Father knows best: Son can play Call of Duty (by Geneva Convention rules)

by David Hinkle on Feb 24th 2009 2:00AM

Hugh Spencer is an awesome dad. Not only is he active in his son Evan's life, but he's a pretty funny guy. When Evan told him he wanted to play Call of Duty: World at War, Hugh eyed the T-rating for the game and worried that the content might not be suitable for his son. So he thought of a compromise.

Introducing the Geneva Convention to Evan, Hugh said he could play the game, but only if he and his team followed the rules set forth in the GC. What makes this so funny is that, in all honesty, the Geneva Convention has no place in this particular FPS. You're not taking prisoners in the game, and even if you could hear the opposing team's cries for mercy online, what could you really do? You can't round them up, place them in shelter, and feed them 3 meals a day. That game is called The Sims.

Also, as good an idea as this was on Hugh's part, we wonder how he planned (if at all) to enforce it. Is he going to sit there and watch little Evan play every single match? Also, do Nazi zombies have rights?

[Via GamePolitics]

Source

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-world-at-war, fps, geneva-convention, treyarch, world-at-war

Reader Comments (51)

Speaking of The Sims, I use to lock people in The Sims up in doorless dark damp rooms and put a Fruitcake in there, to see if they would choose death, or eat the fruitcake. They always chose death...

I always put them in rooms with lots of furniture and a fireplace, they always lit it and eventually everything burned.... also, there was no door. =)

thank u dr scientist i dont feel like so alone any more lol

That's the first sign of a serial killer!

Even more interesting than that was the survival game.
See how long a Sim can live in free will mode with no fire alarm in the house.

What's the kid gonna do when he realizes blowing people's head's off gives you more points?

When are you going to realize that those with the most points don't always win?

Um. Keep playing I guess...guy.

I did all sorts of mean things to my sims, now that I think about it
I would get them to swim and then delete the ladder to get out
I would make a firework kit in the house and have them use it
I would lock them in tiny sheds

I had fun though

"Hugh eyed the T-rating for the game and worried that the content might not be suitable for his son. So he thought of a compromise."

Call Of Duty: World At War is rated "M" for "Mature" by the ESRB.

I was about to say! I remembered the footage of the mass burials and executions and thought that was pretty rough for a T game.

Yeah. The fact that the joystiq writers can't get the ratings for games correct bothers me.

The writer obviously never played world at war, or he wouldn't have made that mistake.

I think it is definitely good parenting to get involved with your kid's hobbies and inspire them to research history and be informed. However, dad should check his facts if he want his kid to have accurate information.

Despite not being able to actually break any Geneva Convention rules in COD WAW (except that maybe flamethrowers are currently outlawed?) the Geneva Convention was not even enacted until after WWII when the game takes place. Nice try though, dad.

Good point, but the rules set by the GC are around now and I think that's what the dad is getting at.

It is possible that the title in question is "Call of Duty: World At War - Final Fronts" for the Playstation 2, which IS rated T. The picture used in the BoingBoing piece shows his kid holding a DualShock controller of some sort, but it is far too low quality to determine if it is a DualShock 2 or a 3.

However, the PS2 version of the game does not feature the "Nazi Zombie" mode, among other features that are present in the PS360PC editions. Also, to the best of my knowledge, Final Fronts does NOT include online multiplayer, which makes another quote from the original piece ("His latest favourite game is Call of Duty - which he plays on-line with his friends.") a bit of a contradiction, unless he is referring to one of the older titles in the series (ie CoD2)

I think its a Duel Shock 3, There's no Cable (There's a few wireless controllers for PS2 but its more likely to be a PS3 with your previous On-line comment)

Murdering hundreds of people? No problem. Just don't show a titty!

But this shirt is so restrictive and I'm sure that if the Nazis could just gaze upon the beauty of my manly chest we could stop this fighting once and for all.

The age old question: What causes more death? Bullets or boobs?

What? A parent using a child's entertainment medium as a learning tool? What is this world coming to?

Even if he can't actually follow the exact rules of the Geneva agreement while playing COD, it teaches the boy history and will help the son contextualize the killing in the game with actual modern rules of engagement. I'm so glad to hear about something like this instead of the usual attention whoring of a lawmaker.

It is nice to hear, some parents see the opportunity to engage and interact with their kids that games provide.

My younger cousins (8 and 10) have similar deals for playing their games. Before they could play Civ 4, they had to research the leader they wanted to play and write a short report.

I'm glad that parents are able to see the learning opportunities in games, as well as exercising the kind of parental control that parents are meant to do.

"Also, do Nazi zombies have rights?"

The ACLU would probably argue that they do.

The ACLU would not 'probably' defend nazi zombie rights, they DEFINITELY would. Just wait until Guantanamo is shut down, and the Al-Qaeda terrorists are moved on mainland U.S. or something. The ACLU will jizz in their pants on the way to the jails and courthouses in an attempt to make a stand for human rights and civil liberties. Just wait..... I think I would rather have nazi zombies turned loose than those terrorists freaks..

why haven't these dumb fucks been downvoted into oblivion yet

Why the hell are you using real world rules in a game? I don't understand, I'd have rather get the boy to do some dev work, since that would really teach him that what's happening is hes increasing RightTrigger to 1f which sets a bool value to fire which adds to a list of Projectiles which also creates some particle effects then a physics engine comes into play and all this other malarkey. You're shooting pixels.

What does that have to do with anything?

All I was really was trying to say was, instead of making the kid play a game as if it were real and the people in it are real. Why doesn't he get the kid to learn how a game is developed? If the kid knows how something is made he would know it isn't real.

So like, what? No electric clamps to the genitals?

Well, shit. There go my Saturday-night plans....

Nah I like him. The game is based around combat where you don't really have a choice but to shoot, but balancing it with a grounding of the 'rules' of real warfare, even though in practise in the game it's probably not that relevant, is a good thing for the kid to think about.

thats funny

Its good that he is introducing the Geneva Convention to his son. I like that and think its a pretty good thing to be doing at his age.

Though introducing it in the form of playing COD in guidelines to it... I don't think that is going to work.

The Geneva Convention covers a lot more than just torture. For example, the Geneva Convention says you cannot shoot at non-combatants. Former combatants (soldiers) who are injured and unable to fight are thus off-limits.

the only thing I can think of as non combatants is maybe the attack dogs? Last stand cant count because although they're wounded and wont fight much longer, they still are using their pistol

The only thing I can think of is in one part of the russian campain when some nazis are surrendering (or at least trying to) after the slaughter at stalingrad and you have them cornered. You can choose to shoot them and if you dont another guy lights them on fire with a moltov.

Kids are pretty gullible, I bet you he takes in at least a little bit of the Geneva convention and tries his best to apply some aspects to the game to impress his dad. There may not be many chances to apply the GC in this particular game, but at least the kid will be made aware of it.

I ran a pretty tight family on the sims, until an extra kid was born, I used to put them in a 2x2 glass box (room of windows) in the middle of the living room....Social services couldn't even take them away!

Weird.

Anyway, I reckon this guy is onto something, teaching his kid morals and right and wrong.

Bravo.

That is extremely clever. One day I'll torture my son into gaming AND learning.

The "World at War" part isn't in the original article, it's added by the wonderful Joystiq bloggers to further confuse their readers and increase the number of comments posted about how "COD:WAW" isn't rated "T".

Call of Duty 3 is in fact rated T, can be played online, and is available for the PS3.

Guessing the family is Canadian since it seems to be an ESRB rating of "T" and a spelling of "favourite".

dt

Nope, from the UK, where COD:WAW is rated fifTEEN (actually it's "15").

Someday the bloggers will get facts straight, and there will be no comments.

dt

The rating systems from the UK and the US do not match up at all. There are plenty of games rated 15 here which are rated M in the US.

e.g.
http://www.amazon.com/Company-Heroes-Pc/dp/B000FJSIUA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1235482096&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Company-Heroes-DirectX-10-DVD/dp/B000RMNNZK/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1235482124&sr=1-6

I think the commenters themselves are just as guilty for increasing the number of comments. People say inaccurate things, and others feel compelled to correct them.

The viloence can get pretty bad and the language is somewhat vulgar.

OUTSTANDING MARINES! OUT-FUCKING-STANDING! WE KICKED ASS!

I'm glad to hear that a parent's actively involved with their sons game playing, but I cant really see many opportunities for the Geneva Convention to come up in CoD 5. I mean, I dont think Tabun gas counts as a biological weapon, killing a guy with last stand isnt killing a POW, and the only torture situations the game has to offer in multiplayer is being on the same team as some 11 year old asshole like the WKUK sketch

has anyone bothered to point out that the modern Geneva Convention to which this father is obviously referring was ratified AFTER WWII was over. 1948 I believe. So really, by not following the rules of the GC the kid is playing MORE realistically.

Looks tacky.

Would had been nicer if it was a tastefully done skin job.

What a douche.

The Geneva Convention also has no role in the war on terror, but that didn't stop a bunch of idiot hippies who can't even bother to look it up from screaming about it.

how is this game news

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Father knows best: Son can play Call of Duty (by Geneva Convention rules)

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