Fun ’n Games: Gaming adventures go a little far it seems

Surely most of us remember the old adage “it’s all fun ‘n games until someone loses an eye.”

Well, it seems that the once helpful phrase, well intended to stop the bad stuff before harm was caused, has gone by the wayside. Taken a turn for the worse. A back seat, so to speak.

Hey violent gamemakers, why don’t y’all give yourselves a big fat pat on the back for that one.

Here we are in 2013, where trillions of studies have been conducted to observe children and what makes them tick, or not tick in some cases, where spanking has been practically outlawed because it can harm the child’s psyche, and where parents can be dragged to court for even verbally abusing their kids.

And yet…

These horrible games exist, and are readily accessible to virtually anyone.

They have imprinted an incredibly violent mark on the gaming world, and it seems to me they have taken the fun out of games.

Unless, of course, you find killing fun. And you like it so much that you become a violence junkie, and then fancy yourself some kind of war hero—from your couch, of course.

I can’t help but wonder if the real military guys, boots on the ground, want to punch you in the face for being so arrogant in the cozy confines of your living room.

So I googled ‘violent games,’ and the sickening results were quite descriptive.

Way back in 1977 a lovely little game called Carmageddon arrived on the scene.

The tagline on the box clearly states “the racing game for the chemically challenged.” Isn’t that swell?

“Here’s your Ritalin Little Johnny, now sit here and play this nice little game where you run over all your enemies till they’re dead dead dead!”

How ’bout this one:

Soldier of Fortune – 2000. This special packed with adventure game allows you to “torture and brutalize enemies until their guts spill and their blood sprays!”

Okay, so say it’s Christmas of 2000, you notice your kid seems a little depressed, maybe he’s been enduring some bullying at school, or just going through some regular teen angst.

Let’s face it, a huge percentage of teenagers just lose their minds at some point, and it’s never pretty but usually short-lived.

I’m pretty sure I could still hold my own with the oh-so-mean middle school girls but admittedly it’s a bit of a challenge—they’re a tough lot.

So you’re shopping for presents, you’re in the video game aisle, and you PICK UP THIS CRAP FOR THE KID????? Really mom and dad? How can this be helpful?

Oh, there’re so many more… God of War II – 2007—you become a ruthless god of war in the pantheon of Greek gods. So much blood and violence. But you’re God, right? Gee, how could that turn out bad?

Thrill Kill 1998—like those two words should even be in the same title.

Scary stuff folks. In light of the recent tragedy in Connecticut this garbage stands out like a sore thumb. Or maybe we should say a dismembered bloody stump of a thumb in order to be politically gamer correct.

Someone needs to make this stop, reign it in, get some control back. Any impressionable angry kid can now plot out revenge in horribly detailed steps—he’s ‘played’ them a million times.

It seems impossible that a parent would not tune into, or would simply ignore the basic signs that point to potential violence outbreaks.

I mean really, can you please just keep your guns out of the hands of a kid that spends most of his free time in the land of make believe massacres? Just a suggestion.

And speaking of guns—well clearly Houston, we have a problem. I hardly think assault weapons should be as commonplace in the household as say, frying pans. Or bedsheets. Because you never, ever, want to be the parent of the kid that goes bonkers and murders innocent people because he has “issues.”

Parenting—no idiots allowed. Maybe it takes tragedies such as these to wake us up, and maybe, just maybe, put the fun back into games.