Riachu on 05 December 2008
| DeadNotSleeping said: It's somewhat comparable to the ratings system for movies (PG, 14A, etc.), except, as mentioned above, the ESRB is broken and doesn't complete the task as effectively. That aside, language, violence and sexuality are the dominant factors that push a game to be rated M. Drug use, although rare in video games, is likely to drive things up as well. As for "Mature" games, the word is subjective. I think the intent was to indicate that those games dealt with content that required a certain measure of maturity from the audience to understand the issues/views/material that the game explores. And by 'understand', I mean philosophically so; such as the diametrically opposing themes of feminism and misogyny in Heavenly Sword. An immature mind might just ogle at Nariko and see nothing wrong with the sexism she deals with throughout the game. But as I already said, the system is broken, and 'maturity' is subjective. There are plenty of thirteen year old boys who will still hold women with the proper respect they deserve in spite of some material they are exposed to. And some guys well into their twenties could learn from these kids' examples. Well, my train of thought sort of meandered a bit. I guess in conclusion, I can see what this rating system is trying to achieve and I don't disapprove with their goal. However, they need more rigid standards like the ratings' folks with movies, and people should give younger gamers some more credit. |
I'm with you on this one. I don't mind if a women wears a skimpy outfit in a game but in games, and fiction in general, I prefer substance over style on females characters(as well as male characters).
