Bobby - but look at the USER scores - that's the story! 94 media for Oblivion sure, 80 from the users. 68 from the media for Zoo Tycoon, 90+ from the users.

What statistic on Metacritic do you think shows potential game sales. The media score or the user score? I go with the latter everytime. It's not critics that decide bums on seats. It's the bums.

I think we're getting a bit off topic. The point of this isn't about whether Zoo Tycoon is doing better than Oblivion. The point is that violent video games, in general tend to sell better than games with minimal or no violence. It's almost expected that if it's a video game is good, it has to have violence (with exceptions, of course).

The sad part is that a select group of politicians and anti-video-game activists think that all (!) games have violence, except for childrens' games. We all know this is false. Those politicians just need a scapegoat, something to blame, and video games, with all their violence and such, are right there, flying off the shelves.

Recent studies, however, have shown that overall, violent crime has been in a decline over the past years. I'm at a work computer, and my break is almost up, but when I get home, I'll find the source. I promise.

Bobby Phillipps said: [quote]I should probably state that, for the record, unless otherwise specified, I'm citing instances from the United States.

I did not know that Canada had such a policy in place. Is that in your city, or in the entire country?[/quote

The regulation is a provincial responsibility,currently, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have implemented this type of legislation, and Saskatchewan is in the process of doing so. British Columbia deals with violent games through its motion picture legislation.

Kirk,
..i had no idea it was law. thanks for the heads up.

for those ONTARIO folks reading this thread:

taken from http://www.ofrb.gov.on.ca/english/page15.htm .. there's more information on the page itself.

I think people need something to blameit on so they blame it on violent games but the real problem lies with the parent/gardians i mean if the parents are to careless to not look at a letter then i would think their kid would probaly go crazy because f the lack of care at home than killing in a video game and if anything the video game would releve stress

Keep the Government very far away. Keep pumping games out with ratings, just like movies. And parents need to be much more involved with there children.

The more you let the Government come out with these crapy regulations, the more our rights are stripped away from us.

This kind of opens the door for discussion again:

Virginia Tech killer played no games
http://gaygamer.net/2007/04/warrant_reveals_no_games_in_ch.html

Best regards,

Sander Sassen said:

Nice find.

S_U_P_E_R X_P said:
I couldn't agree more. We don't need child proof cigarette lighters, we need lighter proof children.

Sander Sassen said:
While the incident that occurred in Virginia was quite tragic, I couldn't help but chuckle when I read that. Take that, anti-video-game-violence advocates!

Violence in video games is obviously what caused the shootings! I say we put 30+ age tags on tycoon games and ban games with these gun things in them.

"Virginia Tech killer played no games
http://gaygamer.net/2007/04/warrant_reveals_no_games_in_ch.html"

Bollocks.

i hope your being sarcastic

dustin e said:
Ditto. Or at least, if you're not, provide some evidence.

Eternal Flame said:

@ having to be 30+ years old to play roller coaster tycoon.

I mean, just look at me ... I played the original Doom a countless number of times when I was 8, and I turned out fine ... I have no problem differentiating virtual simulations from reality:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/67169/

McFly said:

LOL

I missed that post!

Gmod is pretty good. I tried it for about an hour but got bored of it.

I'm clearly not as creative as you are.

My view point on this issue, many months ago.
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/62702/#453261

Today in the UK, the latest Law and Order game has been withdrawn from stores for using a video of a close circuit camera view of a boy being taken away, who was later killed in real life, and Manhunter 2 has been banned altogether by the British Board of Film and Game Censors who gives UK games their certificates.

So a black day for PC gaming and once again the media understands the stupidity of publishers who, in their ivory towers, have no idea any more. Hence the decline in PC gaming and the levelling in interest in video gaming generally!

And Sony just sent out a formal apology for having a shootout scene in a church?

I always thought that someday political correctness would bite us in the butt. These are all examples of people taking these games too seriously (of course everyone taking them too seriously has never even played a violent game), but I can't say I'll be sorry to see violent games go either.

Violent games aren't going anywhere. Look at America's Army. I mean the game was developed by the US Army as a training tool to brainwash kids into thinking war is cool. That, and the lure of becoming an American "hero" and you got one 19 year old Call Of Duty fan boy laying dead in the dirt in a street in Falujjah. The Air Force people make sure the heads up displays in aerial combat games are realistic. These kids think it will be cool to go to war for real. They think it will be some counter strike scenario. But a look at the statistics for kids coming home with severe mental problems, tells you one thing I've known all along. Most kids aren't ready for war... In fact the only ones who are ready for it are the old farts who start them and don't have to see them first hand. And these guys talking about how video games make them commit crimes? Give me a break. It's their sorry wimp brains that make them do it not the games. Games don't kill people anymore than twinkies. It's all just a defense put up by lawyers. Sorry about the off topic rant.