ESRB Ratings

[MDMAlliance]

IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

MDMAlliance said:

IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

Well, that brings us back to the content (that you dismissed as off-topic), which causes a game to be rated AO. Content that evidently has demand.

I'm referring to a game having been branded with the AO rating.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AO-rated_video_games This is proof enough that most people do not go after having that rating on them.  Whether that kind of content has demand doesn't change the fact that AO rating is bad for sales.

Like I said earlier, AO is not a rating that I'm familiar with since in Europe we simply call it 18+ and several popular games such as Mass Effect and Dead Space have that rating.

If Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony refuse to put AO rated games on their systems it will undeniably impact their sales greatly.  So apply all my previous points to M rated games.

It's why I provided the link to the list of AO games and the fact that no console manufacturer actually wants those games on their system.

But anyway, the point of the original argument is that I mentioned that having male genitalia exposed in a video game in a sexual context would give a game an AO rating, which was the only thing I wanted to say until that guy that was arguing with me brought up this whole other can of worms.  

However, I also disagree that M rated games get more sales for being RATED M in general.  What makes up an M rated game, sure to some extent.  However, if you could have that same content and have it somehow treated by retailers like an E rated game, the game will have a higher potential for sales.  The guy I was referring to thinks that it's the other way around.

edit:  (Like for example a game that's rated for 17+ being treated like a game for 3+ by retailers, you wont have to place any restrictions on who's buying it or restrict what retailers would consider putting it on their shelves).