What's your thoughts on video game morals?

[dreama1]

What's your thoughts on video game morals?

I would say this encompasses under one umbrella, violence, sexual content, and politics?

Do you think there should be any restrictions, censorship or outright banning on games? 

Personally I wouldn't mind what someone would want to create without any restrictions holding it back.

[kamikazekeeg]

I'm generally fine with most games having their place, I think it's kinda ridiculous that sexual content is problematic, but violent stuff doesn't tend to be (Ignoring the conservative types who don't want to see any hints of either one).  That being said, I don't think a free for all makes sense for gaming, as I do feel there are subjects that don't belong, particularly involving hate speech or games designed to capitalize on a tragedy.  These games are usually meant to rile people up, sometimes under the guise of "trolling", but as we've seen with youtube and social media outlets, trolling has led to serious issues with younger people, who don't realize they are normalizing racist, bigoted, things, and that's all stuff I'm very much against seeing get a platform.

[dreama1]

I'm generally fine with most games having their place, I think it's kinda ridiculous that sexual content is problematic, but violent stuff doesn't tend to be (Ignoring the conservative types who don't want to see any hints of either one).  That being said, I don't think a free for all makes sense for gaming, as I do feel there are subjects that don't belong, particularly involving hate speech or games designed to capitalize on a tragedy.  These games are usually meant to rile people up, sometimes under the guise of "trolling", but as we've seen with youtube and social media outlets, trolling has led to serious issues with younger people, who don't realize they are normalizing racist, bigoted, things, and that's all stuff I'm very much against seeing get a platform.

The Japanese seem pretty strict on the sexual content surprisingly. that cyberpunk game is being censored I heard over there.

[kamikazekeeg]

The Japanese seem pretty strict on the sexual content surprisingly. that cyberpunk game is being censored I heard over there.

Japanese can be both strict and loose with their views on sexual content, which is so weird.  They are pretty restrictive on some of their violent content though as I don't believe games like Mortal Kombat are allowed.  Then again, there's some fairly violent anime stuff that exists, maybe not quite as realistic as Mortal Kombat, but still, seems kinda arbitrary.

[dreama1]

The Japanese seem pretty strict on the sexual content surprisingly. that cyberpunk game is being censored I heard over there.

Japanese can be both strict and loose with their views on sexual content, which is so weird.  They are pretty restrictive on some of their violent content though as I don't believe games like Mortal Kombat are allowed.  Then again, there's some fairly violent anime stuff that exists, maybe not quite as realistic as Mortal Kombat, but still, seems kinda arbitrary.

Days gone and GTA were pretty heavily butchered over there as well.

[dhaabi]

Do you think there should be any restrictions, censorship or outright banning on games?

Personally I wouldn't mind what someone would want to create without any restrictions holding it back.

In how I view things, there are no restrictions. No one is stopping another from making a game with themes such as these. But, if a creator is wanting to market their game with the intention of selling it, the creator will need to comply with their local video game rating system's requirements.

However, if you're meaning to ask if restrictions toward games with the intention of being marketed should exist, then I would ultimately say no. Whether a product is good or bad, pure or corrupt, or moral or immoral, it is important to accept works for what they are and recognize when mistakes have been made and when boundaries have been broken, so that people can understand extremism on their own. With this mindset, I would only hope that video game rating boards such as ESRB and PEGI to be much more thorough in their descriptions and perhaps enforce tighter individual ratings guidelines. With works involving intense violence, sexual content, and general hate speech, I feel as if required mental health and background checks would be beneficial before purchasing games with these themes—and perhaps not even offer these kinds of items in stores.

Obviously, this is a difficult scenario full of what-ifs and maybes, and it's certainly not black-and-white. I know that allowing such games to be marketable only reaffirms to these audiences that what they're seeking is accepted. Nevertheless, in the end, if every game were allowed to be sold without restriction, a ridiculous amount of hoops should be needed to go through both to sell and purchase such items.

[dreama1]

Do you think there should be any restrictions, censorship or outright banning on games?

Personally I wouldn't mind what someone would want to create without any restrictions holding it back.

In how I view things, there are no restrictions. No one is stopping another from making a game with themes such as these. But, if a creator is wanting to market their game with the intention of selling it, the creator will need to comply with their local video game rating system's requirements.

However, if you're meaning to ask if restrictions toward games with the intention of being marketed should exist, then I would ultimately say no. Whether a product is good or bad, pure or corrupt, or moral or immoral, it is important to accept works for what they are and recognize when mistakes have been made and when boundaries have been broken, so that people can understand extremism on their own. With this mindset, I would only hope that video game rating boards such as ESRB and PEGI to be much more thorough in their descriptions and perhaps enforce tighter individual ratings guidelines. With works involving intense violence, sexual content, and general hate speech, I feel as if required mental health and background checks would be beneficial before purchasing games with these themes—and perhaps not even offer these kinds of items in stores.

Obviously, this is a difficult scenario full of what-ifs and maybes, and it's certainly not black-and-white. I know that allowing such games to be marketable only reaffirms to these audiences that what they're seeking is accepted. Nevertheless, in the end, if every game were allowed to be sold without restriction, a ridiculous amount of hoops should be needed to go through both to sell and purchase such items.

I'm not against the rating board even if it hurts sales the higher the age rating it gets. I think it's reasonable. (Apart from the hate speech part this can get pretty vague.)

I agree with you, though I don't know about mental health background checks on purchases, it seems way to discriminatory and intrusive as if you were making a purchase of drugs or guns not a video game. I don't think anyone wants to be denied a purchase because they had a depressive episode years ago. And you will say there will be exceptions but it seems too vague to be implanted. If I'm understanding you correctly.

[turf]

No restrictions. Make whatever game you want to make.
I do think there needs to be ratings. It helps people decide what they need to buy.
Just like movies. You can make porn, but the local AMC isn’t going to show you’re movie. So, you can’t make that Avengers money.

[wartoy]

I believe you should be able to make whatever game you wish.And it should be rated for it's content so you can better decided for yourself how deep into the rabbit hole you wish to go.

[Warmsignal]

I think the policies that have been in place since the early 90s are pretty agreeable. Or we can just ban everything. Either way.

[98dgreen]

Parents should pay way more attention to what their children are doing.  For adults restrictions are stupid.

[turf]

Parents should pay way more attention to what their children are doing.  For adults restrictions are stupid.

I do agree restrictions are stupid, but a rating system helps folks know what they’re getting into. Not everyone is ok with language/violence/sex.

[pzeke]

The rating systems are there for a reason and they serve their purpose, and I think they do their job well. The problem most, if not all the time are the parents and their inability to properly and effectively raise their children, using whatever's new and trendy as the scapegoat for their bad parenting. An adult that can't get a grip on reality and has problems differentiating fiction/fantasy from it clearly wasn't brought up right. Poor parenting and lack of education shape up and fuel future criminals.

[...] With works involving intense violence, sexual content, and general hate speech, I feel as if required mental health and background checks would be beneficial before purchasing games with these themes—and perhaps not even offer these kinds of items in stores.

Seriously, guy? You think that's the "solution"? You think video games are the gateway drug to violence?

So many decades of lobbing the blame on something for violence has been nothing but an exercise in futility. The fact this scapegoating began with books still amazes me to this day.

I'll leave this here. Good read.

[dhaabi]

[...] With works involving intense violence, sexual content, and general hate speech, I feel as if required mental health and background checks would be beneficial before purchasing games with these themes—and perhaps not even offer these kinds of items in stores.

Seriously, guy? You think that's the "solution"? You think video games are the gateway drug to violence?

So many decades of lobbing the blame on something for violence has been nothing but an exercise in futility. The fact this scapegoating began with books still amazes me to this day.

I'll leave this here. Good read.

No, I don't. But I feel as if the people who regularly gravitate toward works with extreme themes are people who either already exhibit underlying problems while upholding unstable radical positions or are people seeking answers and unfortunately fall down a dangerous rabbit hole, with the works only amplifying their problems and mindsets by excusing and normalizing certain ideals that are not healthy and have great chances of becoming threatening to others.

[oldgamerz]

I never understood why nudity is restricted, I can agree that sex is on the borderline with what I want in my video games but, covering up nudity is always something I hated,  and angered me what does that do anyway, well it restricts people and makes them need to watch porn to see any kind of body at all. it's stupid. And yes I am actually a Christian, I think people should be more free, covering any type of ass or other body part makes no sense. I mean what is the point?

this following opinion is controversial.

In the 20th century  religious organizations made a huge stink about not showing any type of nudity or skin to the general public. mostly the churches, yet we should all know how perverted a lot of the churches and private schools were in the 20th century. Now from what I know before the 20th century nudity was considered acceptable artwork, I don't know what happened, but a lot of religious organizations is mainly to blame for all the censorship. Imagine if there was no such thing as swear words, think about it. What is a swear word if it does not mean anything at all?
every language has forbidden swear words, but who judges what a swear word even is? I could say the word APPLE and everyone in some foreign country could get offended think about it.

Believe me I'll try not to get caught swearing in front of a kid, but what the hell is a swear word anyway, The word GAY used to mean happy now it means something offensive.

I don't mind the BEEP when someone swears I think it makes it more funny, especially when you hear a BEEP on the TV and the persons mouth get blurred out that is hilarious to me