@ssj12
I bet you hate the fact the government has to interfere with the gaming market and legislate by putting in such restrictive rankings to rather tame video games.

@thekitchensink

The ESRB is a self regulating organization. They are a private organization founded by the gaming industry for the purposes of self regulation. Which is a standard practice in the United States for many industries. By regulating themselves and providing guidelines to consumers and restricting access they effectively remove the threat of governmental intervention. Yes it is a twisted system, but it works. Better for the industry and its better for consumers. The government is rarely fast, efficient, or decisive.

Basically Microsoft or Sony can absolve themselves from participation or requiring those developing games from doing so. Nobody has to present a game for rating or even have to attach the rating to the game. Most decide to do so out of a sense of public relations. The entire system is voluntary, and there is no governmental sanction required. Perhaps Quebec recognizes the system, but it is by no means under their control.

Technically in the United States and most people probably are not aware of this you can buy or sell unrated items. A item need not have a rating to be sold to consumers of any age. I purchased my first pornography legally when I was thirteen years old. Thanks to a company that was not using a self regulated ratings system.

Basically the system manages itself to prevent governmental intervention in regards to this game. I honestly think it is doubtful that the title would have been allowed to have an Adults Only rating. Microsoft and Sony would have brought considerable pressure to bare. Even if that were to happen and for whatever reason the companies refused to have a rating that said Adult. They could have just denied the rating and brought the game to market without a ESRB rating, or they could have created ones of their own. Both of which are entirely legal.

I thought 18 was more on the lines of R, or something.

 this is why the ESA, ECA, GAIL, Videogame Voters Network, etc exist.

The biggest problem compairing the differences between the 2 countries is the rating systems themselves, the BBFC uses a much better rating sytem. They use 13, 15, and 18 as age restrictions while the ESRB uses T 13, M 17, and AO 17+ it doesn't give them alot of room when rating games. What I mean by this is, what is appropriate for a 18 year old but not for a 17 year old? AO is much like NC-17 film rating which is usually reserved for softcore pornography. A U.S. M rated game is an adult title. Now if in the U.S. an M rated game was 15yrs old instead of 17 then many titles would need the AO rating.

I think I stated this the way I was thinking it lol.

^ Fortunatly, in the UK, softcore pornography usually gets away with a 15 ratings nowadays.

So, I'm gathering that R has nothing todo with games. That's stupid, why not just keep the same system between the two.

Okay, I honestly thought it was funded by the government.  But I already said they could release it without a rating--however, no store would ever sell it.  And I don't think they're allowed to just make their own rating.

M is alot like R, AO is alot like nc-17 they both have 17+ age requirments but I can take my kids to and R rated movie if I wanted but can't take them to a NC-17

They banned Dark Sector in Australia due to their being no 18+ rating.
It sucks idiotic bureaucrats and governments who are mainly ugly old people make decisions for the rest of society regarding games they know nothing about.

BTW: movies and televsion programmes depict real life killings and have a bigger impact upon people. Anyway there are always going to be unstable people within society who commit violent crimes.

How is this still not trolling or even on topic?

OT: I can see this creating a big US election issue.  If the game comes out with an AO rating.  Given the popularity of the previous GTA games, they were kind of walking the line because they were rated M (correct me if I'm wrong here), and that is more like R movies, where the label is more of a warning to parents.  If it is labeled as AO, when 12 to 15 year old kids are found to be playing this game there will be a public backlash that will actually create results.