Just read a forum thread re: The Last of Us asking about parental controls to turn the swear words off. They said they're fine with the levels of graphic violence, but the f-bomb is just too much for them
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While I haven't played The Last of Us due to $ and lack of a PS3, it's especially nice to have a narrative-heavy game get *so* much attention. Hopefully this provokes a trend in high quality story-driven games for the next few years.
Granted I don't know how much violence is in the game, but it's weird to me that parents always seem to be okay with their children taking in lots of violence but once sex or swear words are involved, it's a big fucking deal.
There is a lot. One of the most common melee ways to kill a zombie in my play through seemed to be smashing their head into pieces on the wall, for example.
And yeah, I've never understood that mindset. My dad was that way, actually--I was allowed to play Doom and Wolfenstein when I was seven or so (kind of the originators of the gory/scary FPS genre), but I wasn't allowed to read many Stephen King books--not because they were scary, but because they had "too much sex". Now, I do agree that Stephen King has themes that are NOT appropriate for children, like, at all (and I was allowed to read certain titles as I got older. The first book of his I read was Salem's Lot when I was ten or so), but it's still weird to me, now, that shooting Nazis and hellspawn in the face was totally cool.
This seems to be the case in most things. Violence on tv, ok. Janet Jackson flashes a nipple for such a small amount of time I had no idea it happened and think I watched it on tv = moral panic.
There's an interesting documentary you may have heard of called something like Please Don't Rate this Movie about how someone took on the MPAA rating system. Sex (especially sex showing women enjoying it) and language was an easy way to get a higher rating, while violence often was like "meh...whatever."
I have the same problem with bodies/sexuality on tv.
It's ok to show somebody's brain being blown out on the opposite wall on cable, but you can't show a nipple? That's super weird to me. I've heard it's very opposite in Europe where they're touchy about violence on tv, but there are boobs and butts and penises all over the place.
Honestly, if I had a kid, I'm pretty sure I'd rather it think that nipples are pretty acceptable and that blown out brains are less acceptable. I must be crazy though.
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And yeah, I've never understood that mindset. My dad was that way, actually--I was allowed to play Doom and Wolfenstein when I was seven or so (kind of the originators of the gory/scary FPS genre), but I wasn't allowed to read many Stephen King books--not because they were scary, but because they had "too much sex". Now, I do agree that Stephen King has themes that are NOT appropriate for children, like, at all (and I was allowed to read certain titles as I got older. The first book of his I read was Salem's Lot when I was ten or so), but it's still weird to me, now, that shooting Nazis and hellspawn in the face was totally cool.
Reply
There's an interesting documentary you may have heard of called something like Please Don't Rate this Movie about how someone took on the MPAA rating system. Sex (especially sex showing women enjoying it) and language was an easy way to get a higher rating, while violence often was like "meh...whatever."
Reply
It's ok to show somebody's brain being blown out on the opposite wall on cable, but you can't show a nipple? That's super weird to me. I've heard it's very opposite in Europe where they're touchy about violence on tv, but there are boobs and butts and penises all over the place.
Honestly, if I had a kid, I'm pretty sure I'd rather it think that nipples are pretty acceptable and that blown out brains are less acceptable. I must be crazy though.
Reply
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