The fact that kids are buying lower rated games doesn't really mean anything. Of all the game boxes i have sitting on my shelf, three of them are rated M: Counter Strike: Condition Zero, Halflife 2 and Dungeon Siege 2(This game is absolutely terrible in my opinion it cost me $80 and I hate it. It hardly deserves the M rating even). Of my other games: Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Vietnam, Star Wars: KOTR, Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne Expansion, Star Wars Battlefront and Guild Wars; ALL of them are rated 'T for teen' (I also still have my Warcraft II box however it's rated 3 on the violence scale). There is a significant difference between a decline in the buying of M rated games and the decline of using M as a rating. Also why do you need to buy more games when you already own one MMOG (I leave out the RP because some of these games have no RP at all) such as World Of Warcraft (Rated T), Guild Wars (Rated T) or EverQuest (Rated T).
TEEN
Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.
MATURE
Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp)
The dividing line is basically the sexual content since there are some games (Neverwinter Nights 2 for example) which allow you to turn down the violence. It seems to me that it takes quite a bit to make a game Rated M and you cut off a decent slice of the gaming crowd (Not really but potentially from a advertisers perspective [IANAA]) so why not just make the game fit into the T rating those games aren't so bad after all.
With a company like Microsoft you can't expect much in the department of morals from them. Considering the person already paid for the game itself, and (correct me if I'm wrong [I don't use consoles for gaming often] ) has to be paying for Xbox live to download the new maps.
It seems to me that Microsoft is milking people for all the money they can. It difficult for me to see the rationality behind charging money for someone to have access to Xbox live as well as charging them money to well.... download maps which the producers of the game wish to be free.
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They come in .avi too.
TEEN Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.
MATURE Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp)
The dividing line is basically the sexual content since there are some games (Neverwinter Nights 2 for example) which allow you to turn down the violence. It seems to me that it takes quite a bit to make a game Rated M and you cut off a decent slice of the gaming crowd (Not really but potentially from a advertisers perspective [IANAA]) so why not just make the game fit into the T rating those games aren't so bad after all.
"+1 Pedantic" opposed to "-1 Pedantic" (At least I don't consider it a negative thing). Being able to make 2-D objects would save a lot of space.
You're missing something. I think you might find it here: http://cgi.ebay.com/Sense-Of-Humour/
The chips didn't exist as 3-D objects prior to this? Infact, wouldn't a chip that only exists in two dimensions be much more difficult to make?
With a company like Microsoft you can't expect much in the department of morals from them. Considering the person already paid for the game itself, and (correct me if I'm wrong [I don't use consoles for gaming often] ) has to be paying for Xbox live to download the new maps. It seems to me that Microsoft is milking people for all the money they can. It difficult for me to see the rationality behind charging money for someone to have access to Xbox live as well as charging them money to well.... download maps which the producers of the game wish to be free.