Slashdot Mirror
Japan's New Games Rating System
The site GamesIndustry.biz has a report on a change to the CERO system. The Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO), now has an adults-only category. From the article: "The A rating is equivalent to the current CERO All rating for all ages, B is for CERO 12 (for ages twelve and over), C equates to CERO 15, and the D rating would be for ages seventeen and up - for which there was no previous equivalent. The A-D ratings will remain advisory, but the Z rating will be regulated by the government."
What category does tentacle rape belong to?
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
At least they aren't trying to regulate the entire system. The A-D ratings are advisories, but the over-18 is the only govt regulated level. This whole rating thing is good for parents (aunts, uncles, cousins, gift-buyers) who actually participate in the moral upbringing of the child-consumers. OTOH, it creates interest for those teens/adults who have disposable income of their own, and may drive sales of 'randier' rated games. The censorship of any information - even video games, just creates mystery, interest, and an underground market. In that respect - these rating systems probably backfire against their intention.
The problem I see with these ratings systems is that they simply do not work unless properly enforced. Here in Canada, I can recall going into stores on multiple occasions and buying M rated games without being IDed or anything. EBGames around here always seems pretty good about the policy. I was never able to buy an M rated game from EB without first being asked for ID. The first time I did it I honestly had no clue why they were doing it. What I'm trying to say is that you can make up all of the ratings systems that you want, but if stores don't adhere to these regulations it is somewhat of a moot point. What I am curious about is what the punishment is for stores selling the new Z rated games to minors is. If stores can sell these games to minors and then receive only a slap on the wrist, why bothering following the rules if you will just lose the sales to the guy down the street who doesn't follow the rules. I think that for this plan to be effective, the punishments have to be harsh. It is comparable to selling cigarettes to minors in a way. Under the Tobacco Sales Act here in Canada, stores that sell cigarettes to minors are really only looking at fines of %500 or so. Even though they could be hit with fines up to $2500 and jail time for a first offense, this is quite a rare occurrence. The punishment does increase for subsequent times being caught, but until that first time there really is very little to deter them from selling these cigarettes. The profits they'd be making far outweigh the losses they would incur from the fine. Unless the fines or punishments are set quite high, I can't see this making much of a difference. Sure, there will be stores that enforce it since there are still some good people left in the world. The problem is there are also a lot of people who want to make money any way they can, be it breaking the law or not.
...that, at least, gives some idea WHY things are rated the way they are...
After kids are older than about 13, restricting their viewing/playing based on Language is pretty useless. Restricting viewing based on Nudity, Sexual Situations, I can dig that. And by restricting I mean PARENTAL ristricting. I'll make the choices on what I show my kids (when I have them) thank you. But a TV-M (L,N,SS, etc) is something I would find usefull.
Well and the fuckwads who elect the goverments in question but they are to many so I just insult rockstar.
So ehm, okay. Japanese games eh. Well why it is very nice knowing what age limits apply to each category this doesn't actually tell us anything. What is important for a rating system is to know what will be rated as what.
Where exactly would current well known games fit? Oh sure all the H games will probably be Z (although with the japanese you never know) but what about more common titles?
Is this just a renaming of the rating system or will this mean games that are currently for everyone will suddenly have a 18+ sticker slapped on them?
Will this then affect sales? Rockstar losts lots of money (serves them right) on the GTA: SA debacle by not being sold by the big retailers. Will japanese retailers do the same and make it economically impossible to make risque games?
At the moment japan seems to be far less strict about for instance nudity in games then the US (then again who isn't) is this going to chance?
In short, will I have to look elsewhere for my pedo tentacle date rape sims (with sister character)? I need to know!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
There's a huge gap between 13 and 17 that I think deserves a rating, since the maturity level between a 13 year old and a 15 year old seems like it could still be pretty big to me. I'm 21, so I'm not caught in the middle of this situation anymore, but the current ratings system is too screwed up IMHO. I've seen many games that were Teen and Ma rated (13 and 17+) that were very questionable in terms of how different their violence and questionable content levels were. I may be wrong, but I've observed many who were 13 still being in that awkward and easily influenced stage that is a big concern a lot more then someone who is 15.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
It'll start out PERFECTLY FINE until ESRB goes and "suggests" things to em...
... when they must come up with something shortened to CERO instead of ZERO. :-p
Someone explain to me why they changed from an age rating to letters? Now they need to educate parents which letter is suitable for which age group, and America has show that this doesn't work. Print a "suitable from age x on" on the sticker and no parent can claim ignorance when they bought "Zombie Blood Massaker III" for their 6 year old...
Japan is not the United States.
Now now, I don't mean to flame you, but what makes you think the Japanese authorities are as hypocrital / prude as American authorities?
Japanese porn and sexshops are not tugged away in shady backstreets of Japanese cities: you can find them next to a Family Restaurant, electronics shops, boutiques, etc.
The tolerance of the Japanese society regarding sex and erotism (not to mention violence) is quite different from that seen in the States. Heck, just look at some of the TV anime series you can watch on broadcast Japanese TV: some show breasts, some show erotic situations, some show incredibles amounts of violence. Yet, they don't seem to care much.
I know: I've lived there.
So unless they lied, then lied about lying your version is wrong.
Wether you agree with outrage is not the point. It is all a bunch of crap but thanks to their screwup games have once again come under a lot of bad press and the censors live by that. Each time this happens they get new powers.
So I stick with my point, thank you very fucking much rockstar. Next time just release a japanese porn game.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I lived in Japan for three (3) years, and while I was there, I noticed that many a time on Japanese televised game shows, women would end up topless, or expose some other part of their anatomy. For some reason, nekkid wimmins isn't quite a shock to the Japanese people as it is to Americans. This makes me wonder what kinds of B games from Japan could end up with a D (or Z, for that matter) rating here in the US.
While I agree that the current 3/6/10/13/17/18 scheme is broken, I do not think that adding more categories is the answer. If you want better distrobution of the categories just redistribute them and be done with it. Is there really a good reason to have only a one year gap between the highest and second highest rating?
Maybe I'll be modded troll for this, who knows, but I do not think that the AO rating will be taken seriously (by gamers at least) untill M is dropped far enough to make a real difference.
To anybody who would disagree, I have a question: If a person isn't mature enough to safely play an M rated video game then how can they possibly be mature enough to drive a real car on real roads with real people's lives at stake? Certainly more deaths are caused each year by 16 year old drivers than by 16 year old gamers. So why aren't you out crusading against that right now?
Sorry, no cigar!
..and what research leads you to believe that these consequences are directly related to the action?
d _paradox.htm
I know people who were married by 15 and holding down full-time jobs to support a family. Treating everyone as if there was a real line instead of an imaginary line for maturity levels deprives early maturity of the opportunity to conduct themselves at a mature level. We have a system (US) that will prosecute a 13-year-old as an adult for committing a murder, but no mechanism for enabling a 13-year-old to conduct themselves as an adult in other areas, such as holding a job, creating credit, etc., etc...
One of the older books I read by a futurist (named marvin? something?...ticks me off that I can't find the book and can't find a reference by search engine!) said that if you want to see what the US will be like in 20 years, look at Sweden today. One of the predictons was that kids would be experimenting with sex at the age of 10-11, because the dangers were known and sex was safer. Lo, and behold, in the last year I've seen about 4 books purporting to help cope with the appearance of sexually active pre-teens. We have kids of that age in the most violent areas of our society committing brutal crimes. We have thousands of runaways and throwaways living on the streets and coping in less-than-optimal ways because we have no cultural mechanism for them to advance positively. If you have a teenager, ask them if they know of anyone in their age group who has run away or otherwise been forced to cope for themselves independently at an early age. (Don't press for details...it's none of your business, and you will only diminish communications.) And we think we are protecting people by rating GAMES? This is simply another example of creating a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. It is based on a gross generalization, in turn based on false or poorly-researched assumptions, designed to produce imagined results which cannot be proven as consequenses of the action. Think about it: If you restrict games to a 15-year old, what positive consequences do you expect?
I would rather see more gratuitous sex in games than gratuitous violence. (The same goes for movies and music.) I don't think you develop mature adults through keeping them ignorant, but ignorant people are possibly more easily controlled, and certainly more susceptible to advertising. Here's a link on "extended chilhood" http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/multimedia/jtgsoun
You might also find the rest of the site interesting.
Mike Burke
MEB
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
Yeah, I agree that people can vary a lot. But all that's happening with the current system is someone who may be 15 and mature is being considered 13 more or less by the game rating system until they are 17. I am just talking about game ratings. Not the current state of growing up in the US as a whole (as you appear to be). I'm just saying if there are going to be restrictions, they shouldn't consider someone who is almost old enough to drive to be 13.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
Currently I'm living in Japan but never seen things like that on TV, channels such as NHK, Nihon TV, Asahi TV, TBS, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo. What program do you mean?