South Park: Big Wheel Death Rally

Thesis: South Park: Big Wheel Death Rally involves ethical dilemmas by not just being an animated cartoon game that will attract kids, but it also conveys the idea that killing hippies and cussing at your friends in a not-so-friendly competition, is acceptable.

Ideas:

1. Cartoon

• Cartoons were initially made for children and because this is a cartoon children will be attracted to this show and thus wish to play its games. They might not understand the sexual or adolescent innuendos at first, but they'll probably ask people to figure out what it means.
  

2. Killing Hippies

• First of all, you're killing people. It doesn't matter if they're hippies or not, you're still killing them. This game has no moral outlook on killing others. The characters in these games are just racing in order to get their prize without thinking of the consequences of hurting others. Basically, their only consequence in this game, is not getting the prize at the end.

3. Cussing

• Cartman, one of the characters in the game uses bad language such as, "You've just been f'd in the a" or "son of a bitch". Cussing, in general, is just against many people's personal values but cussing when you're angry makes it worse.
  

Opinions on Two Articles

In regards to the article about restricting the allotted time given to kids to watch television or play video games in order to reduce obesity, I can really understand why a study would be done of this. In today's generation, young kids are obtaining so many health problems, with obesity being one of the main ones. Furthermore, parents aren't necessarily understanding how they are contributing to this issue as well because we are living in a fast-moving society; thus, parents might not always be attentive or be at home to determine what their child is doing. However, this study really shows that when parents monitor what their kids are doing, not only does it benefit their child, but both also gain more bonding times between each other and they learn to love and respect each other more. It also helps the child become more social and create more friends, which is a very important factor for a growing child.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303164504.htm

My second article was about the opinions and myths that people have of video games. Most people think of video games as the sole reason for why kids in our generation have become so violent, anti-social, aggressive, etc. However, in my opinion, there are some games that actually benefit kids. Leapfrog is an example of a game that is not only entertaining for kids but it also helps them learn how to read, write, perform math problems, and just over-all feel better about themselves. Kids who play leapfrog can also play with their parents and in turn feel more connected with them. Thus, I agree, with what this article says about video games because not all video games are there for malicious purposes. In fact, basically none of them were made for that purpose. They were made to entertain and teach the gamer. Furthermore the article says that video games also help gamers to examine their own values and as a result create a better person by seeing how to or not to behave in virtual space.

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html