Nintendo Wifi Connection – As bad as Xbox Live, only worse than Xbox Live

There seems to be an eternal argument going on about violent video games and children, and what sort of adverse affects that these video games may or may not have on such youngsters. Now, I’m no psychologist or specialist on the subject by any means- hell, my opinion doesn’t even mean any more than yours does- but I feel that I need to get this out there for people to read. You see, I’ve been playing a lot of Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Wii lately, and I’ve noticed a lot of very, very poor parenting going on as I play.

Of course, I won’t be the first one to tell you that the Wii’s online functionality is vastly different than Xbox Live’s or the Playstation Network. In almost every sense they’re entirely opposite, but with the release of Black Ops on the Wii, one thing became similar again: The Wii had a headset, and I think you’d be surprised at how many people seem to be using it. At least 4 people in every match I’ve played have been using the little dongle (called the “headbanger” headset), and it makes everyone sound exactly like they’re on Xbox Live, if Xbox Live was crawling with eight year olds.

Xbox Live IRL

I’m not kidding either; I have heard people talk that are literally no more than eight years old. Some possibly even younger. If any of you who are reading this are asking yourselves “So? What’s the big deal?”, then I really hope you rethink your opinion on parenthood before you have kids.

It got so bad in one match that I listened to a shouting match between a six year old who’s vocabulary seemed to consist of the word “butthole” and the phrase “what the heck?”, and a latino (assumed) man who just cussed the kid out. And this was on a Wii, the most “child friendly” system in the last ten thousand years. I don’t know about any of you, but I really, REALLY don’t miss not having voice chat in my games. I one hundred percent completely understand why Nintendo doesn’t want to support voice chat with random people in their games now, and you can paint me out as a full fledged supporter of the idea as of today.

I miss the days when the Wii was “kid friendly”

I don’t mean to be harsh or anything, and I’m certainly not one of those anti-violent video games people out there, but come on people. Sure, maybe at age 15 or 16 my kids can play Call of Duty but there is a big red line for anyone under the age of 13 as far as I’m concerned. I don’t care if it’s Halo or Call of Duty or Gears of War or whatever; someone who is under the age of 15 does not, under any circumstance, need to be playing overly violent video games. Call me crazy if you want, but trust me, kids don’t need any sort of violence in those developmental stages.

Developmental? That’s a long word. He must know what he’s talking about.

So what do you guys think? Are you one of those gamers who doesn’t care if a six year old is playing Black Ops, or are you a little bit put-off by the fact that some parents actually let their kids play these games? Obviously I’m in the latter category, but I’m really interested to see what the rest of you think!

~Austin