Yeah I feel like myself and my generation was raised playing violent video games and we're relatively normal. Maybe even less violent than generations before? In fact looking back on it, me and all my friends were raised virtually our whole lives playing violent games on a daily basis. Doom, Goldeneye, all the GTA games (yes, we played them even before GTA 3 came out), and plenty of others. You'd think with all that (virtual) violence ingrained into our lives someone would have turned out crazy and violent yet I can't think of even one inkling of an example of someone I know (or myself) being negatively influenced by it. Its pretty easy to differentiate the game from reality and its sad that when some crazy asshole goes nuts shooting people the media starts probing to find what video games hes playing, what music he listens to, what is favorite movies are. But this was all pre-internet and I definitely wouldn't want to be a kid on Xbox Live listening to that stupid ass shit. I was addicted to Halo 2 on XBL back when I was 15/16 though and it was a lot of fun fucking around with people on there, but back then I was probably that guy who makes all the grown ups and younger kids' experiences shittier lol.
First of all, I don't like how you look down on those of us who have sex with non-human females. Secondly, if your kid doesn't get beat up at school everyday you're probably okay when it comes to murderous rampage likelihood. Also, whatever he hears online he already hears at school. Third, don't pretend like you didn't play Atari. If Pitfall had an online mode, you'd play it.
I think the parent can best decide what his/her child can handle. But I'd be very careful if you decide to let him play it online against others. 90% of people in their 20s and 30s playing this game are not afraid to use language and likely share the same views as this guy (skip to about 5:35): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9V29TLjd08
