The official company line is that we never planned to stock the title because it was considered inappropriate for our target audience. Maybe it's even true, but the point is: if I sell a kid a game that's inappropriate for him, I risk the wrath of his heretofore disinterested parent. He/ She will then eat the head off me. Obviously, there are questions of good taste and moral obligations, but the point is: somebody who sells games will take a precaution to ensure that they are age appropriate, because otherwise we'll have to listen to demented busybodies telling Gerry Ryan that it's possible to rape a granny in GTA*.
But the problem right there is that these kids' parents won't have played it. The majority have no idea what these or any games are, so they're viewed with suspicion. They don't generally, as infuriating as it is to me, bother their arses to figure out what they are either.
If a kid comes up to me to buy GTA, I'll refuse him. If his mum comes up to buy it for him, I can't refuse her. I'll tell her it's 18s and describe the content, but I can't refuse her. I'll do my half of the job if you do yours.
"All his friends have it" is almost invariably the response. In other words, these parents will buy a game even if they don't approve of it, because of peer pressure their kid might be under. They would sooner cave and buy it than do their ****ing job as parents and say "No" sometimes. They get their kids 50 Cent CDs, and then they buy 50 Cent: The Game to match, because then they don't have to stand up to their whiny ten year old master, or because their whiny ten year old says his friends have it already. Then they blame games for their childrens behaviour. Whether you agree with a games' age rating or not, whether you believe they can really warp tiny child brains or not, it's telling that the parents of these kids would rather do what keeps their kids quiet rather that what they themselves believe would actually be good parenting.
On one occassion, I warned a customer they were buying an 18s title, and she just shrugged and said it was nothing her kid hadn't seen before. Cranky, I described exactly what it involved. She expressed surprise and in the end, she bought something else instead. Seriously missus, what the **** did you think it was rated 18 for, woman? Did you think it was one of those "Rated 18, but we really mean 10" ratings?
I sell games for a living because I like games. I like them lots. And while there is an arguement to be made that the more interactive element of games, the Wii controller is a good example, make them potentially more influential on a mind than a passively viewed movie, I'd like everybody to go out and buy Hostel. And then stab Eli Roth with it. We're running out of taboo in films, and only Joss Whedon - God bless his mighty heart - has the guts or the wit to object to the trend Roth & Co are going with. We accept violent misogyny, sadism, gratuitous torture porn, anything... in a movie, without batting an eyelid.
In a game, exactly the same content is considered far more offensive. People might not mind buying the damn thing for their kids, but they will object to it's existence in the first place. Now, I love Horror and I don't advocate censorship, particularly because Ireland has a history of getting it spectacularly arseways - coughMontyPythoncough - but the point is: people accept anything in movies now, but judge games by altogether different standards. Because people who don't play games do not or can not appreciate that not every game is intended for children.
And they won't listen to us when we tell them otherwise, because it would be too... inconvenient.
*This is an actual example. I had two morally outraged customers chew me out over that once, despite my patient explanation that I'd played the entire game, and no, it's not possible at any point to rape anyone. Cheers for that Gerry. Aside from anything, why the hell would kids want to buy a game just so they could rape grannies? I really don't see granny raping becoming a cool new trend with Rockstar's target audience... And how would you know she was a "granny" specifically? She might just be an old lady. Questions, questions...
