Our readers speak: what games were you not allowed to play as a child?

The world of video games has gone through very different stages, but it is true that as their quality and realism increased, the controversy surrounding them also grew. I’m sure many of you will remember the madness that was unleashed around Mortal Kombat, a game that the press called macabre, realistic and dangerous for children. I don’t know, they must have believed that if we played it we were going to go out into the street and try to rip someone’s heart (or head) out with our hands.

Mortal Kombat was bloody, that’s for sure, but to a level that was even comical, since it had the same realism as a martial arts movie from the eighties. Over the years, the tendency to criticize video games for their violence or for other issues related to their content that, in general, were considered dangerous, did not change, in fact it went further and very marked controversies were repeated.

Personally I think that criticizing and trying to censor a video game for being violent is absurd, they are works of fiction which, as with movies, tell a story and give us the chance to experience it interactively. It’s not going to occur to me to go out on the street and shoot each other just because I’m watching an action movie, and for the same reason I’m not going to do it because I’m playing a video game. With those criticisms and those controversies the only thing that was tried was to look for a “scapegoat” to be held responsible for much deeper problems that can occur on a social and personal level.

I could give many examples, but one of the most classic and relevant is the one about the American kid who decides to shoot each other in his high school. The media say that he was inspired by “X” video game and that if it were not for that bad influence nothing would have happened. Of course, the problem is that he played video games, and not that he had access to a firearm like the one who goes to the corner store to buy a package of yogurt. Nor do we say anything about his possible family, social and psychological problems, that does not matter, it only matters that he played GTA, DOOM or Call of Duty.

I am aware that in the end, even in my time, many parents became “afraid” of video games, and ended up limiting their children’s access to certain titles. Fortunately, in my case I did not have any type of censorship of this type. I played titles like DOOM (1993) when I wasn’t old enough, and I also enjoyed many other games as a kid. What can I say, I have led a completely normal life, and it has not occurred to me to go out on the street to “hunt demons.”

Family education, social environment and friends they are much more important influences than a simple video game, this is clear to me, and I think the world would be a little better if we all had it equally clear. However, I am curious and I ask you a question, did your parents forbid you to play any video game when you were little? we read each other