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The ESRB Doesn't Take Games Seriously?
Eurogamer has word of comments by the president of developer Factor 5, Julian Eggebrecht. The veteran game developer had some extremely pointed things to say about the ESRB, an organization he painted as 'not taking games seriously'. Says Eggebrecht, "I would be happy if in games we could talk about homosexuality, but we're not even at the point where we can admit that humans have heterosexual relationships, and that is a real problem - and it tends to show that games are not being seen, even by our own ratings boards, as an artform ... It's a flat out bizarre system...It makes it even harder for games than movies because we don't have the intermediate ratings. They don't really tell you what they will object to - they just say 'well, follow the standards that have been set before', which is a problem if you want to push the envelope." There's further discussion of this issue at Ars' Opposable Thumbs blog, which points out that the console makers hold some responsibility here too. Meanwhile, Rockstar is asking for help from the wider games industry to help them to fight the ESRB/BBFC rulings.
I've only played Tetris, Rogue, and Nethack so my experience is limited. However, yes, it would be nice to have, for example a homosexual "L" block in Tetris, or a Lesbian Wood Nymph in Nethack or a Gay Dragon in Rogue. Because these games are so simple, they will make an ideal platform for trying these ideas out and I suggest that all developers start working on this right away. A good starting point might be to begin with a transsexual "Hello World" program and you can work up from there.
My twelve year old daughter explained comic mischief to me. It means the characters are sassy to each other. Spyro the dragon 2 had a lot of un-unnecessary annoying sassyness in it. She does not like that in her games. So if I see that in a game now I know..
Added Pressly: "Oh, and by the way, milk is nothing but liquid meat."
No way dude, that's blood...Totally different.
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, 16 and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood... Matthew 26 27:28
One thing I never could stand about Christianity...All the damn vampires.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
So why does more violence and sex make it more of an art form?
Because "art" is an euphemism for "YAAAAY BOOBIES!!!".
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It's already easy to talk about homosexuality in games. Just jump on Xbox Live.
You may also encounter discourse on race relations.