Wii Zapper Training Kids to be Killers?
By Steve on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 3:55 AM PST In Game Consoles, Gamer Life, Nintendo
In a recent post over at Wii Fanboy, a ruckus of sorts is being made by some over protective parents against Nintendo’s upcoming Wii Zapper. Apparently these wacky would-be parental figures think having a Wii controller resembling anything remotely like a gun is reckless and irresponsible on Nintendo’s part.
The New Jersey Star-Ledger’s Parental Guidance blog’s most recent Question of the Week centered around the attachment, and it seems to have some folks alarmed. One commenter said, “I think it’s irresponsible for Wii to come out with a controller that looks like a gun so kids can play games simulating shooting. What kind of message are we sending as parents when we buy these things for our kids?”
Oh, yes. The original NES Zapper included with my game cartridge of Duck Hunt certainly made me want to go out and shoot my dear old dog when I was 10 years old. I certainly turned out to be the homicidal maniac my parents always feared.
Give me a break. What’s next? A nation-wide ban on Super Soakers? Talk about missing out on your childhood.
Via Wii Fanboy
seriously… wow…
“What kind of message are we sending as parents when we buy these things for our kids?”
That’s a really dumb question. Don’t buy it for your kid if you think you didn’t raise them well enough for them to know that killing other people is bad. Sheesh.
It’s people like that that makes me think that if an Osama Bin Laden Saturday morning cartoon is released that 90% of all kids raised by people like them will turn into terrorists midway through the season.
yep i think im gonna turn into a killer the second I touch the zapper …ooooh be afraid!!! Parents are just stupid if they think that a game controller is gonna make their kids shoot each other..I mean real life cause they can shoot each other while playing the game.
This happens everyone time a parent or misguided person finds something on the internet they find offensive in their limited and uneducated view.
Its like a bad season, just let it pass.
Being a fellow New Jersian, I am offended by the parents being offended. How many gun-like products are there in the toy aisles? I understand we’re living in a new age where its “acceptable” to bash video games and apparantly now their accessories instead of putting the blame where it really lies, which is the parents.
If you think about it, almost all video games have some sort of violence associated with them. Mario jumping on goombas is violent. Sonic spinning past enemies to defeat them is violent. Parents need to chill out already and not try to treat this world like it should accomidate children 24/7. Last I checked, adults ruled the world. So children should either be raised in our world or kept in their protective bubbles and leave all of the fun stuff to the adults.
They should ban all toys that resemble a gun before they protest against the Wii Zapper. Seriously, none of my friends that have played videogames turned out to be a homicidal maniac or anything of the like. Aren’t kids exposed more to violence in TV than in videogames? And please, don’t start a protest in cartoons now. I don’t know why people have this apparent videogame hate when they should look at their TV first.
nintendo’s second gen. game duck hunter raised no fear of kids being killers. It’s corprate america and its greed for oil and power the has sent that genaration to war!!!!
The original light zapper has turned me onto a stealth shooting killing machine, with super accuracy and the blood thirst to kill anyone who gets in its sight. because of the light gun, its shoot first and ask questions later. it made my crazy.
Hmmmm…. NO. it teaches hand eye cordination, how to pretend to hunt ducks and actualy have some fun. Who ever thinks different should turn on TV or go to a store and look at all the worse toys. Get a life.
Let’s see… We have young soldiers in the world using REAL guns killing REAL people, but they don’t come home with an unspoken desire to continue killing. The crazy people who kill in this country have a dozen other factors leading up to his or her respective tragedy. Pulling the plug on video games will not suddenly make the world less violent. All the sane people I know (including the ones who have kids) are eager to purchase the Wii Zapper.
Oh, but, the thing about water pistols/guns, is that the water can get in your eye…
If parents really want to complain about something they can purchase for their children leading to violent or unethical behavior, they need to look at toys and media that are more harmful on the psyche than the Zapper. Look at those Bratz dolls…. they are teaching our little girls that it is ok to be skimpily dressed little whores. Plus, with the media thinking it is ok to tout these sorts of clothes to young girls, I am more concerned with clothing designers making thong underwear for girls under 18 than a silly video game peripheral.
Playing AREA 51 at the arcade and numerous other games that had gun controllers never made me want to shoot anyone, and I know of no child personally that wants to go out and kill someone or who wants to do that when they grow up. But I know TONS of little girls who want thongs and strappy shirts that show their goods.
“when we buy these for our kids”
yeAH…IF YOU THINK IT’S SO INNAPROPRIATE DON’T BUY IT!!!!!
PARENTS STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT STUFF AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOU’RE KIDS INSTEAD OF EXPECTING OTHER PEOPLE TOO!!!!
what gets me really mad is that we comment this and the parents are too scared to comment cause were right.first of all just cause u use a hunk of plastic doesnt mean kids will know how to reload or where to put the bullets in a gun.and besides u have to be born crazy or stupid be a homicidal maniac. video games dont cause crimes,how about giving a lil credit to our public schools?