{"id":812,"date":"2008-04-19T19:10:55","date_gmt":"2008-04-20T01:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=812"},"modified":"2008-04-19T19:10:55","modified_gmt":"2008-04-20T01:10:55","slug":"why-kids-want-to-play-god-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/19\/why-kids-want-to-play-god-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Kids Want to Play God of War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kratos.jpg\"Have you heard about God of War? Well, if you’re a parent – you should have. The game sets new benchmarks for both “Intense Violence” and<\/strong> “Sexual Situations” – and the ESRB descriptors don’t stop there! But guess why your teen really wants to play it<\/p>\n

Because it is challenging.<\/p>\n

Yes, God of War 2<\/a> and the new Chains of Olympus PSP game, have a lot of blood and gore. Yes, it’s almost sadistic in its depiction of the various ways monsters, and people, can die. Yes there are “fatalities” that shock, amaze, will sicken some, and will thrill others. Yes, there is a little sex game and yes there are a lot of boobies (partially this is because the Greeks liked their monsters to be half-woman, half-whatever and also because game designers clearly like boobies).<\/p>\n

All of that is true, but all of that is also difficult to get to. Most of what you actually spend your time doing in God of War 2 is trying and failing, trying and failing, and then succeeding through a succession of fiendish logic, object, and reaction based puzzles.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at a puzzle from the middle of the game. There’s a crank you can pull along the floor. Two huge gates block the way. A pressure plate opens the first gate while the crank opens the second. If you step off the plate, the gate slams closed and the crank moves back to it’s former position.<\/p>\n

How do you solve this? You’ve got to search the room and all nearby rooms to find something you can drag or pick up and place there. (For this puzzle it was a corpse, but you get the picture). With the object on the plate you pull back the crank and run – quickly, it won’t stay open long! – through the gates… with a feeling of real satisfaction. You conquered the puzzle using your brain and your reaction timing.<\/p>\n

If you’re a nongamer, try this with a similar game. Bet you’ll be impressed at how hard it actually is!<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Dr. James Paul Gee (PhD UWM) logic puzzles sharpen the mind. The research on that benefit actually outweighs the “damage” violent games supposedly do.<\/p>\n

Of course a strategy guide takes this skill away but a strategy guide won’t help you with the combat. God of War 2’s combat looks like button-mashing but you won’t get far until you learn complicated combinations of button presses and you need to have the gamepad layout memorized because those amazing fatality animations don’t happen, and you can’t progress, until you hit the right combo of buttons and stick movements.<\/p>\n

The violence, blood and gore, and fatalities, in short, don’t come cheap. You’ve mastered combat, blocked every blow from your enemy, and you didn’t die! The fatality is your reward. Your reaction time was rewarded with something “bad.”<\/p>\n

So, yes, your teen wants to play God of War 2 for the violence. But even more gruesome things exist in your DVD cabinet and on the Internet. So, you might say, God of War 2 makes them earn it.<\/p>\n

I guess I have to mention the sex game now. Okay, unlike most games God of War 2 has a hidden scene featuring two buxom and topless ladies in a hot tub. With the push of a button our hero grabs them and the camera moves away. You have to push buttons and move the sticks. If you “pleasure them” (there is moaning) you’re rewarded.<\/p>\n

Of course teens want to see this, but again, there’s far worse – far more readily available – all over the Internet.<\/p>\n

Immobile and plastic looking boobs and pixelated and cartoonish blood can’t be the only reason God of War 2 is a hit and why your kid wants to play it. Maybe it’s because it’s challenging and, like when you’re on a diet, doing something difficult and getting a bad little reward, is satisfying.<\/p>\n

Look parents, there are plenty of horrifically, sadistically, gratuitous, and over-the-top violent games out there. Most of even in the bargain bin and can be had for a song. Now, there aren’t very many games with nudity and sex, but that kind of entertainment also isn’t hard to find. My point is, both the violence and the nudity can be found elsewhere – easily – and without<\/em> having to hit “A, B, X, X, turn stick round left, X” to access it peicemeal!<\/p>\n

Teens like it because it’s a great game. It’s going to sell well because it’s a great game. Parents need to be aware of it… because it’s a good game.<\/p>\n

So that’s why they want to play it.<\/p>\n

But should they? Nope.<\/p>\n

The good news is that God of War 2 isn’t the only game of this type on the shelves. For younger kids, games like Sly Cooper and most 3D platformers will fit the bill. For Teens, look for the first or fourth Prince of Persia games. If you’re an adult, go ahead and play God of War 2, 1, or Chains of Olympus. They’re really good. But also really, really hard.<\/p>\n

-GamerDad<\/p>\n

(God of War, the series, is a huge hit. We don’t recommend it for children despite the arguments and talking points included in this article. GamerDad believes games are a permanent part of our culture and parents need to be informed. But he also understands that kids will find the games they want to play. Including this one. This article shows why that might not be “all bad.”) <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you heard about God of War? Well, if you’re a parent – you should have. The game sets new benchmarks for both “Intense Violence” and “Sexual Situations” – and the ESRB descriptors don’t stop there! But guess why your teen really wants to play it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}