Nice try, Junior. (longish)

[Jester]

I don't think they started putting that into games until sometime in the mid 80s. I can't even begin to count how many times I was playing a game and the damn phone rang. What to do, what to do... Let my game get screwed up, or ignore the phone? No answering machines or Caller ID back then either.

Sorry, I have to call you on that one. There WERE answering machines back then. Hell, my father had an answering machine back in the late SEVENTIES, way before the word "Pac-Man" was even in the lexicon, and certainly before home video games. Not saying YOU had one, or that everyone had one--just that they were there.

[AFpheonix]

Yeah, but did they take an 8 track or something?

[Crosshair]

What is really dumb is that, where I live, you need to be 16 to buy a BB gun, 16 to buy a knife, yet you have to be 18 to buy an Airsoft gun. Personaly I think you should be able to buy an airsoft gun at 16 if you want to.

[kibbles]

A bit off topic, but I gotta say that this video game rating system and having having to check for ages has got to be the most stupid law ever invented.

I think you did an excellent job handling the situation, but I think whoever came up with this law should have their head examined.

kibbles

[kibbles]

heres what bugs me.....when a kid about the age of 5 comes up to me and askes for GTA and i just go 'sorry kid thats an adult game. Then his/her parents come by and say 'o you want that game? ' and BUY IT FOR THEM. takes all of my energy to not go 'Alreight ma'am enjoy watching your child beat up a white guy steal his car run over a cop buy a prostitute, pay her, then shoot her in the back of the head. Then go to kindergarten.'


GAH!

If a parent is responsible enough to explain to their child no matter how young they are, that what they are playing is not real and it's not how one should behave in real life, then I see nothing wrong with a parent buying the video game.

If a child is explained from day one that this is just a game and not reality, then the video game will have no effect on him.

Kibbles

[MadMike]

Sorry, I have to call you on that one. There WERE answering machines back then.

Right, and I guess I phrased that one badly. I meant we didn't have one. I don't think they were all that common back then.

Caller ID definitely didn't exist, though.

[Jester]

No, Caller ID did not exist, or if it did, it wasn't at all in common usage.

A bit off topic, but I gotta say that this video game rating system and having having to check for ages has got to be the most stupid law ever invented.

I think you did an excellent job handling the situation, but I think whoever came up with this law should have their head examined.

We have that lovely Tipper Gore and her cronies to thank for all that idiocy. Yes, the wife of Al Gore. One of many reasons I could not vote for him in 2000. No, I couldn't vote for Bush either. Since I felt that I was being offered two jokers, I bypassed both of these bumblers and voted for a PROFESSIONAL joker: George Carlin. Strangely, I was one of the few people on Election Day who was actually happy with my choice.

[Salathram]

The ESRB is a blessing and a curse all at the same time. Whenever a kid comes up to the counter and puts down an M rated game and his parent approves, I don't bat an eyelash, for the most part. If the child looks responsible enough and isn't berating his mother, then more than likely he's like I was at that age; taught to discern fantasy from reality and see gore and nudity and not be influenced by it. That's the blessing of the ESRB. The curse is when some little snot gets dropped off by his parents and wants to buy an M rated game and gets pissed when I won't sell it to him. The growing problem in Videogameland is the fact that so many clerks don't ask for ID and sell M rated games to kids, thinking that they're gonna be the "cool guy" and get return business from minors sans parents. I can understand it if the kid actually looks of age and one makes a simple mistake, but the clerk that sells an M rated game to a kid whose head barely peeks over the counter needs to be cracked across the skull with a tire iron. Because of douchebags like that, the government is trying to pass numerous bills that will not only limit the sales of M rated games to minors, but will also slow down the release process close to 200%. I like the ESRB rating system as a guide for parents to see the content of a game before they buy it for their kids. Most parents that I've seen that have been pissed at their kid buying an M rated game bought the game FOR their child, ignored my warnings about why the game was rated M, never bothered to look at the box, and were suddenly surprised when they caught their sweet little Johnny cutting up prostitutes with a chainsaw. *GRUMBLE*

[Jester]

See, the thing is, some kids can handle adult games, some cannot. Problem is, as a clerk who doesn't know the little ones, you have no idea which is which. I personally would not have a problem with an adult buying an adult game for a kid, as I would assume that that adult would have decided that that kid could handle that game. I know that that is not always the case, but I would like to think that would be what is going on.

Case in point: last week I took my 12 year old niece to see "The Black Dahlia", an R-rated movie that I doubt I would take my 14 year old niece to go see. Why? Because my 12 year old niece is, mentally, way beyond most people her age or even older, whereas my 14 year old niece is basically a typical 14 year old. I think the one could intelligently handle what she saw at that movie, and I am not sure that the other could have. Make sense? I hope so.

(And for those wondering, I only took my niece to see said movie after she got permission from her mom. But I would not have even suggested she ASK her mom if I did not think she could handle said movie. Obviously her mom agreed.)

[EmiOfBrie]

I'm old enough to remember when video games didn't have that particular feature. I don't think they started putting that into games until sometime in the mid 80s.

1980 actually... Intellivision was the first console to have a "pause" feature (holding down '1' and '9' paused your game, but they only overtly described the feature on "Astrosmash". I found out by experimentation that it worked on all the other games as well)

[AFpheonix]

I don't think ESRB is any stupider than rating movies on content. There are some games that I definitely wouldn't want my children to be playing, although you can usually figure out what's what based on the cover and reviews.

Al Gore is a very smart man, a good legislator, but a craptacular campaigner. Too bad.

[Kogarashi]

I actually don't mind the ESRB system (or the movie ratings system) all that much, mostly because it's largely a system of guidelines. Of them all, the only ones with a real age restriction for selling (either the movie/game itself or tickets to see said movie) are Mature and Adults Only (for games) and R and NC-17/X (for movies). Of these ratings, AO and NC-17/X are the only ones where children are completely restricted from purchase, if I recall correctly. Both of these are for extreme categories of entertainment, and that still won't stop some parents from purchasing the movie or game for their child later. As for M and R ratings, at Wal-Mart at least, if there's a parent present who approves the sale, the sale can be made even if the buyer is a 5-year-old. I like to think I have a good enough grasp of what each rating represents in entertainment that I can use that (and a reading of the back of the movie/game, as well as possibly a prescreening) to determine whether or not my own child can handle it.

The only real problem I have with the rating system is, also, when the parents don't pay attention to the rating or the game's content and then decide to come in later to give us grief about it.

[tintaglia]

we're not alowed to sell animals to under 16s without parent of guardian present.
we have had 12yr olds planning to buy hamsters and sneak them home
not realising that a) the staff can hear them
B) the look no where near 16
c)i.d please (this is a little cheeky ,as i know i had no i.d at that age but still)

any way, we had one who offered to let us phone her mom (eh, no!)
and lets not forget the 2 who came cack in with 'grandma', a random lady who agreed to pretend to be their grandparent to let them buy the animals.
Their mother was NOT impressed when she came in the next day demanding to know how her children had been sold animals, and we told her their gran had okayed it, ect. (turned out granny had been dead for a few years)
the girls finally admitted to getting a stranger to lie for them, i think they mat still be grounded *sigh*

[Kogarashi]

and lets not forget the 2 who came cack in with 'grandma', a random lady who agreed to pretend to be their grandparent to let them buy the animals. ... (turned out granny had been dead for a few years) ... the girls finally admitted to getting a stranger to lie for them, i think they mat still be grounded *sigh*

::boggle:: I don't know what my parents would've done to me if I'd ever pulled a stunt like that. Of course, I had (and still have) living great-grandparents, so the idea just never really occurred to me.

And shouldn't your signature say, "The Corp is Mother, the Corp is Father"?

[Broomjockey]

I've had parents PO'ed at me because their kid latched on to someone to go to a movie that they weren't old enough to see on their own.