I went to the mall this weekend to buy Dead Rising, to use in my next GiR, which will be the now-annual Creepy, Geeky Games feature, and ended up with fodder for this week’s column while I was there:
Geek in Review: Carded
My wife and I are both in our mid-thirties. We have two kids, one of
whom is in college, but we must look young, because we still get carded
in restaurants, bars, and even at the market. It happens so frequently,
we’ve made it into a contest, to see who can get carded most often, and
in the most unlikely circumstances.This last weekend, I pulled ahead in our contest, when I was carded at the mall, while attempting to buy a video game.
“Wait.” I said to the cashier. “You’re carding me for a video game?”
“Yeah,” he said, “It’s an M-rated game. I have to.”
“I’m 35,” I said. “This is hilarious.”
“I’m sorry, but my manager is standing right there, so . . .” he said.
“Well, I don’t want to be a dick, and I don’t want to get you into any
trouble.” I said. I reached into my wallet and handed him my ID. “But
isn’t this sort of lame?”The manager nodded. “It’s the stupidest thing in the world, and it’s all because of the Grand Theft Auto thing.”
I submitted my story to Propeller, if you think it’s worth a vote.
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Great GIR, Wil. I was about to broach the topic here, but glad I saved it until I read GIR: Carded. You stated it better than I can, so I’ll save my breath. Same with your comments about a recent Propeller article about national security. It’s hard to get upset anymore. Just scared about what the hell will come of it.
Well, at least they did card you. Just a few days ago Jack Thompson was crowing about how his 15 year old son was able to walk in to a store and buy BioShock. The less fodder we can give folks like him, the better.
However, it’s ridiculous that they won’t sell the game to the parent if they think/know it’ll be given to the child anyway.
Did you tell them that it’s OK, you’re *in* GTA:SA? Anyway, I guess you and Anne need more gray hair. I never get carded anymore. *sigh*
I just got an amazing deal on Ebay for a playstation and 36 games. The kiddies don’t get to play the GTA and BMX XXX.
Yeah…and I have a keylogger and a filter on the comp too…in a public room…
I’m stifling their creativity, I swear.
As for being carded? Meh. I used to be a checker and I was supposed to card under 30 for lots of things, not just alcohol and ciggies. It was store policy. If the customer gets irate about it, I don’t sell.
Great story Wil. I try to keep a good eye on what my kid is playing on his PS2 and we don’t have any M rated games in the house, and I generally won’t let him rent them either. So imagine my surprise when my 12 year old daughter came home from a friends birthday party and informed me that the birthday girl (who was turning 13) received a brand ne copy of “BioShock” and was really excited because she had been playing the demo on 360live. Yeah, my daughter won’t be going over there anymore.
Oh, and I get carded all the time as well. I had the added joy once of the cashier insisting that my driver’s license picture doesn’t look like me and she refused to sell me a 12 pack of beer.
My girlfriend (32) and I (26) always get carded too. The best was when I got carded 3 times at the same movie. It was “Not Another Teen Movie,” I was 20 at the time, and I got carded 1) when I bought the ticket, 2) when they tore the ticket, and 3) as I walked into the actual theater room.
I’m constantly getting carded as well. I’m 29 but could probably pass for 13 if I wanted to – being 4’10” helps. The best/worst is that I’m a single mother of a toddler, and when just the two of us are out I get some seriously evil looks from people who (I assume) think I’m some sort of slutty, irresponsible 15 year old mother. Oh well – not much I can do about it. It should prove to be more fun (and embarassing for my son) when he’s older and people ask if I’m his sister. 🙂
@ your twitter – you’re not the only one who likes them very muchly.
Well I’d like to vote for you, but I don’t want to sign up for yet another userid and password… you’ve already corrupted me enough into signing up for a few things, so I’m drawing the line here! (Especially since I started getting some really nice spam after one of those sign-ups… ;)- )
Game ratings mean little to mean because I use them as a guideline and not an absolute. My kids (under ten) have a few T-rated games because there is nothing I deem inappropriate about them. They even get a crack at GTA once in a while (house rule: jacking and wrecking cars only). Their game time and experience is monitored and they understand why the limits are there.
This kind of government regulation is just pandering to the ill-informed.
Sorry Wil, my Dad wins, hands down — The liquor store has a “card all” policy, so he got carded. Yes, my 72-year-old father got carded buying cheap bourbon.
He laughed for days.
Wil’s latest twitter as an image (Dynamic, and automatic (2 minute cache)).
http://myi40.com/twitter/wilw.png
-Jason
Yeah, I’ve known about that there law for a while now. It’s pretty damned asinine, but it’ll probably get struck down just like all the other similar laws have.
Oh, and enjoy Dead Rising. It’s a great game. =)
Heh, carded fora video game…that’s a first for me to hear. Yes, you do ‘still’ look young.
I’m a little depressed, now. I’m 26 and I’ve only been carded once or twice in my life.
Ah well.
You don’t happen to have a painting of yourself in the attic – do you?
I’m 48 with a full head of mostly-gray hair. I’ve not been carded in a while. I wonder if I’d be pleased or just pissed off?
I was carded while buying tickets to see “The Blair Witch Project.”
I was 31 at the time.
Extremely annoyed, I asked the woman behind the counter: “Do I look under 17 to you?”
I realize she was doing her job, but I guess I had an emotional flashback to when I was a teen during the Era of Reagan when it seemed every “questionable” book, movie, or video game was under the scrutiny of adult authorities.
Wil, you seriously have the babiest baby face ever. Why are you surprised at getting carded? 😀
I get carded in pretty much any situation in which someone might consider checking ID, and I’m tickled pink every time it happens. Maybe women have a different perspective on looking young? Maybe it’s just me. 🙂
Post your mug on this site and let the others (who don’t know you) decide how old you really are. Good luck!
http://ageproject.specialsnowflake.com
Hahaha, I got carded today, too, only I was buying the Orange Box! That’s the first time I’ve ever been carded buying an M rated game. I’m turning 27 on Saturday, and there’s no way I look younger than 18.
Great GiR! I appreciate the fact that you state how you are all for movie theaters not selling R tickets to minors, etc. But 1-4 years is insane!
Also, you are right that there are other problems not just video games to our children. The classroom size is a big problem where I live. My niece started kindergarten this year and she was put in a class with 25 other students and 1 teacher. The ratio of 26:1 is actually too much that my niece is struggling. I tutor her 45min every night just to keep her from falling too far behind. How can children learn like that:(
~~TARA~~
If it was me… I would have just told the manager.. I don’t need to card this guy.. this is fucking Wil Wheaton. I would of had an expendable shirt on and if he got shitty he would have gotten the smack down.. this is of course before I’d be arrested and hauled away 🙂
I’m surprised you didn’t get recognized. Sure, TNG has been off the air for years but you were in a freaking video game shop!
Back when I worked in a convenience store, we were trained to card anyone who looked “under 40”.
The older women loved it.
Depending on the cashier’s age, you could probably have said “The last time I was a teenager, you didn’t exist yet.” Or even better, “I was a teenage heart-throb in the 80’s, do the math.”
Hi Wil – long time lurker first time poster here. I thought I would talk about this from the side of the person who used to rent out video games at the #2 video rental place in the country. I ran one of those stores for about five years and this was the time when the first few Grand Theft Autos were coming out. Kids who were less than ten years old would come in and want to rent the game and I wouldn’t do it. I would only rent it to adults because it was just too violent for kids. If a young kid wanted to rent the game, I would tell them to come back with a parent. MOST parents appreciated this. The sad thing is, I would get yelled at by some of the parents because I would not rent the game to their kids! They said that it was not my job to tell their kids what games they could or could not play. I agreed with them that it wasn’t my job to monitor their precious children’s playing habits, but I did not want to be the one handing these violent games to their little darlings. If they wanted to let their kids play, then they can rent the games and give it to their kids.
Let me make some things clear. I don’t believe video games make kids violent. However, I DO believe that the age of innocence in childhood is shrinking and kids can’t be kids for that long. I believe that playing a game where a realistic looking person realistically kills another realistic looking person helps make that age of innocence even shorter. It’s not like playing Cops and Robbers or Cowboys and Indians. When people die in these video games, they look like they are really dead and I don’t think kids should see things like that until they can truly understand what it is about. Maybe I am a prude, but it’s the way I monitor(ed) my son’s game playing, movie watching and TV watching. When he was younger, he could only watch G and PG movies. Now that he is getting older (he’s 12 now), he can watch PG-13 and SOME rated R movies (with the rated R movies, he can only watch ones that either my husband or I have screened first to see WHY they are rated R). This seems to work.
oh, to be carded! i went to the liquor store the week after my legal birthday, and as i was getting out my i.d., the clerk said, “oh it’s okay honey, we believe you.” meanwhile, my baby-faced-but-older boyfriend still gets carded for *everything.* it only happens to me in places where they card everybody who walks through the door. i’m only 24, that’s kind of insulting.
Ah, Dead Rising. Pure zombie shopping mall goodness.
Does this mean you have a 360 now?
Can’t wait to hear what you think. I hope it lives up to my recommendation.
Or a least if not “lives” then maybe at least “undeads” a little.
Thanks from Germany for teaching me a new expression 🙂 “to get carded” – never heard that before, but I’m always happy to learn new vocabulary. English is my favourite foreign language and it’s a fascinating language. I love it.
Nicole
You know I completely agree that ratings are needed, I also think that maybe some education for none playing parents would be useful, but I’ve always see ratings as a guide not a rule. Many parents actually know there children and in doing so know what games and films are suitable, plus many younger parents such as myself (still in my 20’s) grow up in an very similar culture with the same questions. I have to say that as an amateur game player which has included some very violent games over the past 15 years, I still don’t feel the urge to go out a kill anybody, or drive stupidly fast and erratic, I understand the difference, and not only because I’m an adult, I knew the difference as a teen. I feel I’m a responsibly parent and I wouldn’t subject my 9 year old to something he wasn’t ready for, however I have let him watch things above his age bracket, after seeing and testing them myself, it’s the sensible approach, the none sensible approach is to say that in a few years time when he’s at a point in his teens when I feel he is able to understand and appreciate M rated games that I will have that choice taken away from me.
I love the fact that you got carded because of a game that you actually worked on.
I wonder if Jodi Foster was allowed into the premiere of Taxi Driver…
Count your blessings, Wil! I’m 49 and balding, but the hair I have left is going grey. Just yesterday I got a 10% senior citizen discount at a restaurant! Talk about a blow to the ol’ ego. *Sigh*
That’s really bizarre, I’ve never been carded in a game store before.
Once I did get carded for sitting in a massage chair though! I was meeting a friend at Brookstone and plunked down in the massage chair just as a place to sit, and a sales guy came over and stared down at me for a moment, and then said, “You need to be over 18 to sit in that chair.” For a few seconds I stared back at him in one of those “I can’t believe I’m hearing this so I’m not understanding what you’re saying” moments, then I told him, “I’m 23!” and he said, “Can I see an ID?”
When I read the story on Suicide Girls I remembered your story about the time your son phoned you to ask if he could play GTA (or whatever game it was) and you tested him on his ability to tell video games from reality.
that is a RIOT!!! man oh man..
I’m 38 years old.. last year, i went to buy beer (keep in mind that in canada, (ontario specifically, drinking age is 19), i was still carded… yay!!!
girl behind counter; “May I see your ID please,”
Me: “Are you kidding??!” *turning to everyone in store, “Everyone bear witness i’m being asked for ID!!!!”
Girl: “You’re 37?? I’m so sorry!”
Me: “Don’t be, you just made my month!”
Ahh looking young.. it’s beautiful.. ***Now if i can just shed those nasty 20lbs, i’d be way-happy!****
I do not really see what the issue is I beleive supervision is needed but as long as the child can understand and show an understanding of the diffrence between a violent video game and reality then I do not see why they can’t play it.
It seams like kids these days (I am only 28 and I just said kids these days *cringe*) are violent and out of hand. I would think that these games would give them an out let where they can take out their frustrations.
Just to clarify, they evidently aren’t required to refuse sale to parents if the parents are buying it for their kids. (Though, maybe it’s just a California thing.) I was one of those out-of-his-mind geeks who stayed up for the midnight launch of Halo 3. My friends and I were in line with some kid who was probably 15 and was alone. As they were about to bring him in to pre-pay for his copy and check his ID, his dad arrived right in the nick of time. They went in, his dad paid for it, and then his dad left. When it was the kid’s turn, he went in alone and was handed the game.
I completely agree with you on this. I’m sick of games being denied equality with movies and TV. Frankly, I’m more likely to be influenced by the two latter mediums than the former.
Two weeks ago a 14-year-old boy stole a truck and proceeded to chase down a Honda Prelude and run it off the road. Then he turned around, came back and RAMMED it. Then he tried to run down a pedestrian. This happened on a Sunday morning six blocks from my house. Does this sound like any video games to you? I don’t agree with these strong-arm tactics, but kids should NOT be playing these games. It should be treated the same as selling them cigarettes or alcohol.
I know the carding issue from both sides. At 4’10” (and I look young), I get carded at 31. However, working at a casino, I have to card people.
Consider yourself lucky man. Getting carded at that age is a compliment to the fact you still look young. You’re just like me, you have a ‘baby face.’ I used to get carded up to about 30 years old and everytime it would happen I’d say “thank you very much!”
I’m 38, and ppl put me at about 30 so I consider myself lucky.
I used to work at the Beer Store, and my fav. was carding young punks. One Saturday afternoon I card this kid. No ID so there’s the door young man. Rough looking dude who already has his 24 waiting at the end of the rollers for his buddy in line grabs the kid and says, “here, take my 24 out to that blue pickup, gimme your money, what are you drinking?” The kid, with a big smile on his face tells him his brand is Canadian. Rough looking dude gets back into line, just standing there, contemptly smiling at me.
He gets to the front of the line and orders a 24 of Canadian. I say to him “You know it’s illegal to buy alcohol for minors, don’t you?”
He angrily replied, “This is for me!”
I was like, “buddy, you just sold that kid your 24 of Export, and you’re gonna trade when you get out there. You did it right in front of me, and all these other people in line after I carded that kid.”
“Why do you give a fuck?” was his reply.
“As of now I don’t give a fuck.” I said to him as he turned and walked out to the parking lot.
I told my co-worker to take over for a second as I grabbed a pen and notepad and follwed buddy out into the parking lot. There he was exchanging 24’s with the kid almost laughing at me. I took down his license plate# and make and model of the truck.
Now his look goes to puzzled and he asks me what I’m doing. I reply to him in a really cool manner, “I don’t give a fuck now, cause I got your plate# and make and a general description of what you look like cause if this kid gets hammered and walks in front of a bus, the cops, and his parents will come after YOU, not me for selling him the beer. Ya dumbass.”
Sure enough, buddy’s look went form complacency to sheer panic. He grabbed the beer form the kid, threw it into his truck, pulled out his wallet, gave the kid his money back, jumped in and drove away. I watched as he drove away and didn’t come back.
I love showing rednecks what the deal really is!
Take care dude,
Mark.
My husband and I play this game, too. He’s a few weeks older than me. He’s declared himself ahead because a couple of months ago, he was carded on my 35th birthday and I wasn’t.
I take it as a compliment; I’m 37 and got carded when I went to see “Clerks 2”, then a few weeks ago, at the same theatre I didn’t get ID’d but the boy behind the glass said “next time bring your student ID, you get in cheaper…” and he actually only charged me as a student maybe he was trying to make me feel good, maybe he was being a smartass or maybe the sun was in his eyes, whatever the reason, that’s my new favorite theatre now!
I don’t drink, but I was getting offered them in restaurants when I was 14. I’ve always looked about ten years older than I am..
Ok, the clerk and manager lose all geek points. Anyone that cannot recognize Wil Wheaton on sight should have their license to work in a video game store revoked.
Anyone wanting to work in a movie or video game store should have to pass a test to prove their geekiness.
On the other hand, just be glad you still look young enough for people to card you.