Online games and the pre-teen killers

I have been playing online with my Xbox lately and while regularly coming last in any game I am playing, I do enjoy the unpredictable nature of playing against real people. Now, most of the games I've been playing have adult ratings due to the general killing theme of the best games online. The one I've been playing the most is Call Of Duty 4, which has a 16+ rating.

I wonder about the whole age rating thing. The Xbox has a plug-in headphone/microphone set, so if you wish, you can communicate with other players, either to plan an assault or just 'trash talk' the person you wasted. I tend to listen in to what's going on with the microphone switched off as I can generally either play, or talk, but not both. Many of the players I have heard online appear to be boys who can't even be into their teenage years. This can be really irritating.

I would love to get on my moral high horse and complain that the parents of these children are obviously neglecting these young folk, that they should stop them playing violent games, that age restrictions are there for a reason etc, etc... but the reality is that while I'm sure that playing these games does have some effect on you, I'm not convinced we are raising a world of killers that can fit through a cat flap.

What we do have is loads of kids that have a huge amount of free time, getting really good at these games with their little hands and quick reflexes. In the real world, if a pre-teen child insulted me in the way these kids do online I would be tempted to go down the 1960s 'clip round the back of the head' route, but they are sometimes thousands of miles away and there's nothing I can do about it.

This is the real reason I want parents to enforce game restriction ages, so I can enjoy an evening gaming and even if I still come last, at least it will be last among my peers. As one adult American gamer put it at the end of a rather brutal game where most of the players were shouting insults in their pre-adolesent high pitches. "F***ing 12 year olds".

Comments

[Andrew]

"In the real world if a preteen child insulted me in the way these kids do online I would be tempted to go down the 1960s 'clip round the back of the head' route ..."
- In the real world you would go to jail for assult. In the online world feel free to machine gun the little bastard.

[BC M109]

yes it is frustrating to have those "too young" nailing me before i can even aim at them. being over 50 and gaming, has helped reflexes but not the conscience, hearing those young ones online. hope they can come up with a better filter or controls soon.
stay sharp or get nailed.

[KYS]

LOL yeah the same is true with some older games like quake3. Except its an influx of Mexican or Russian preteens and teens.
Theres no voice chat but plenty of text insults in Spanish or what i believe is Russian.
I wont let my kids near a FPS. They get plenty of violence on t.v.

But i have recently installed COD4 on my pc, maybe ill be lucky enough to frag a few preteens tonight.

[Gordon]

At the risk of being a killjoy (no pun intended), please see the book:

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by David Grossman.

It is quite fascinating reading. We need to rethink the value of our killing games.

[zman]

I like to play servers where the admin kicks players that use foul language. I dont mind the trash talk, but that can be done without string together multiple four letter words.

[Adam]

I agree almost wholeheartedly, My son however will be allowed to play all the fps games he wants, but i will still be involved. I don't think theres anything wrong with a bunch of 12 y/o playing COD4. There is however a problem with the parents in the sense that they apparently don't care that their 12 y/o child is online screaming "Suck my B***s!" and the like at the top of their prepubescent lungs.

[Bad mommy no timeout]

I am the mom to three sons who love video games, two of which are grown. The third son (14) is an avid COD4 player, and quite good at it, I might add. He enjoys the game immensely online, and I understand.

I am a great sniper myself, though I do not play as often as I used to. It is a great stress reliever, to blow up a few things and shoot a powerful weapon. I do not believe playing these games are any more harmful than holding up a finger and shouting 'bang! bang!' as we did when I was a child, playing war, or secret agents or cowboys and indians.Yes, they are more graphic, but I believe the active imagination can conjure up things more vivid than any game can produce.

If they are talking rudely to you online and you do not like it, change servers, as I have told my son to do.....if you hear it from another room with your child playing( all people push the envelope, just to see how far their limits are), as I have, put an end to it. Nothing like a little power surge (or decrease, hehehe) by way of verbal warnings: if I hear than again, you are unplugged.....it works, it really does.

Parental control is a good thing, but one must exercise it for it to be useful.I do not want others to take over my responsibility as a parent. Teach your child well in the ways they should go, and they will not depart from them as they get older. No need to legislate entertainment if this is done correctly in the first place, where it can be done, by the parents.

Fantasy and reality are not the same and should not be treated as such. If that is not true in your home, there are other pressing issues that need to be addressed.

[Bob]

LOL, funny piece.

[Paul]

Ted Bundy,Lee Harvey Oswald, Jeffery Dahmer and Charlie Manson didn't have video games. It doesn't matter if you play XBOX or play basketball for a hobby. If you want to you are going to slaughter people.

[Dave B.]

Amen Brother, Amen.

[Suliben Poorat III]

I think it's time to roll out voice depth technology. If your pitch is too high, you can't play. There is no greater shame than being headshot by a whining 13 year old. Or a woman. Let's make technology work for those of us who deserve dignity.

[dj]

i agree with everything your saying but it must be better if there at home shooting some fake computer terroist then on the street trying to rob u or kick the hell out of a elderly man/women. another thing is that i think kids of a certain age should be able to go on some violent games such as call of duty(which is not the most bloody of violentgames anyway) come on its not as bad as something of the likes of SAW or another one of these sick horror films. i think as long as the know the diffrence between reality and the cyber world its find and i dont think the press helps normally over reacting in typical press way about things like the rockstar game being called bully when its not even about u being a bully

[FPS MIKE]

Being an over-40 FPS Half-Life player, I find the teen/younger players kids usually can't keep a conversation going with adult players for more than 30 seconds before they leave a particular game or match after being intellectually outmatched. They get frustrated with the adults for not "dumbing down" to their level of conversation and leave...we usually cheer when they do. My teens play along side me in matches and are more than polite while pulling the trigger or throwing a grenade at me or anyone else...its just a game after all. We are able to walk away and go throw a frisbee or eat some ice cream together~

[Dan]

I'm 25 and my favorite games are fps. I can play games that are utterly brutal in their graphic violence and understand the difference between real life and that which I see on my screen. However in my lifetime I have seen the standard of what is acceptable shift from conservatively practical to shoving gore and sex into peoples faces in the hopes of banking on the shock value. Kids who are being brought up in this environment do not have the same platform from which to judge right and wrong, or what is a reasonable social response
from what is not. It is evident in the hundreds of internet videos of preteen to 16-17 year olds FLIPPING OUT over losing, or not being allowed to use the computer. As adults we look at this as humorous, which it totally is, but I think that takes away from the fact that such an emotional reaction to an inanimate device is f***ing nuts, unstable and a little scary.

[rotll]

If you need this technology, you have no dignity left.

--quote--
I think it's time to roll out voice depth technology. If your pitch is too high, you can't play. There is no greater shame than being headshot by a whining 13 year old. Or a woman. Let's make technology work for those of us who deserve dignity.
--end quote--

[seekew]

Oh come on. What did you lot shout at each other in the playground? What do you now call each other when in the pub or bowling?

I have a mate who writes me e-mails that consist of only one word. It's not a polite word. It's simply a way of communicating men (and boys) adopt when alone together.

I think that the vast majority of these kids would not behave like this in any other context. Besides. If they weren't being drowned out by the shrill squeaks you'd be hearing the adults gloating.

The difference is the adults that behave badly online would probably do it to your face too.

Why not create no-minors games. If they behave badly, kick 'em out. If they behave well, you will not know they're minors and they can continue to kill in peace.

Kill in peace. Did I just write that?!

Oh and DJ.

"...more than polite while pulling the trigger or throwing a grenade at me..."

Nice.

[Bsyed]

You could just not suck at the game
Or set up a private match and only invite really old people.

I like playing against ppl 80+ because their partial blindness makes up for my lack of skill

[Shelia'swheels]

There is nothing wrong with being shot by a woman, When men start to accept woman game and are more hardcore than the guys, they will learn to play in harmony, girls rule at gaming full stop.

[Beer&Fags]

get a life

[Geoff]

I'm 16 years old and a huge gamer. I've played almost every shooter out for the 360 and let me tell you theres always little kids screaming. Just mute them and if you find it really insulting just file a complaint. :/

Guitar Hero Doesn't improve Guitar playing,
DDR Doesn't improve dancing,
Sing Star doesn't improve singing,
therefore by simple logic,
Killing games don't make you kill :) :P

[darth_3pio]

I'm 19, and sure I wasn't playing those games at 13 and 14, but I don't have a problem with kids that age playing these games, what concerns me more is the swearing that was mentioned, and these can be fixed through server rules, put a ban on swearing in servers and across type for PC games and teamspeak for PC and console games and that way if any swearing is heard then that player can be booted from the server by the host.

[darth_3pio]

"no greater shame than being headshot by a whining 13 year old. Or a woman."

and yes I don't think there is a problem with female gamers they have as much right to play as us men, and there are more and more of them playing. why don't gamers among other people put away there prejudices, it is just not needed

[slayer shunt]

To be honest i dont mind the 9 year olds playing, they make for easy kills only irritating thing is their pre-pubescent voices whining down the headset grinding down my brain functionality. Thank god for the mute button thats all i can say

[Belial]

Play a game that requires thinking, instead of reflexes, and revel in the absence of annoying (usually American) kids.

:)

[Tango Down]

Some kids outside the local gamestop tried to give me 5 quid to buy them Grand Theft Auto. I told them no. I would'nt buy whisky for them either.

The difference is, if I had bought them whisky they wouldnt drink it at home. You can bet that they would be happily beating pixelated prostitutes to death in front of the folks had I scored them Rockstars latest game though.

Some stuff is not appropriate for kids. By allowing them to do it/see it/drink it without much of a fight, we give tacit approval to these things.

I was playing COD4 on a server which banned "foul language" because there were "kids here too".

Well there shouldnt be! Its illegal! Its a game where you kill people for thrills - as a society we've decided that thats not on for kiddies! or have we?

[HoopDawg]

I could be wrong (not likely), but this sounds like a blog entry from someone who seems to be all pissy about losing so frequently in a game, and looking for excuses. There is no adult swim in public online games. If you want to play a game with just your "peers", then buy your own password protected server and invite them. Public games are very competitive to most people. If anything you should be embarrassed that you're getting your arse handed to you by children and try to improve your skill, instead of trying to use stupid censorship laws just to reduce your competition.

Honestly, if anything annoys me about pre-teen gamers, its that they generally suck. You need to take advantage of the fact they don't have the intelligence of older and wiser players and have no chance of competing with good strategy and teamwork. Of course, they always end up on my team. Oh well.

[David Sutherland]

I've played with a father and son team... they son was six (yes six) years old and had played long enough to Prestige 3 times. ("Prestiging" in COD4 means at least 8 hours of play, usually much longer, advancing through all 55 levels of achievements.)

Very creepy.

Think about it... a six year old autonomically, reflexively taking the kill.

And yeah, I was annoyed a six year-old was so much better than I.

(I'm selling my xbox360 & COD4 on ebay btw, it eats up waayyy too much time.)

[Reply]

First of all the ESRB was not started to restrict game sales to kids (the target audience for games). The ESRB ratings you are talking about were meant for parents to decide for themselves if the game was appropriate to purchase for their kid. This crap about enforcing the Ratings via sales is ridiculous. Games are not cigarettes or alcohol, substances that have the ability to physically harm you. The same goes for ratings on music and movies. When the rating system came out it was for 'information purposes only' and they stated there would be 'nothing to enforce' many times. The sad reality of this now is that parents do not understand what the ratings are, how they work, why they are there and assume its supposed to work like age verification when purchasing alcohol. What idiots. You're no exception for writing this article.

[Chris]

I wish xbox live had some sort of functionality to actually separate out the gamers. I know they have the casual, pro, underground gamer spaces, but they seem to mean nothing when match making. It would be nice when I set my gamer sphere to casual, I actually found other laid back gamers and not 12 year olds with something to prove.

Sure the occasional 12 year old would abuse it, but the avoid player feature is nice in that respect.

[Ferocious_Imbecile]

aaaahahahaha...you're getting owned playing online FPSers and you can't take it, particularly from little boys. Guess what? Those little boys aren't just learning how to blow your head off online; they're learning how to network and run hacks and beat Punkbuster and making networks of friends all over the world. I'm 54 and I took the ribbing and the trash talk and now when I play BF2 Project Reality, I kick ass. And I've made friends in Denmark and Australia. Fun. Educational. I love it. And those little trash talking bastards? They're smarter than you so they've earned the hash marks to dump on you. They'll be the computer networking experts of the future. And if you can't hack playing with babies, then get a powerful PC with a top of the line graphics card and play your games on that, with the adults...Xbox is for 12 year olds.

[Toby]

The idea that super-violent video games are completely harmless is a little ridiculous to me. No, it's not going to cause a generation to grow up to be murderers. But it likely does desensitize kids to violence, encourages its use to prove dominance, causes kids to daydream about violence and violent games, and among the minority of kids with psychopathic tendencies, assuredly aggravates them (the "safe outlet" theory has long since been debunked in psychological studies). Can we really teach our kids with a straight face that violence is bad while simultaneously allowing them to enjoy blowing each others brains out for hours after school? While video games are hardly the only cause of violence, recent school and mall shootings make me wonder if the kids weren't to some degree living out the fantasies they'd practiced electronically for years.

[Shanwazere]

Hi, I play CoD on the PS3, i have being playing online for about a year with my console, before CoD i played resistance, and sure enough, there were lots of children playing, and even more young teens. Im 15, and when i began playing resistance i was 14. Now a point that has to be made here is the fact that not all of the people in this age range are loudmouths. Alot of them are infact quite intelligent, and this shows in the way they communicate. I think that these people should definatly be allowed to play. And...so should the loudmouths. At the end of the day, if someone is there shouting at you for no reason, keep a cool head and simply outsmart the blighter. Trust me, he will either shut up, or quit the game. And there is nothing better than killing someone loud or annoying, especially in resistance, simply because it takes more skill than in CoD. Peace Out

If your beaten by a 12 year old, put your controller down and walk away, you deserve the trash talk he gives you.

[CFMV]

F***ing 12 year olds is right. Gotta love that mute button.

[dude]

yo dudes
u guys cant play cod4
i will kick all ur noob asses

[Lemond89]

America preteens are the worst. I find asking them how 'Fat Camp' was last summer usually shuts them up.

[Jina]

Thank you for a great article! I'm a gamer chick who plays Halo 3 (amongst other things) online, and good gods yes, that mute button is handy when I get stuck with a group of trash-talking pre-teens. I usually leave my mic off because it gets worse when they find out they're getting owned by a girl. Sometimes I can hear the kids' families in the background and can't help wondering what their parents think of them screaming obscenities every five seconds.

To those who think it's sad that an adult can get beaten by a 12-year-old: uhh, how is it incomprehensible that one can get beaten by a kid? Kids learn faster, they have better reflexes, AND they have more time to play than us adults with full-time jobs. Sure, they're terrible at teamworking (you should've seen the lousy team I got stuck with during a round of Team Snipers), but that doesn't matter when you play primarily in the Rumble Pit and it's every man for himself.

All I can say is, thank the gods that Nintendo had the foresight to not allow voice communications for Super Smash Bros. Brawl...

[Brian Timm]

thank you for making this post.

as a gamer myself i'm constantly annoyed by the 12 year olds that haunt the servers of the most popular games on the internet right now.

one minute i'm having a great chat with someone i just met in a counter-strike game about the different ways to use the knife in-game and in the next i have to deal with a squeaky little voice. it's either complaining that i killed him before he could see me, or gloating because he got a lucky shot. either way the four-letter word count is always high.

there needs to be a way to filter these little kids out. and efficiently.

[Darren]

I'm a Guild Leader for a casual raiding guild in WoW. I'm in my 30's, and so are a lot of the other players in the guild. We do have some younger players, but they tend to be more mature than others of the same age group. We have an advantage in that we can pick and choose who joins the guild, and if the turn out to be a knob, we can remove them before the trial period is up.

Saying that, we used to have a kid in the guild who was 12 or 13, who played better, and was more mature than some people more than twice his age.

I'm not a great fan of the FPS games, I tend to prefer the MMORPGs for the social aspect, and although you get the annoying kiddies in these games, it is much easier to avoid them. Thank the gods for /ignore.

I did my time in PvP, and now like to relax in the PvE aspect of the game.

[Disgruntled UK Resident]

Its about damn time that parents did their job and stopped their brats playing / watching things that are way above their age.... Its the main reason why games such as manhunt 2 arent comming out right away is because of stupid thick retarded crap parents. If my children said dad can I watch saw3 I would explain to them, that the age written on the product defines how old you have to be to see it. If they say their friends at school are watching it, I would tell my child, I dont care if your cousin is watching it. YOU ARE NOT...
If I find out that they watch it at a friends house I would be severely tempted to report the family to Social Services.
They need a quick and easy way to report Crap Parents.

[Proud to be an American]

Fairly arrrogant talking about Americans and their "Fat Camps". I've heard from my high school students that the English palyers continually insult them about being fat. My twelve year old plays with my husband when he can fit it in between his soccer, hockey and Lacrosse practices. What do you do fat boy? Talk about stereotypes. Have you ever even been to the US?

[paulo]

Never mind 'fat camp', we need 'Crap Parent' camp. It seems that stricter rules and censorship are taking the place of parenting. Microsoft should be able to report the foul language of the US tweenagers to their parents and threaten to cut off their accounts if it continues. A bit of trash talking is fair enough, squeaky voiced angry abusive screaming isn't.

[GameAddict]

Being 33, and playing video games since I was about 12, I recount the massive waste of time that I spent doing so. Last year, I realized that what all of the mind-numbing entertainment has given me, should concern most parents. It helped me develop very, very addictive behaviors. What I have seen in myself is not wanting to "kill" others, that to me, is simply nonsense. However, I have realized that I have a hard time disciplining myself when it comes to filling my time. Looking back, I certainly believe that any behavior that becomes overly addictive will lead to addictive behaviors elsewhere. I unfortunately found that out while in a DUI class, but luckily before my marriage crumbled. Not only did I fill most hours sitting in front of my computer entertaining myself, I gambled plenty online, at the bar, at the horse track, and riverboat. I drank way too much, three to four times a week, and 90% of the time I drove 10 miles home plastered for 10 years. I didn’t take my career as seriously as I should have - missing work often. And, at the time, ignored my wife to no end. I can’t even believe that on more than several occasions I stayed up too late playing the latest game and missed the next day’s work playing the same game until I finished it. I have wasted much of my last 20 years on addictive, expensive habits, entertaining myself.

If you are a parent of a teenager or a pre-teen, do you see his/her grades slipping? Do you sense that an addictive behavior is being established? Do they snap at you like you are one of their online “Bit**es?” Nip it in the bud, he may eventually thank you, but don’t expect it. Remind yourself that it is not your job to befriend your children, it is to raise them to become self-reliant adults. Trust yourself, and know that you are doing the right thing by setting ground rules. Establishing structured playing times and language limits, without compromise, will benefit both you as parents and them as children. Have consequences when they break the rules, or they may never understand the stakes are high when they become adults. Get them out of the d*mn house and into sports, or have them get a job to buy a car or, heaven forbid, pay for some of their college (so they don’t end up 300-pound-30-year-olds you wish would get a job and move out).

[A Happy American]

I work for a company overseas, not American, and play Halo 3 every now and again. I'm really tired of reading these posts attacking American teens. We aren't the only ones who need to watch their children's language. I don't play with many American teens, but I hear the same crap when I play. So get off your soapboxes.

[Gerald]

Your problem has already been solved. Try:

http://www.theoldergamers.com/

They run servers and boot off anyone under 25. Bad language and whining are not tolerated from over 25s either.

[KILLNOMORE]

Guys, (and GALS)!!!!!
If you find being owned by a 12 year is too annoying, you need to get a PC. If you work fulltime and make more money than a 12 year old, then you have an advantage. Spend around a Grand on a PC and buy yourself some dignity. I play Battlefield 2 online and seldomly come across 12 year olds. As mentioned here, they are very bad teamworkers, so get a good squad and see how you can beat the crap out of them.
On the Rating issue, if They are not allowed to watch a certain movie at theatres, because they are too youg, why should they be able to Play the games. In a movie you are just watching, you are passive, in a Game, you are doing everything, you are Active. So, if passive participation is considered not good, how come active participation is O.K.
At last, if you get headshot by a kid or a chick, you need more practice my friends. And it is good for reminding you that you cannot be the best at everything.