Shortly after the Columbine incident, April 20^th, 1999, legislators and the nation began to worry about what video games where doing to our children. Gaming can have interesting effects on people, especially playing bloody and violent games that are very detailed. There are, though, many games on the market to chose from. When you go to the store to buy games what do you see, an interesting variety thats what. But what sells you ask? Violence thats what.

     The type of game that gets bashed the most is the first person shooter game. A first person shooter puts you in the character that you are playing. You see everything through the characters eyes. In games like Red Faction and Command and Conquer Renegade for PC you run around picking up a variety of weapons, and choose the most powerful one, and kill pretty much every one in sight. There are many other games like this. Then there are the games that have a goal, such as to find something like a key, but still you pretty much kill every one in sight. These games are the ones that sell the best. The target audiences with these games are mostly children ages 9 to 35 or so.

     Then there are games like Mario Party 3 and Tetris that are totally non-violent. The focus group with these games are the kids from 4 or 5 to 15, mostly kids stop buying games like this at age 10 because it just gets too boring. These games mostly have goals like races to beet the other person to the end, or to fill up a certain amount of space on a board.

     It has been found that children are most impressionable from birth to around age 10. So the rating system was created. The worst games get rated M for mature and can not be purchased by any one younger than 17 without a parent or a legal guardian with them. So parents, if you are buying games for your kids be sure to read the label just like you would a movie. Also parents, if they dont want there children to grow up to kill people because they cant tell the difference between reality and fantasy, should talk to them and teach them the difference. Trust me they will listen.

     If you are one of these people who like to buy games for children use caution as to what you buy. Kids are not stupid just ignorant and need to be educated. Video games are a great way to let off some anger but lets just know the difference between whats good and whats not. Education is the key to not letting bad things happen again.