When you’re a parent, it’s YOUR job to know what your kids are playing and make informed decisions about the games allowed in your house. When I worked at GameStop, I couldn’t sell M-rated games to minors without parents, and when their parents WERE there, I read them the entire ESRB description of anything rated Mature. Until that moment when they stepped up to the counter, they had NO idea what they were buying their kids.

The ESRB ratings weren’t taken as seriously when I was growing up, but I didn’t develop violent tendencies because I played Doom II every day after school in fifth grade or used cheat codes to get a flamethrower and set pedestrians on fire in GTA Vice City. My parents knew what my brothers and I were playing, and though they had some apprehensions (“Do you have to set those people on fire?” “Nope, just doing it for fun.”) I don’t think they seriously expected us to turn violent in real life.

Finally, Red Dead Redemption > Grand Theft Auto, in my humble opinion.