My kids are asking for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for the xBox360 as a Christmas gift.
Today I'm pondering whether to allow it in or not.
When we first got the xBox360 I allowed Halo 3 in (rated M). Halo ODST is rated T.
At one point my kids begged to buy a used copy of an older Call of Duty game ($10) for my husband as a suprise Father's Day gift. My husband is not into video games honestly. I let the game in and only let my husband play it. The one we bought was World War II themed so there is a bit of historical interest there. However I hadn't given much thought to the fact that my kids would watch my husband play the game and thus be exposed to the content. Well, they'd already seen it at the homes of some friends and cousins. At some point my kids started playing the game with my husband. This was a case where my husband somehow didn't know I didn't want them playing it and they were alone with him and it just happened without my consent.
I have wished for a detailed review of each video game to explain the details. You see the ratings are just not enough. I honestly have no issue with the game Halo. Before we bought our first Halo game I was able to watch it being played by experienced players. I saw no big issues with the game. Yes, it's a first person shooter but there is a whole storyline around it, it is a fantasy imaginary setting and they are killing some aliens. It is not gory, when there is blood it is green then it disappears. (Call of Duty is more realistic gory battle scenes with humans using historically accurate settings.) The game has unbelievable graphics and my kids read books about the story that add different levels of game experience than what others may get out of it. One of their favorite things to do is make up custom lands, create new maps to play on. The language is not so bad in Halo 3 (rated M) with the use of 'freakin'.
My kids are more interested in Halo than Call of Duty. One son's passion for Halo has lingered longer than the other. My long attention span kid is more into the Halo story than Call of Duty. My shorter attention span "likes the newest thing" kid wants all the newest games. I have a feeling some of that is his desire to be cool and to be able to talk about it with his peers, to be able to be like them and to chat about the game in detail. That son does not like feeling different or 'left out'. The fact that some games are M rated with sexual content and lots of profanity means nothing to my nine year old who feels he should have access to everything right now (like his same aged peers do).
Well today I was happy to find a website that does give detailed reviews. It is called "What They Play". I was thrilled with the level of detail in the review of this latest Call of Duty, it told me everything I wanted to know. Additionally it has screen shots of the game so the reader can get a gist of what it looks like.
Regarding Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, I'm not happy to hear that the American soldier character that the gamer represents has the chance to participate in a terrorist act against (Russian) civilians. The character can also choose to just watch it happen, it says. If the gamer kills one of the terrorists they are instantly killed off and the scene begins to reply, the article says. I was thrilled to read that there is an option at the beginning of the game where you can elect to skip scenes including the option of notifying later on in the game play that you want to opt out of that scene. If I had not read that I'd never have known to set the game up in the beginning to allow that option. I don't like the language, the F word and the S word.
I'll discuss this with my husband and we'll make a decision after that.
My kids were pressing me for an answer about this video game today. One son wants it more than the other. I explained the part about the terrorist act, the American soldier joining in and they both already knew what the issue was. They know enough form past discussions to know that I'd not like that portrayal of our soldiers. They know my husband won't like it either. I'm happy they themselves don't like it. I want to make it clear this is not a case of my kids not being bothered by it and knowing their parents hate it. My kids (thank goodness) didn't like the idea of an American soldier doing terrorist acts against civilians in tangent with terrorists.
I do not allow Grand Theft Auto IV (or any incarnation of the game), and my husband is in perfect agreement with me on that. I was once explaining why I'm soft on Halo but hat GTA and a waiter overheard me (about 22 year old male) and he snickered out loud at my explanation. Frankly I don't like the idea of glamorizing auto theft and the gamer being a thief. I don't like hookers in the game and that the gamer gets bonus points for running over the prostitute and killing her. Lastly the game wants you to kill cops in the quest to steal the car, forget it.
(My nine year old just walked up to me and saw I was writing this, before I could even ask him to stop reading what I was writing. He chimed in that a ten year old homeschooled boy he knows has GTA IV (rated M) and told him there are "nude bars" and "hookers" in the game. I just went to read the review on What They Play and was horrified to learn the full range of profane words used (not just the F and S word) as well as discussions of sex acts and being inside the strip bar and also going inside sex shops. Go read the review for yourself to get even MORE details.
Honestly after reading that review of GTA IV I'm thinking "Modern Warfare 2" is "no biggie" if we ask that they opt out of the terrorism against civilians scene!! Do you see how the slide gets slippery?
At the present time my kids are only playing video games on Saturday and Sunday and each are limited to two hours each day. The time does not carry over, if they are not home or too busy they don't get to save up their time. However if a kids is here visiting they may play and may exceed two hours, and time playing at someone else's house is not timed or restricted by me. I explain this because it is not like my kids don't have enough to do with their video game time, they are not starving for yet another new game. It is just that a holiday is coming up and some relatives want to give money toward a gift. I could pool relative's money or use the gift cards they receive to pay for this video game.
By the way, Wii owning families should be aware that this game and some other T and M rated games are making their way to the Wii platform, which at the beginning seemed to only have E games and others for all ages. I know some parents have the Wii and feel it will somehow prevent their kids from being able to play T or M rated games.
Here is the game I'm considering buying---
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 xBox360 platform
Here is the review article that I found so helpful and it was on the site What They Play.
Disclaimer: I have not received any payment for blogging about these products. For more information see my blog's disclosure statement in the top of my sidebar.
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6 comments:
I have enough trouble with regular computer games the kids can play on our computer - they have a time limit for each day, when it was weekends, I had trouble pulling them away to do anything else. If we ever do get a game system (ugh, the logistics, the attitude, ugh, that review site sounds great.)
The Russian Terror Scenerio reminded me of a story:
When I was in college, I met Theodore Taylor, the inventor of the 'suitcase bomb,' I was entering data about low level nuclear waste into a spread sheet for him in preparation for a presentation about why a low level waste site was a bad idea to site in Alleghany County NY (the poorest and only Republican county in that part of the state, but also one that is on a major aquafer and ground fault.)
He had become a 'Pugwashite' after he had a huge Damascus Road experience in Moscow. He was there for a scientific conference, and realized that all the regular people on the street were the very people his bomb would blow up if it was ever used in the cold war. That experience also pushed him towards faith in Christ.
Just a random memory there - I really do need to go wash dishes and listen to my oldest boy's narration, he recorded it on his MP3 Player last week.
-Christine in Massachusetts
Christine, thanks for the link to the review site. I agree that we have to be very careful, as to the de-sensitization that can occur among our boys playing and watching these games. My oldest son wants this same game, and he is 17. My husband did some research and decided against it as we have younger children he did not want exposed to it. I have been told that in "group" player mode the language is not an issue.
My 14 year old had opportunity to play this game at a friend's house, and was shocked at the level of violence (his type of game is Star Wars related). He chose not to play and actually left the room while his friend played.
We also restrict playing... one hour friday and saturday per child (we have four boys). We also say they get 30 minutes alone, and then 30 minutes with a brother (otherwise we, as parents, have to sit through 4 hours of video playing!).
I appreciate your opinions on these!
Susan in TX
Hi Susan,
You, the parent, sit and watch your kids play? I couldn't handle that. LOL.
I read one Amazon customer review that said the game played in single player mode without the xBoxLive takes 5 hours to master. That is not a lot of game play when not doing the interactive game play via xBoxLive. The game seems to be most geared toward that interactive play.
Which is the issue I didn't discuss here or ever blog about yet. Since we have had xBoxLive since August my eyes have opened. One of the big issues is when playing with strangers online you cannot control the language. We have restricted that play to our kids with friends but are struggling as sometimes the friend boy invites stranger men in to play on the same game. This gets very complex and hard to deal with when the two sets of parents are not on the same page. I spoke to the mom & explained the stranger men were swearing up a storm and don't like that, also some being mean and nasty to my kids, she said, "That's what it is about". I couldn't get through to her or communicate well enough that when our kids have an appointment to play with each other in a game I wish it could JUST be them not other people. Sigh.
LOL Christine... let me rephrase myself, as no, we don't "sit" and watch our kids non-stop (although my husband has been known to nap on the sofa while the kids play!). We make them team up and play together so that they do not monopolize the TV for four hours.
I can relate to the xBoxLive problem, although we do not have an xBox, my #2 son (14) has a friend who really likes to play what they call "Browser" games... games that are played through a website. He dislikes them for the very reason you have discussed here... the language and harassment level from strangers. It has gotten so bad that my son refuses to play with his friend, and it has caused a riff between them at times. His friend's father, while extremely strict on many levels, seems to not be bothered by this for some reason and allows his son to play.
My oldest son, 17, is the one who REALLY wants to play these games.
Have you read the book "Boys Adrift"? I am about half way through it, and I highly recommend it. Dr. Sax addresses the video game issue and it's effect on boys in it.
Other than educational games for really little kids I didn't let my kids play any fun games on the Internet. The exception was spurts on the 39 Clues site and Lego.com.
I kept my kids off video games until my oldest was 10 when we got the video game console which before the xBoxLive was a closed, safe system not with strangers on it.
Right now my kids still don't play live games with strangers on xBoxLive. They use it to access the additional game features & play with the few friends they have which have the console & the xBoxLive. Most of their friends have played video games since toddlerhood or at least Kindergarten and have numerous gaming consoles, Game Cube, PS, PS3, Wii, as well as hand held devices.
Parents who are going to buy the DSI should be aware it has Internet access--not good IMO as often those parents ban the internet on the home PC but don't 'get' that all the Internet can be viewed on the game unit!
Thanks for the heads up on the site reviewing games. We too had an hour per weekend day of xBox time allowed. With 3 boys it wasn't really a lot of time we thought.
Over a month or so we noticed though that their ability to listen to instructions clearly and their willingness to drop the game (or in fact anything else they particularly wanted to do like watch tv) really decreased. In my home I think my voice and my dh's voice should over ride any game, any TV show, any time.
My boys, 10.5yo, 7yo and 4yo, were unable to keep their priorities straight.
In our house they now only get 1/2 hour on one of the weekend days. If the weather is horrible I might let a second session slip in, but not often.
Glad to meet you,
Jen in Oz
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