You Want to See My What?!

by Ellie Beck

It was late, after midnight, on one of those bitter cold November nights only a fool would venture out in a car with no heat. I had just gotten off of work and headed as always to my local 24/7 Wal-Mart Super Center. This I do every night for one thing or another, but tonight I was on a serious mission. It was winter Jam Pack time and I needed to get my grubby little hands on that Final Fantasy X playable demo. Everything was going fine, I was greeted by a sea of those toothy Wal-Mart fresh smiles as I sauntered back to the hallowed electronics cube. I arrived just in time, as there were only 5 copies of the Jam Pack left. I grabbed one with a squeal and scurried up front to make my excited purchase. Grinning I handed my prize to the lady behind the counter, who obviously was not sharing in my enthusiasm. That was when it happened. This is when my story begins to go awry. With three loud beeps my night was ruined, my mood crushed, the computer was telling her to check my ID! Now I am 21 years old, legal in every sense, and here I was being denied a video game sampler disk simply because I don’t carry my purse to work at night. I was baffled, enraged, and well, put out, because I had to drive home and back again in the cold to go get my ID and then my game. I wasn’t going to lose one of the last disks available in this small Wisconsin town.

The point of this story is that for over a year now I have read in magazines about the ESRB ratings and now the prohibition of mature games for minors, however, I had never dealt with the fact in my day to day life. I usually buy my games at a game retailer or online, which I am really getting into now being trapped in this arctic wasteland 9 months of the year. I find myself wondering these days if all of this hubbub over gaming is even worth it. I have never seen a minor get carded at my local gaming store, or really anywhere else besides these mega conglomerate Wal-Mart and Target type family superstores. I’m sure that these companies go to bed at night feeling good and warm with the knowledge that they deny young children access to the politically deemed society destroying violence of the video game world. But if they are the only ones who are upholding this rule, is it really making any difference at all? All that it has accomplished for me, as well as several others I know, is to take our gaming business elsewhere as often as possible. The gaming generations are a smart and wily bunch, one which I am very sure knows how to get around problems like this, whether it means begging mom to drive a few extra miles to the mall, or just get the games online. Believe me when I was 15 I was not going to have some faceless stranger in a blue smock tell me that I couldn’t purchase a game that I darn well wanted. And at that age should they anyway?

This is my second point. What good does it do for retailers to make these parenting decisions for us? Can anyone honestly say that Devil May Cry is inappropriate for anyone under the age of 17? I myself am a veteran of the time when Mortal Combat was believed to be the root of all evil, and frankly none of my friends have taken to decapitating their rivals at work. Let me say this, that same night, when I returned to the store, identification in hand, I had a lovely chat with the lady behind the register, who agreed with me whole heartedly. She felt that these rules and standards are for families to decide together. If a parent cares to be at all involved in their child’s life then they should be aware of what it is they do in their spare time. If a parent feels a game is inappropriate for their child, then it is their right to let them play it, or take it away. I was very lucky, in that I was raised by a mother who always supported my gaming habits. She never questioned what I was playing, and many times spent the night playing away at my side. As a parent though she had every right to make rules and regulate what it was that I was doing. Sure I would have been put out about it if she said no, but it would be a no I could accept much easier then that clerk behind the counter’s. After all my mother knows me, Sally Jane part-time cashier doesn’t know me from Adam.

I think that this topic should be used as an arena for families to better get in touch with each other. Know their values and expectations. I also think it is folly to believe that by denying the games at the outset, a child won’t get their hands on it some other way. Even if a parent isn’t available to make the purchase for them, it is almost guaranteed that one of their friends will already have the item and let them play it for hours. It is frightening to me every time I see the power of decision taken away from the people and put into the hands of faceless, nameless, soulless, corporate vessels. I don’t fear people that much, that I feel they can’t decide what is right for themselves. It is a sad fact that there are some very disturbed and deranged people out there who will make violent and frightening acts against us all. I just think that looking to music, movies and video games as the catalyst for these actions, is simply taking the easy way out. What the world needs isn’t a scape goat, it needs understanding. It is true that some parents don’t have the time, or the interest to follow up on the activities of their children. Yet I still don’t believe that this is a problem that can be fixed by censorship or denial. If anything I think that creates greater hostility and greater interest in the items now labeled taboo. Do I think that IDing for mature games is wrong? Not entirely. Do I think it is a trip down the wrong path in a search for easy answers? Oh yes. Especially if it is a practice only upheld by a minority of the serving population.

Let me just end this thought this way. I am so very glad that I am not a minor in times like these, as it truly would be a nightmare for me if I had to get my mother to buy all of my games for me. Not because she wouldn’t approve of them, but because she had to work very hard and wasn’t there to go with me every time I wanted to go shopping. I am interested as well as nervous to see what the future holds in this arena. Just some food for thought.