[BigFrank]

I grew up playing extremely violent video games, and watched whatever movies I wanted to, minus XXX rated stuff ( but I did score some nude mags that were well hidden ). I was always a straight A student. I lived with my grandmother who for the longest time I thought I had always had the upper hand on, to later down the road realize she knew everything that was going on. In retrospect she explained to me recently, that she felt strongly my brother and I had a strong understanding of what was real and what was fake. This coming from a Woman who lived during the depression, raised 3 kids on her own, and worked in the child medical field since time began. We also understood that what occurred in the video game would not be tolerated if it occurred anywhere else, i.e. fighting other kids. She also went on to explain that if she felt that if we didn't have these basic understandings that she would have yanked the plug fast. It also was known that good grades in my youth led to the nicer things. Late bedtimes etc. This even carried on to high school, I used to hang out with older kids so staying out til the wee hours of the morning was not a big deal, because I had a 4.0 GPA. My brother and I had our own computers at 14 ( me ) and 12 ( my brother ) with unlimited internet access. All things still held the same. Keep the grades, act like gentlemen outside of the house and grandmom was a stickler for cussing. My brother ended up joining the military and picked ( what I consider ) the most non-violent field possible. I ended up going into law enforcement and found a lot of the violence that I encountered to be too much, one of the many reasons why I left the field.

So I guess what I am really trying to get at is this. Your son has most likely already seen some graphically violent movies. He has most likely played violent games. It would do more good to sit down and talk to him about the game, and what everything means. His friends will most likely get or already have the game. And if the step-dad plans on getting the game, you'd be better off just talking to him and setting some rules for playing the game. Luckily I have two sons that are very young and have not had to cross this bridge yet, but when I do I plan on just trying to lay it all out for them. This was one of the things that really pissed me off growing up. No one ever told it to me like it is. I always got the kid side.

I would just get it, tell him about it and what everything means, if he doesn't know already and maybe even play it with him.