Your take on Alcohol and minors in GW

buckscrib

buckscrib

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

COL

Parents need to be responsible to know what their kids are doing.

Tyla

Emo Goth Italics

Join Date: Sep 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Joshua Strange
DRINK ALCOHOL ITS FUNNY!

I seriously lol'd irl at that.

credit

credit

Banned

Join Date: Jan 2008

Team Apathy [aFk]

W/P

Alcohol in-game or not, I'd still be drunk.

crazybanshee

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2006

Look out!

E/

Yeah, technically gw is not for minors, every kid knows about booze and I don't think having some game involving booze is going to make some kid go out and drink. But that gets into the whole violent games don't make people violent etc. and how much of their behavior is preexisting and they're just using the game as an outlet etc etc.

Kanyatta

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2006

Guildless, pm me

R/Mo

For all the things happening that are supposedly "influenced by video games", I have this to say:

To be influenced by a video game that much, you probably have to be pretty messed up to begin with and are probably going to go through with that action with or without it being in a video game.

I've been playing for 3 years, I'm almost 18, and I have never touched any alcohol (outside of Communion at church), and I really have no desire to, and I have about 500 minutes of Drunkard on my Ranger.

Why is there a thread about alcohol in a video game? Why not make a thread about killing people with swords and bows and whatever? And performing hexes and enchantments?

Narcissia

Narcissia

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2007

BC Canada

Guild With No [NAM???]

its fake... if they were actually drinking, i could understand... but its a game, they should know the difference between right and wrong. so, who cares?

Dr Strangelove

Dr Strangelove

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Dec 2005

Wasting away again in Margaritaville

[HOTR]

As professional beer brewer, I wholeheartedly endorse this. Go nuts, alcohol is fun.

bamm bamm bamm

bamm bamm bamm

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stockholm
What do you think about the situation about A-Net promoting Alcohol (sale of alcohol and the title "Drunkard") in a game marketed to +12, when the general consensus in our society is that we should minimize the exposure to alcohol as much as possible. Some states even banned alchole ads in places where kids are allowed.

Any thoughts on this?
Ignoring the whole 'kids can't tell games from reality' garbage, minimizing a child's exposure to alcohol and turning it into an anathema to be violated is a great way to turn your teenagers into binge drinkers. Same goes for anything. If you big it up and ban it, they'll rebel. You treat them like an adult and they'll become one. 12+ is nothing, over here in the UK you can give alcohol to 5 year olds at home. I used to be administered nightcaps when I couldn't sleep and it never did me any harm. *hic*

RotteN

RotteN

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

W/

alcohol abuse punishes itself anyway.

So even if kids do get nuts on alcohol, the horrible hangovers will quickly teach them to drink responsibly. I agree with bamm on this one : overprotecting kids does NOTHING, except push them in that exact direction once they do find out about it as rebelious teenagers.

My parents never protected me from alcohol, they never freaked out when i had a beer. Right now I'm 23, and a seasoned drinker (gogo university). However, a responsible seasoned drinker. I can say no to alcohol when i want (and do so regularly) even under heavy peer preasure (hey, it's not fun to be sober when everyone else is pissdrunk). I never drunk beer at home, ... , only during parties or at a pub with friends.

Kinds will turn out just fine if they get raised properly, games or no games. Stop worrying.

slowerpoke

slowerpoke

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2007

Cuba

make the game 21yr min age to play
prob solved

Kumu Honua

Kumu Honua

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2008

The game is rated "T" for teen. That rating states the alcohol.

If a parent buys a game for their teen with alcohol in it. They already decided. If the child bought the game then his parents need to be parents.

fireflyry

fireflyry

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jan 2007

New Zealand

A/D

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Again
It's a world of contradictions, and yes it's silly. People just don't see it to be as offensive as someone getting their head chopped off or a girl popping her breasts out (although I'd consider the latter more healthy material than alcohol...)
QFT

12 chars.....

HawkofStorms

HawkofStorms

Hall Hero

Join Date: Aug 2005

E/

The game is rated T for teen BECAUSE of the use of alcohol in the game.
On the box, its rated T for suggestive themes, violence, and use of alcohol.

If you have a problem with the game being marketed for 12+, complain to the ESRB who rated the game Teen, not at A.net.

DarkGanni

DarkGanni

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2006

Malta

[CuTe]

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Narcissia
its fake... if they were actually drinking, i could understand... but its a game, they should know the difference between right and wrong. so, who cares?
However thats what inspires them to drink.

I would say the below posted article says alot what impact can games have on real life.

http://www.ripten.com/2007/12/20/two...-kombat-moves/

- Ganni

Darkobra

Darkobra

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2006

Scotland

Type like an idiot, I'll treat you like an idiot

E/Me

In a game where people seek to kill each other over minor differences, I think the alcohol is just nitpicking.

Narcissia

Narcissia

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2007

BC Canada

Guild With No [NAM???]

Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkGanni
However thats what inspires them to drink.

I would say the below posted article says alot what impact can games have on real life.

http://www.ripten.com/2007/12/20/two...-kombat-moves/

- Ganni
Using video games as a scapegoat doesnt make it true.
Blame the game! then i dont need to take as much responsibility. silly.

Hmm maybe u should reread the article... the last part of it... ill link it...
"There is no defense for this kind of crime. The pure malice you need in order to kill a 7 year old girl that brutally does not come, nor is there any evidence it comes from, video games. The fact video games are being dragged into this horrendous debacle is indicative of the current state of affairs and only reinforces the publics misconceived perception regarding the impact of videogame violence"
so you see... don't blame video games

Xx_Sorin_xX

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2006

W/

Yea. They should also remove the weapons as well. It encourages kids that's its okay to slash someone with a sword because they'll just get ressurected anyway.

Honestly, does anyone ever remember thinking "Wow that guy is drinking alcohol in a game, and he's cool. I must drink alcohol." Kids don't drink because of video games. Kids drink because other kids drink.

Sniper22

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2005

99.99% of kids can easily figure out the difference between video games and reality. That 0.01% are already cracked to begin with so it is not the video games that are the bad influence. Kids are more influenced by their environment: parents, friends, teachers, etc.

Here is a somewhat realistic situation:

Kid 1: Hey, my parents are gone for the weekend, want to come over. They've left beer in the fridge.
Kid 2: Sure

Now this is unrealistic:

Kid 1: Hey man, I was playing Guild Wars and I'm going for the drunkard title. Drinking seems like a lot of fun. Want to try it some time?
Kid 2: Ok.... Whats Guild Wars?

Get my point? I'm actually going for the drunkard title myself (3300 min currently) because I think it's the funniest title ever, but I never had a sip of alcohol and I don't really plan on drinking anytime soon.

garethporlest18

garethporlest18

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

[HiDe]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by slowerpoke
make the game 21yr min age to play
prob solved
I know you're joking, but how would they go about enforcing that? Haha

ShadowsRequiem

ShadowsRequiem

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2005

Inde is Smoking [Hawt] *ToA*

W/E

I agree less booze more topless girls!!! ZOMG!

Stockholm

Stockholm

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Censored

Censored

R/

You are all concentrating on the wrong thing, I'm not worried about the Alcohol in game making alcoholics out of the minors, only the double standard in US society, where companies get fined and punished for running ad campaigns about alcohol and at the same time a game marketed for teenagers is promoting it.

pumpkin pie

pumpkin pie

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2006

behind you

bumble bee

E/

this is like blaming violence on game and movie.

its the parents job to monitor the child, not the game.

Widowmaker

Widowmaker

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2008

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowsRequiem
I agree less booze more topless girls!!! ZOMG!
I think you'll find it is usually "more booze more topless girls".

The lack of the former usually results in a lack of the latter.

pamelf

pamelf

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2006

Australia

Lost Templars [LoTe]

Me/Mo

All depends what 'society' you're from. A lot of European countries don't give a damn and don't have alcohol laws. Australia has 18+ for purchases, and any age under the supervision of parents. America is the only one that feels that you should be able to drive 5 years before you're allowed to drink.

Only America really seems to care about this stuff, so I say there's nothing wrong with it. There's a huge percentage of the GW community that aren't from the US.

RavenGT

RavenGT

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

I don't understand how you view it as Anet promoting bad habits to minors. It's like complaining that E and T rated games have comical violence.

??Evan??

??Evan??

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

Tombs

In Soviet Russia Altar Caps You [CCCP]/Ruthless Amazons [ego]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stockholm
What do you think about the situation about A-Net promoting Alcohol (sale of alcohol and the title "Drunkard") in a game marketed to +12, when the general consensus in our society is that we should minimize the exposure to alcohol as much as possible. Some states even banned alchole ads in places where kids are allowed.

Any thoughts on this?
Well.. first off you cannot assume everyone is from the states. Not everywhere has a drinking age. Even with that said the game is played on the internet where the is no rule for that.

??Evan??

??Evan??

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

Tombs

In Soviet Russia Altar Caps You [CCCP]/Ruthless Amazons [ego]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by pamelf
All depends what 'society' you're from. A lot of European countries don't give a damn and don't have alcohol laws. Australia has 18+ for purchases, and any age under the supervision of parents. America is the only one that feels that you should be able to drive 5 years before you're allowed to drink.

Only America really seems to care about this stuff, so I say there's nothing wrong with it. There's a huge percentage of the GW community that aren't from the US.
Actually, the us also has parental supervision laws for drinking. Along with exemptions for Religious,Medicinal, and Educational purposes.

odly

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2006

N/

How about learning your minors to "Sever Artery", "Dismember", and "Decapitate" and then steal all the possessions of your dead victim ?
Or is maiming, murdering and pillaging permitted ?

gelei

gelei

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2008

Il Band Of Brothers Il

D/

To make it short: ESRB rated Guild Wars as "Teen", because the game contains Animated Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence, Use of Alcohol. Take them together and that's why it reached that rating.

Rhamia Darigaz

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2008

you guys are talking about the wrong thing.
alcohol is not the problem. the female elementalist dance is the problem with today's youth. you know what i mean.

sixofone

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2007

P/

Alcohol in game - not really a problem.

Promoting the "Drunkard" title, though... That, I don't think should be in a game marketed to 12+. (And, like so many of these vanity titles, it's pretty useless. It has no in-game effect, and you can't display more than 1 title at a time anyway, so a lot of these could be taken away with no great loss imho.)

AsyaMordina

AsyaMordina

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2006

Beguine Guild [BGN]

GW has a Teen rating (13+). The next rating up is a Mature rating. Having a dwarven ale in the game shouldn't put it in the same category as GTA.

Woop Shotty

Woop Shotty

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2006

Ruthless Mafia [RM]

Mo/

What kind of kid is so much affected by the GW Drunkard title that he or she drinks? If you worry that you've raised your child so badly that it starts drinking because of GW, then something is wrong in your household. If you worry you're going to lose your life by a 13-year-old DUI, then I have news for you: 13 year olds don't drive.

Oh, and it's not a pillow-punching game, so there are definitely bigger topics than this one.

Abedeus

Abedeus

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Jan 2007

Niflheim

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by AsyaMordina
GW has a Teen rating (13+). The next rating up is a Mature rating. Having a dwarven ale in the game shouldn't put it in the same category as GTA.
I think GTA is 21+, Mature is 18+. There is somewhere Adult Only rating, no?

Orange Milk

Orange Milk

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2006

Ganking, USA

Retired

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by MithranArkanere
90lbs? How is that in the metric system that you should be using? 40 kilograms? Where are those statistics from? Lilliput?
There is absolutly no reason I should be using the metric system when I live in the United States of America.

As for where I got those Statistics? Well where should I start, could be from Majoring in Criminal Justice in College, maybe from my Father who has been a dedicated Police Officer for 32 years, or maybe from brother who was an MP in the USMC for 4 years, or perhaps it was from just plain learning beacuse Here in the USA we try to educate young people on the use of alcohol while in school, we don't expect them to get their alcohol eduation from a video game as you have. Just because you are an uneducated moron dosen't mean the rest of us are. Click here to not be stupid anymore:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_alcohol_content

It even has metric on it for ya.


Quote:
And with drunk I mean seeing blurry, not just lacking some hand-eye coordination and time response required to drive or use heavy machinery.
AH, thanks for proving your lack of education. The LAW defines DRUNK as lacking hand-eye coordination and time response. I doubt YOUR opinion of drunk would hold up in a court of law.

JUDGE: Sir, you ran down 14 kids at a bus stop after leaving a bar, what do you have to say for yorself?
YOU: Well you honor, I had no hand-eye coordination and I saw them ther, because my vision was not blurry, but mmy response time was slowed so I didn't turn in time.
JUDGE: Vision not blurry you say? Well then, case dismissed.

ANYWAY.....

Your idea to change the title is stupid, just like most of your ideas to cahnge titles I've seen you postin these forums.

It's a "fun" title, not ment for learning a life lesson while doing, though I feel you need to get involved with thing that will help you learn something, anything really.

Quote:
A normal slim female wights 60..70 kilograms
So thats about 150lbs, I don't think you know the definition of "slim" either, well unless you live in Samoa I guess.

Eli Rela

Eli Rela

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

USA

N/

*beating care bear with tormented staff*

Go play Disney products, and btw, this game is developed in Korea, not in US.

Avarre

Avarre

Bubblegum Patrol

Join Date: Dec 2005

Singapore Armed Forces

Yes, drinking is a severe thing in a game that emphasizes genocide and gladiatorial slaughter. It might trick young kids into thinking they can successfully wield a sword at 16 Mastery in real life while intoxicated, and that just won't do.

Yol

Yol

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2007

GameAmp Guides [AMP]

E/

For all the dangers of forcing minors to start drinking in real life because they do it in GW, I think the community as a whole should be looking into the far-more serious implications of pahnai salad-induced drug taking and trippy-ehzah-from-above toad licking.

Hyper.nl

Hyper.nl

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2006

Defending Fort Aspenwood

E/

No problem. It's a game. It's virtual. Pixels. Data. Nothing more.

Cluebag

Cluebag

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2008

Mo/

While I'm reading these posts defending the appropriateness of alcohol in the game, simply because it's up to the parents to properly raise their children and teach them right from wrong, and because that something's presence in a video game doesn't mean that people are going to try to see if it's effects are comparable irl, (drinking, killing, etc.), then what limits a game developer from including other things that will NEVER influence the minds of young, impressionable people playing this game, apart from a silly rating? Why not include a snorting coke title, or sharing needles title, or raping little boys/girls title, counterfeiting your own money title (oh whoops, duping is bad), or any number of other things that are of questionable value, since after all, its ONLY a game? If its only a game, and all these titles are optional, what harm is there in including these sorts of additional activities that couldn't possibly corrupt young minds at all, ever. Someone in a previous post mentioned something about smoking being potentially an objectional activity in a videogame. I say why stop there? They may as well include everything as an activity title, since there is absolutely no harm associated with exposing anyone to a domestic abuse title, or an unprotected sex title, or not paying your bills title, because its a GAME. Its not up to the game developers to exercise any restraint when it comes to including harmless activities to pass the time in game, that's the parent's responsibility to ensure everyone grows up well balanced in the face of all these harmless game activities.