ESRB Ratings

[MDMAlliance]

IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

MDMAlliance said:

The guy was pretty much arguing that it was the M rating itself that made better sales.  Even if he weren't, it's obviously a mixture of other things as well.  No effort would be needed to making a game if you could just slap in blood, gore, and sex.  The content that determines the rating is only a small part of its overall appeal.

Not necessarily. Halo and Perfect Dark might have sold around the same levels even if they removed all the blood, but games like Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead and the aforementioned Dead Space rely heavily on their gore and violence. If they removed the content that made their rating M, their entire concepts would not be possible.

Some people actively look for M rated games at the store the same way some people look for heavy metal music. And what you are trying to argue is essentially that heavy metal albums would have sold more if they replaced the electric guitar with an acoustic guitar and toned down the instruments.

I think for games like Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead, their genres are defined by things like gore and violence.  However, it's also not done mindlessly.  Just slapping blood and gore into the game wouldn't have been any better than taking it out completely, if you know what I'm saying.

What I'm arguing is that the overall appeal of the game is made up of more than just what puts it into the E, T, M, (3, 6, 17+ or w/e) ratings.  If it were, all you would need to do is put those things in a game and just like that your game will start selling.