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Condemned 2 Trying to Avoid Manhunt 2's Fate
CVG is reporting that Monolith, makers of the upcoming Condemned 2, are working with the ESRB to avoid an AO rating. As we've discussed previously, an AO ban in the states is effectively a ban on retail sales. From the article: "When asked for examples of what we might now never see in a game again, we were told, 'An example of what we cut would be putting someone's head in a vice. That was too much, you know. There are also some decapitations we've lost. But this is more Sin City than it is real world and we want people to know that this is not a real world.'"
I'd like to see a retailer grow some balls, tell the ESRB to shove off, and start carrying AO games on the shelves. I don't care if they section it off in it's own little area or something, so long as it's available for purchase. Then companies could make whatever they feel like making and who cares what the ESRB rates it.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
If anyone else played the original Condemned, you'd probably agree wtih me that it would probably be rated AO, simply for all the blood. (And probably the ending.)
Nonetheless, I'm extremely pissed that game makers have to worry about ratings now in order to get their games on the shelves. In the past it was, "Oh, look.. That conservative group is trying to nag at our game. Ha! We're number one on the selling charts!" And then finally, those "conservative groups" get a couple of lawmakers to enforce this type of law because of some group of idiot developers who decide to put an extremely well hidden sex scene in their game.
Just great. So while we're censoring every form of art, how about Michelangelo's statue? Someone needs to put some leaves there. Oh, is that a breast on that artwork? Better get the censor bars out.
No matter what it is, there's always some group that complains enough that, "This shouldn't be shown, because it's just.. shouldn't." Of course, I'll also assume that their kids will group up and be smiling adults that always do the right thing, help old ladies cross the streets, turn their head away from those XXX nightclubs, and of course, never ever get angry.
Beautiful, just beautiful. I suppose if people have a bad enough psychosis that they can't tell that Condemned has a world in which demons exist and physically manifest to cause riots apart from the real world, well.. My opinion on humanity is at a loss for words.
...we want people to know that this is not a real world.
I'm getting really sick of all this pussy-footing around. Personally, I have a strong aversion to graphic, unnecessary violence, but if you are so unhinged that you can't tell the difference between reality and a game you are ALREADY off your rocker.
...and realize there is a huge market out there for a console that will allow AO games? Can't they just have parental lockout for games with a certain rating, just like DVR's and TV's do now? Why does the entire industry push forward this notion that video games are played primarily by children?
Hell, Doom was heavily scrutinized in 1999 for violence, being blamed for the Comumbine shootings... and it was already 6 years old then.
Just to let you know, Hillary is for enforcing game ratings, not stopping games from being made. That means if a retailer sells an AO game to a minor, her laws would make the retailer responsible, not the game maker. Her laws are good, and far different than what Thompson is doing. Nintendo and Sony not distributing AO games is also an entirely different matter not associated with Hillary.