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How the ESRB Rates Games
Ant writes "Joystiq mentioned a short Slate story on how the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) reviews and rates games. (Seen on Blue's News.)"
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This truly shows how the world has changed... but in a strange way. I'm sure everyone knows National Lampoons 'Vacation.' The movie was rated PG if I remember correctly. today, we are in a more liberal world with "sex, drugs and rock and roll" being more excepted... yet some video game ratings are getting people upset.
arl with a k - a blog of mine.
Since when are bigger breasts considered to be offensive? Kids aren't supposed to know that some women have larger breasts than others? Are we really corrupting a kid's mind when he sees a sexy woman (not naked, not scantily clothed, just busty) in a game?
You know I do not understand how a game in which you intentionally break the law and murder people is rated "M", but as soon as you add siulated sex between consenting adults it is rated "A". Not to mention that from the clips I've seen it is poory simulated sex at that.
Insert Generic Sig Here:
You can buy games with an M rating at 17. You can buy games with an Adult Only rating at 18. Evidently, that one year that spans the junior and senior years of high school makes all the difference in the world...
No violence, swearing: For all
Violence, no blood, no swearing: 12
Violence with blood & swearing: 15
Drive a car and possibly kill people: 16
Piss away your life in the military: 17 (with parents permission)
Extreme violence with blood & swearing: 18
Age you can drink at: 21
Boobies: OH MY GOD 25 AT LEAST WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN??????
Am I the only one who thinks it's odd we let them drive at 16 but they're not mature enough to see breasts yet?
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I'm not saying that all Americans are uptight. However there is a certain skewed view of sexuality versus violence in America. GTA SA gets a M rating for shooting police officers but some think it should be rated OA because of sex? How can sex be more offensive than violence?
UNIX/Linux Consulting
I'm 25 and I'm still not mature enough to see breasts yet!
How long is YOUR e-penis?
Newsflash: When you own a corporation, you have a right to censor whatever you want inside the building. In other words, it's absolutely ridiculous to say that with disgust as if Wal*Mart is obligated to sell you anything.
Just like France (and most of Europe, for that matter).
Successfully condensing fact from the vapor of nuance since 1998.
"Wal-Mart has Low Prices but high Morale standards; they are based out of Arkansas for Sam's sake."
You forgot low business ethics. The employee wages, and tactics against employee rights is far more offensive to me than violence, naughty words, and nudity.
All these threads forget:
18 - rent a moving van, possibly the hardest and most worthless POS vehicle to drive on the road
and
23 - Rent a vehicle from Hertz
My little site.
It's the way the American system of moral values works, as explained in the South Park movie: there's nothing wrong with gratuitous violence just as long as there's no sex.
How about we put the burden of raising children on the parents who chose to had them. How about instead of futilely trying to childproof the world we let people decide for themselves and their own children what's appropriate.
If a kid has $50 bucks to blow on the new hotness their either have their parents permission (ill considered as it may be), too much for an allowance, gainful employment, or an entry level position in a criminal enterprise. None of these is the problem of developers or retailers.
Besides, none of the GTA games come close to the sex and violence of the bible. Babykilling and incest? Check. I want to see Rockstar do a Bible game like GTA, where you can wander around brutally killing and raping anything.
What I think is interesting about your posting is that apparently, in the Netherlands, sex is also the highest trigger for a high rating. And, as another poster pointed out in a different section of the thread, you can see it in for example Samurai movies (lots of violence no sex), Indian action flicks, and so on.
So, it's clearly not just in America that sex is the 'most adult' thing that ensures your adult rating. Granted, Americans are particularly idiotic about sex, but it seems like a worldwide phenomenon.
So, I ask you....why? Why is blowing a cop's head off not worse than a woman...err...blowing your head off? Personally, some fucking in a video game isn't going to bother me much, and I think kids ought to go through sex education BEFORE they go through puberty, so they're aware of what they're in for...
Perhaps it's just because sex is our strongest biological urge, and if we don't keep a lid on it somehow, we'll never get anything done?
gameDB
Typical. You mention factual statements and you get nailed as flamebait because it goes against the liberal /. groupthink. You should know better than to insult two prominent libs here.
... well, perhaps "on top of", "sex", and "Ashcroft" is not the best one-sentence combination to use, considering that he couldn't deal with a nude breast on a freakin' statue.
For those mods who clearly don't have a f*cking clue, Hillary (clearly not a conservative) is actively pursuing the current GTA3 situation and Tipper was one of the main activists who was responsible for the Senate hearings regarding language/violence/drugs in music several years back. I also need to remind the mods that the initial politician who raised a stink in order to impress his constituents is a democrat from California. So - karma be damned - will the GP and the idiot mod who nailed the parent with -1 Flamebait kindly get your heads out of your asses and tell me once again where conservatives are causing the problem with the GTA3 issue?
Whereas the republican side of the isle is known for their own bits of censorship, particularly where issues of morality come into play, the current GTA3 rigamarole has not been started and is not currently a molehill being made into a mountain by republicans or conservatives.
Now, if that moron John Ashcroft was still in office, then you liberal, knee-jerk reactionaries might have cause to bitch about conservatives. Ashcroft would have been on top of the sex issue like
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
Wow! If only parents took enough interest in their children to actually pay attention to what they are buying or playing at any given time, we wouldn't even need asn ESRB! Always trust your kids, and always check up on them!
erin go bragh!
[Note to father: Thanks for subscribing to National Geographic throughout my childhood.]
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
In other words, it's absolutely ridiculous to say that with disgust as if Wal*Mart is obligated to sell you anything.
You're right. But if its such a problem for a game not to be sold by Wal-Mart, why the fuck do you let them get such a monopoly? Boycott them, downsize the lot.
"The more prohibitions there are, The poorer the people will be" -- Lao Tse
Ok I'll take a crack at this one.
First and foremost: this is purely an issue governed by religion, I think we can all agree about that. Religion has driven the whole "sex is evil" mindset for centuries upon centuries.
Next, and this is crucial: religion is about power. Control of the people. Note that sex within marriage (read as: within the confines of a relationship sactioned by aforementioned religion, and I'm not just picking on Christianity here) is not sinful so long as the purpose of sex is procreation (the expansion of the religion's population). Only sex outside of marriage is evil, because this results in babies who might grow up free, outside the indoctrination rituals and practices of the religion.
Violence is only sinful if it is, again, without the sanction of the religion. If you are committing acts of violence in the name of the church (or whatever god the church is about), you're lionzed.
Thus we have today's typical religious culture: don't have sex unless you're approved to do so by your church.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
Allow me to quote Bill Hicks:
"When did sex become a bad thing? Did I miss a meeting?"
Learn something new.