General News - What (Not) to buy for Christmas

I'm sure there are plenty of you who are wondering what games to buy and give away for the hollidays. Well, fear no longer; The Timothy Plan has put together a list of games you should not buy! The games that have too much violence or a just too much anti-family. By not buying these you instead can focus on the games you should buy....
So that means those of you that bought Fallout 3, Fable 2, Wow: The burning Crusade, Bioshock, Age of Conan, Oblivion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Mass Effect, LotRO, Hellgate:London or one of the other 100+ games on the list are in serious trouble.
You can find the list here (right hand side of the page), it will show you that even with some Sims 2 games on the list you better give up gaming all together.
More information.

That does it, all the kids I know are now getting Manhunt 2 for the wii

The Timothy Plan is a bunch of pussies. Religions sucks and poisons the world....

I always love these things -- they have the GRAPHIC guide (highlighted by them!) for those people who need to see all of the nasty horrible details of the awful things nobody should know about in these games. Of course these parents need to personally experience what horrible things their poor children might be subjected to so they can protect them!

So I of course really really wanted to experience these horrible corrupting degrading things myself... but it seems that the PDF document crashes the Mac's preview app. My day is ruined.

Sims 2 is on the blacklist? Now that is funny stuff.

So the only games that are ok are those that are made for Kindergarteners and nothing else.

Toothpaste said:

The Timothy Plan is a bunch of pussies. Religions sucks and poisons the world....

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Pththththh, this is about as religious as picking up a bible and beating you over the head with it. The bible is one thick set of books but I very much doubt you're going to find anything in there about the difference between violence shown in a normal video game vs. violence in a cartoon-graphics video game. Yet their score card based on biblical principles does? This group isn't being guided by religion. This group already thinks they know the truth and now they are trying to cherry pick bits of Christianity to justify themselves. It's more of a marketing strategy than a religion.

and you know what? the very games you mention are games I've refused to buy for these very same reasons. I've been complaining about this downword spiral of PC games for the last couple of years now.

Even with the Sims. Aa gal at work says her daughters were all into the Sims and then started to tell me the stuff she started to found more and more objectionable with it - the frat thing for instance. The original Simcity used to have churches in the game.

This is a good list to have at this time of year when kids start asking for stuff. It breaks it down into several criteria and offers proof.

In the past we've reported on sites like these with an air of neutrality and not sarcasm. I'd like to ask that we continue in that spirit. Responses like the three above are typical unfortunately and probably inevitable, however they largely go away when when reports of this kind of news is more common.

thanks for the link

Lucky Day, I am starting to wonder what drives you to this site, this den of serial Orc Killers and Pixel torturers?

I am all for having an eye on what children pass their time with and likewise I find the concentration on graphic violence in many games boring, repetitious, and self-referential. However I vastly prefer sites like GamerDad, that approach the topic with an actual love for the genre and both the adult and the child in mind. Nevertheless, I agree that a condensed list like this may be helpful for parents with no clue about video games - but those don't read RPGwatch.

I would love to have a game based entirely on the events described in the bible.

You know, all the killing and burning and slaying in the name of God. You may know that God is responsible for about 2 million deaths in the Bible (lowball estimate), whereas Satan's count is a measly 10.

http://jesusisnowhere.com/2007/04/god-vs-satan-body-count.html

A Bible-based game would surely fail in all censors' eyes due to instances of genocide and unrelenting wrath.

Lucky Day said:

and you know what? the very games you mention are games I've refused to buy for these very same reasons. I've been complaining about this downword spiral of PC games for the last couple of years now.

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Compared to the good ol' days of Planescape: Torment, Fallout, DOOM, and Baldur's Gate?

Oh grow up already. Computer games haven't been spiraling downwards (well, not in this sense, anyway). They've always been like this. Just like, come to think of it, literature, films, and theater. Ever go see a Shakespeare play? You've got torture, incest, betrayal, addiction, mutilation, the works.

Your sanctimony is really wearing extremely thin -- and I too am starting to wonder what the hell you're getting from this place, other than a nice smug feeling of moral superiority that does *not* make you a better Christian. Strangely, all of the other Christians active here manage to do entirely without that kind of attitude, you know.

Come to think of it, are there any actual *games* you play, other than self-made, morally-hygienic NWN1 modules?

(Of course, it's perfectly clear that you can't have approved any official NWN1 content, since it's exactly as replete with all of these nasty themes as everything else. Never even mind the soul-raping awfulness of Mask of the Betrayer. Playing those would make you a hypocrite, and we can't have that, can we now?)

I fail to understand what criteria are used to create the list.
As in an RPG one of the things you do is killing others, every one of them will score in the violence department. An MMO will automatically rank high in the addiction part. A game doesn't have to do a lot to score in the sex area apparently, with even some of the Sims 2 games scoring there. Those games even score in the gay/lesbian area.
How do they get to those scores? Who played them? Did they just read it or did they actually play the games? What are the criteria they use to rank a game?

As to the bible based game. There was a plan once to make it. I remember reporting about it on RPGDot, but I can't remember the name anymore.

I had a feeling this thread might get spicey.

I find it somewhat amusing that the "best" games on the list are zeroes.

Hey, I like my games with some "grown up" content in them. But I also have kids. And there are some games I just don't play when the kids are around.

This could be a very handy list if I wasn't already so involved with games that I had a pretty good idea why it received an M or T rating. I mean - seriously folks - this is exactly the sort of thing you'd want if you wanted to go beyond the simple-minded idiocy of our game rating system and actually apply JUDGMENT and decide for yourself if your 15-year-old should play that rated "M" game.

While they do highlight what they consider the worst offenders, I think overall this is information that can arm parents to make better decisions. I'm all for that.

This List is for Lazy Parents, and not that Useful

I don't see anyone who agrees with the site creator's view thinking they should buy any of these games for a child anyways. Most of them are rated M and have descriptions of the possibly offensive content on the box and online. Not only that, but the box art and screen shots contain examples of much of this potentially offensive content and the names of a lot of these games are self explanatory enough to scream "not for kids."

It seems this entire list and content guide could be replaced with 30 seconds of semi-attentive parenting. Your kid asks for a video game for Christmas? Ok, do a google search on it and spend that much time reading about it. Decide for yourself whether or not you want your kid playing it so you can apply your values and exercise judgment rather than have someone do it for you.

That's a hell of a lot better than letting some fundie rate the objectionable nature of the content in a game. I mean come on, Mass Effect is more offensive than God of War? The level of nudity, gore, and interactivity of the sexual content is far greater in God of War than in Mass Effect. The simple presence of the possibility of a same sex relationship turns a relatively bloodless game with an arguably PG13 love scene into something that gets the same score as GOW II and a 2 point higher score than GOW: Chains of Olympus.

Ok, so I suppose that means the presence of a possibility of a same sex relationship trumps a sex mini game and brutal decapitation. These guys probably still think that you can "turn someone gay."

Anyways, pass this list around for a good laugh only. Don't be intellectually and ethically lazy by passing off significant parenting decisions to moral watchdog groups. It sets a dangerous example for your children when you say to them "Mommy and daddy don't want to put the effort into deciding what's best for you, so we're using a chart from the internet." Even if you agree with these loony-toons, set a better example and show your kids that real parents- real adults even- can come to and trust their own moral judgments. If you don't, you're just teaching them that morality is something where other people tell you what to do and you just follow their script, "just following orders."

I found it offensive that they added "homosexual encounters" as offensive and that Sex/Nudity is listed before violence, drugs, alcohol, tobacco and addiction. And "demonic"? wtf? What sect produced this list?

Offensive list is offensive

JemyM said:

I found it offensive that they added "homosexual encounters" as offensive.

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Not only that, but they often weighed the potential/option of a single homosexual encounter as more offensive than hours of inherently/automatically violent gameplay. 3 points for Mass Effect's over-hyped daytime-soap-opera-like lesbian scene and 2 points for the violence of Call of Duty: Road to Victory, FarCry Vengeance, Mortal Kombat: DC Universe, SOCOM, and GRAW 2. I've seen more kids hurt themselves acting stuff out of Mortal Kombat games than I've seen girls paint themselves blue and make out. Well, I mean before going to college that is. Duke's right down the street and I have to admit blue-painted drunk girls trying to get back at daddy by making out with each other isn't that uncommon. They're probably just acting out because they weren't allowed to play "objectionable" video games though.

Back to your point- I'm not surprised this list offends people. The authors have quantified the danger of the possibility of homosexual relationships (mostly non-graphic) in a game as 50-150% greater than nearly non-stop violence. It's not too ridiculous, especially if one is gay, to be offended by a pamphlet that implies you are at least as bad as a half-naked mass murdering bald guy with a funny looking blade.

Shit like this.. I don't know if one should laugh, weep or just get pissed off.
Propably all of the above. Where do idiots like this come from.. what do they eat?
Or is it something in the water?

Remember one small thing- MANY parents have absolutely no idea how to do Google searches, etc to learn about the sort of games their kids might want for Christmas. Sure we know, but we're not your 'normal' parent. Some of you would be amazed at how ignorant many people still are about 'computer' stuff!!

These people wouldn't find that site.

Gorath said:

These people wouldn't find that site.

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They will because this stuff is sent around to folks like my parents and aunts and uncles who were also being fed the whole 'Obama is a muslin terrorist who is funded by muslim terrorists' stuff ...