Should the ESRB change up it's rating system?
Hatred has been rated AO by the ESRB. The game itself features no sexual scenes. Just mass violence. But, here's the thing. There are some games that are obviously intended for adults -- they get the M rating, which is for ages 17 and up. But, at gamestop, guess what! You gotta be 18 with ID in order to buy the game? Pretty stupid.
Adding more, M is 17+. AO is 18+. A ONE YEAR DIFFERENCE. It's really stupid, considering that the nearest rating, going down from M, is 13... So, 13,17, and 18. 18+ Rated games by the ESRB are not allowed by sony, microsoft, or nintendo consoles.
How about this...
Mature = 16+ Old enough to drive, old enough to play M rated games.
IA (intended for Adults) = Rating intended for those over 18, but, does not contain high levels of sexual content. Such as, God of War III, and GTA, Mortal Kombat X. Surely if the rating of M is set back to 16, you've got to think about what the M rating gets away with already.
AO= Must contain high levels of sexual content. This is what Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo don't want on their consoles anyway. Having a rating like this devoted to that means that games clearly intended for adults don't get improper ratings.
And, some parents don't mind their kids playing M rated games. I've had M rated games for as long as I can remember. But, you've got to think, there are M rated games with nudity. So, it may be okay to let the little 8 year old to play an M rated game, but there are parents who don't know there's strippers who take their tops off. Sure, it's on the back of the box, but, do you think people would pick up a game that clearly states Adult right there on the box?
Now, back in the 90s, when I was growing up, there weren't games like GTAV where you could go to a strip club, have a tease, then walk out. M rated meant there was blood. If you even so much as showed a nipple, the game would have been swiftly given an AO rating.
The closest thing you got to nudity in a none AO rated game was accidentally walking in on Roll, in Megaman Legends, which had the camera focused on Megaman, or Tron's cloths blowing off in Megaman Legends 2. Again, the camera wasn't on Tron herself.... but, wait, at the end of the game, Yuna, or Sera, or whatever the hell her name was, was naked and the camera was kinda on her.... Nevermind... And that game was rated E...
But, my point is, after saying all of this, the system needs a change. M rated games can be rated M for vastly different reasoning, and so can AO. I don't see a problem with kids playing M rated games, given they're stable, but, exposing them to nudity at a young age?... I don't think it's a good idea to be stimulating their minds with that sort of things at a young age.
