropriate for your young child. You try to compare it to organized sports, but you are so far off base that it is not even funny (well, maybe just a little). The point of GTA3 is to hurt people. It is a videogame which emulates real life situations where the purpose is to hurt/kill people. Organized sports never have this as their main goal. The point of organized sports is to work as a team to acheive a goal. No where in there does it require killing or hurting others. While that may be the outcome sometimes, it is not the intention (unless your kid is an *******).

GTA presents real life situations using real life characters. Its not like some dude is knocking a guy off the platform with a fireball. This is a guy using a gun to kill someone. They don't even try to hide it by using a talking rabbit shooting a ray gun. Its a human being shooting a real gun. Can you honestly you say you don't see the difference.

Do whatever you want to do. Obviously you are smarted that the people who make the games, and rate the games. Your child is obvously so much more matured than anyone elses child and therefore doesn't have to follow the normal curve. :rolleyes:

Why not just let your kid be a kid?

Doesn't that involve shooting other kids though?

rotfl rotfl rotfl

Can we at least agree on a compromise?

http://www.toysnjoys.com/gba/superdodgeball.jpg

It's parents like this who do their jobs.

Oh, god.

I'm not alarmed by the boy playing GTA

I'm just afraid for the future of the video game industry

When I was 10, I was playing wonderful games like Shining Force II and Phantasy Star IV..and also...Final Fantasy..Front Mission..Dragon Quest..on SNES

And all the other great games around those days..Street Fighter 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Streets of Rage 3, and older games too...Galaga..Pac Man..Space Invaders...

R Type, Thunderforce, Gradius, and all the great shooter games..

and my TurboDuo..Y's..Neutopia I-II, Dungeon Explorer, Bonk series, etc.

And these days I can't find anything as good as all those games I used to play...

If all the kids grow up thinking a good game is GTA or whatever..the future holds nothing of promise = (

metman86 might be onto something here between sports and GTA:VC
they both involve drugs, violence, and hookers, and rapists, see all of you guys critquing him on how to raise his child, you guys are the ones out of line, I say get that kid out of sports, in front of the boob tube playing VC with the controller in one hand, a beer in the other, and hooker in his pants

Ughh, ughh, don't tell me, you're a liberal, aren't you? If you're serious, you should be deported to a third world country.

"Daddy look!!! I bought the porn studio!!!! Candy Suxx is one fine ass bitch"