No form of entertainment on the whole can truly be considered "too violent". This burden lies entirely in the minds of the audience, and whether or not they are mature enough to understand the difference between reality and fantasy.

If you look at Japanese films there can often be quite a high level of violence in them so I'm not sure how true that theory is. Although I would say that they most certainly have a preference for games with less violence than the American market, fps etc aren't big sellers.

The strictness on the subject of anything sexual is quite interesting, and startlingly bizarre. The whole deal with Janet Jackson at the Superbowl was blown out of all proportion, I still can't work out why anyone would care.

Back on subject, if a game is built on violence for violence's sake then it tends to be a poor game anyway, just basing their sales on media shock and outrage. It was the same with cinema in the seventies, films would have a very violent scene and would gain notoriety. It was a tactic used to generate higher ticket sales. It died down after a while and I'm sure that gaming will do the same as well.

There will always be violent games but the level and context of the violence won't rise until Manhunt 2 is considered the norm or even tame.

yeah a little but no because people around the world..just are now blaming video games being violent because kids are shooting kids and the parents are trying to sue the game company because her son did this because he was playing GTA or Manhunt or Gears of War....its all bull to me and i just think parents should watch what there children play..its common sense!!! im 19 but have a way mature mind..to not go to a gun store and randomly shoot somebody O_O or do i??

Quite right. I presume that the issue of sex is related to religions in America. As you can see, most Japanese are atheists or agnostics when it comes to God, and even when they are not, their religions do not constrain sexual issues as much as, say, Christianity does.  Not to say that it is a good thing or not, of course.   

ok...about this sex and violent thing i came up with something....kids can watch movies with kissing and boobs showing, and action with guns...and blowing stuff up and also cursing and more cursing and more sex...but again they cant play video games??? confusing to me...O_O

I don't think any games are too violent, either. Life is always more violent than that. Just that not all of us have seen.

 How very true. I used to post my thoughts on gamepro till not long ago, but during that time i encountered a couple of people that were calling for even more realistic games, such that would show in fullest detail how a man would be ripped apart from a bomb detonation(this a single example, they had more ideas . All because they are to scared to sign up to go to Iraq but still want to have the experience. Now i don't have to be a psychiatrist to notice that something didn't seem right about these people :/.

On sexual themes, let's remember that the american community, since the cultural revolution in the 70's, has become a totally different entity. The events in those days brought on the golden era of porn in America as well as a couple of different things. One might argue that people are surrounded by sex nowadays. Well thats an effect of what happened back then. Same in Europe with only the slightest of details that the Dutch did everything for the rest of us ;). Now do I say that sexual themes should be banned from games? No. Do I say that until people start respecting age ratings for games such scenes as in God of War should be the limit? Yes.

It depends on what you mean by "violence". I have no problem with the kind of physical violence or confrontations found in shooters and fighting games, because it really is just a depiction. No real bodies are harmed. Don't like the game? Don't buy it.

But I have major problems with identity-based violence: sexism, racism, xenophobia, gay-bashing. I'm not talking offhand comments, I'm talking about deep-seated social attitudes which lead to monstrous genocidal colonial wars we could all name.

Actually, this isn't totally fair. Of course some adults buy consoles, but it's not nearly as many as we had previously believed.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/ref=pd_ts_c_th_more/103-7236659-6878255?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-5&pf_rd_r=1K35DHHJPEM9Y9FJAH1H&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=294472301&pf_rd_i=507846

The relevant text:

Interestingly, the Heavy Gamer segment is a lot younger than one might think too. "What always seems to surprise people, especially those that talk about the 18-34 year-old 'core gamer,' is that a majority of the heavy gamer segment is kids ages 6-17! This is true also for the 'Avid Console' gamer segment. Alternatively, the Avid PC gamer segment is older, with just over 40% represented by 18-34 year-olds," Anita Frazier, NPD industry analyst explained.

In short, it's the PC gamers that are more adult thus far, not the console owners: the console owner still is, on average, somewhere between 6-17. Based on word of mouth, The Sims, Civilization, and online puzzle games such as Bejeweled are the leading games for mature entertainment (the designers of all these games have openly boasted that their games have drawn a much older -- and in the case of Bejeweled and The Sims, more feminine -- demographic).

However, I think this point is moot anyway. The suggestion that violence is more adult is something I'd challenge in the first place: I believe that very violent and/or sexual material tends to appeal more to 16-25 year olds, not to actual adults. Evidence:

http://www.actiontrip.com/rei/comments_news.phtml?id=070507_8 

In fact, I think this violence is the very thing that has held adults away from gaming for so long. Over the past 10+ years, we've made almost no headway into the adult market with games (or, for that matter, into the female market); in the last year, the Wii has made substantial headway into the adult (and female) market with almost no violence whatsoever. What this suggests, logically, is that violence was either unrelated to adult enjoyment, or even a direct impediment to it.

Not saying that violent/sexual entertainment should go away, by any means, I just challenge the suggestion that this type of entertainment is actually "mature" (if by "mature" we mean aimed at adults). I tend to think extreme violence and general badassery is aimed squarely at the male, 18-25 year old demographic.

Actually, when I think about it, most of the people that said that they want adult games are in the age of 24-29. What that would suggest is that some were barely in high school by the time the first adult games came out. Now, 10 years later they speak for most grownups as for what games they really want to play. Truth be told, i have never met an adult above the age of 35 that actuallly enjoys playing such games as GTA, God of War or Gears of War. Most of them did like Wii sports, Warioware or even Elebits, which was quite shocking for me.