ESRB Ratings

[MDMAlliance]

IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

MDMAlliance said:

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.  

Well, in that case you are arguing the obvious. And the original issue is that the guy you talked to acted as if an M rating (meaning added M rated content) would boost sales on any series when in reality it needs to fit into the game's concept. He did talk a lot through generalizations though, so that needs to be taken into account.

To summarize: Would Left 4 Dead have sold less without blood and gore? Yes. Would Halo have sold more if they suddenly added nudity? No. So his claim that unneccesary M rated content (or AO to directly quote him) always helps is wrong.

Yeah, that was exactly the point.  He was standing on one side of the argument and claiming I was on the opposite when I wasn't.  
I wanted to see if anyone here actually held the same viewpoint as him.