A Question For Americans - What Is Your Perception Of "Adults Only" Games?
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Well in Quebec we have a similar rating system, except a R rated movie in the US is most often rated pg13 here, so imagine, Manhunt here can be rented by a 10 year-old no one cares really...
You tell me something Adults Only, in relation to a game, and I'll instantly think sexual content. I've only heard of the AO rating being tossed around when there's sex involved.
Personally, I don't really think on it.
I have been an adult longer than the rating system has been around, so it's not somthing I deal with. I am a parent but since I control what my daughter sees/plays so far as movies or games, I don't really follow it. I know my kid and what I feel she should be exposed to or can handle. She can watch a monster movie that is considered too scary/violent/etc for kids rated R, and she is just fine. No nightmares or any other problems. She knows its all make believe. Some other kids may not be the same. I think the rating system is just there for parents to no longer have to take an interest in what their kids are exposed to. If they just read the box, they would already know if it's something their kids should be playing.
I have been an adult longer than the rating system has been around, so it's not somthing I deal with. I am a parent but since I control what my daughter sees/plays so far as movies or games, I don't really follow it. I know my kid and what I feel she should be exposed to or can handle. She can watch a monster movie that is considered too scary/violent/etc for kids rated R, and she is just fine. No nightmares or any other problems. She knows its all make believe. Some other kids may not be the same. I think the rating system is just there for parents to no longer have to take an interest in what their kids are exposed to. If they just read the box, they would already know if it's something their kids should be playing.
I don't think Ive ever seen a game rated AO for sale. The only time it is ever brought up is when the ESRB uses it force a company to change the content in some political move (like the manhunt 2 fiasco)
Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft refuses to liscense AO rated games in the states, and all the big name stores refuse to sell AO rated PC games. So with the few games that would warrant an AO rating (mostly porn games) don't even bother to get ESRB rated and only sell online and adult stores
Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft refuses to liscense AO rated games in the states, and all the big name stores refuse to sell AO rated PC games. So with the few games that would warrant an AO rating (mostly porn games) don't even bother to get ESRB rated and only sell online and adult stores
Really to me AO means sex
and honestly I think designers have to be a serious effort together to get their game AO
They have to get it by their management which is probably a nightmare, and quite honestly if the sex is the big selling point for the game there is something wrong with the customer (*hint* If u hav to rely on video games to get ur sex u need to turn the game off and do something about it)
Personally it seems as though companies would be able to sell the game to more people if they took the sex out and made it M.
(Not quite sure if this was on topic but watev)
and honestly I think designers have to be a serious effort together to get their game AO
They have to get it by their management which is probably a nightmare, and quite honestly if the sex is the big selling point for the game there is something wrong with the customer (*hint* If u hav to rely on video games to get ur sex u need to turn the game off and do something about it)
Personally it seems as though companies would be able to sell the game to more people if they took the sex out and made it M.
(Not quite sure if this was on topic but watev)
I have to say that, as a gamer, I've always associated AO with graphic sex and sexual themes. It's the reason that Rockstar was threatened with an AO rating after the "Hot Coffee" scandal. This is really too bad, as I think they should get rid of AO and change the name of the "Mature" rating to Adult-Only. I think this would help get rid of the perception that Grand Theft Auto and Gears of War are meant to be children's games.
I really wish they'd be more restrictive when renting/selling games to minors. That way, the media would have a lot less ammo to use in their fight for censorship. (Isn't it odd that the media is fighting for CENSORSHIP? It seems pretty counter-intuitive)
I was actually really happy when I was asked for ID at Futureshop when purchasing GTA IV. (I am 24, but probably look at least 3 years younger than that)
I really wish they'd be more restrictive when renting/selling games to minors. That way, the media would have a lot less ammo to use in their fight for censorship. (Isn't it odd that the media is fighting for CENSORSHIP? It seems pretty counter-intuitive)
I was actually really happy when I was asked for ID at Futureshop when purchasing GTA IV. (I am 24, but probably look at least 3 years younger than that)
since they are so rare and harder to get than lung cancer without asbestos or smoking i imagine a sort of winged pink rhinoceros. You can probably find one if you look hard enough but in the end it'll probably be a bit of a disapointment. I mean so few people publish them and no reatailer that i can find stocks them that its more about where to find one when i think about them rather than the actual tit filled, gore ridden content that undoubtedly earned them that rating.
it's called the bible belt and america in general. the country was founded by a bunch of puritan prudes who frankly make some sects of islam look overly liberal and risqueeFondant said:
i mean the horror of teaching your kid about proper and healthy sexual practices is unimaginable because they might possibly have sex. so don't tell them how to practice safe sex and you get lots of teen pregnancy and rampant sti infections
look at sweeden that has a sex education program that starts at a very young age, around 11 years old or so i think. but they have a very low teen pregnancy rate and even lower sti infection rate among teens but come on abstinence works
as for the ao rating, what others have said it's the kiss of death for a game, much like the nc-17 rating is, the x rating is no longer used by the mpaa due to a lack of copyright on it. they can't advertise the game and most stores won't carry it, some will even say "it's the law", when i'm told that i ask for their manager and inform them that giving out false legal info is itself illegal and that the "ao can't be sold" rule isn't a law, it's a corporate policy as much as corps like to think they are the law and can re-write it
it's a total double standard for both movies and games, violence is ok but sexuality is bad, female sexuality is even worse to have in a game/film. the documentary "this film is not yet rated" has funny part showing how much of a double standard it is
most ao games are just crappy hentai games anyways.
AO games are generally porn, so they wouldn't be sold at a general store anyways. So this whole "kiss of death" thing is irrelevant. Also, whoever got that idea in there head that "there are only 30 AO games" needs to do some research (I can't link anything, 'cause the porn).
I'd also like to point out that NONE of the Walmarts (or indeed any general store) around here carry handguns or rifles anymore. You can get hunting weapons at sporting good stores, and I think there are some gun shops that sell handguns a little farther south, but certainly not in my town. And I live in Alabama, right near the border of Tennessee.
Automatic weapons are illegal for civilian use (I know you were being facetious, just pointing this out). The only "weapons" a Walmart will carry are hunting rifles.Fondant said:
I'd also like to point out that NONE of the Walmarts (or indeed any general store) around here carry handguns or rifles anymore. You can get hunting weapons at sporting good stores, and I think there are some gun shops that sell handguns a little farther south, but certainly not in my town. And I live in Alabama, right near the border of Tennessee.
It's a pretty moot question because mainstream games are never AO in the US. The only AO games are pretty much just small time porn game developers. If a mainstream game gets an AO rating it is a kiss of death because no mainstream retailer will carry it, so the developer quickly fixes up the game so that it can get in under the AO rating. My understanding is that other countries, like England and Australia, are more aggressive with their equivalent AO ratings and so a game that can be just Mature rated in the US may end up with an Adults Only type rating in another country and even be banned.
To be honest I think video game ratings are pointless.
The list of the type of things is fine, and parents should not depend on a letter to dictate to them the appropriateness of a game.
When I have kids, I'll encourage them to partake in what I found enjoyable as a youth, and hopefully get them to play some of the old classics and not the mediocre "it prints money" shit that has been flooding my local game store for the past half decade. But thats beside the point.
I think that parents should take a more active role in what their children do for fun and if the media would pull their heads out of their arces and take an informed stand on whats going on there would be less need for ratings. If Jimmy the impressionable 7 year old farts for brains wants to get Bloody Manslaughter: Return of the Hatchet Killer thats fine by me, chances are he'll just have a few nightmares and that'll be his lesson learned. And if his idiot parents didn't check the content of the game thats their own stupid fault.
If more parents took the same approach to raising their kids as mine raised me, as in letting me do whatever the fuck I wanted as long as I didn't permanently injure myself or hurt/harm anyone else or other peoples stuff, the world would be a generally better place.
I grew up playing most of the violent games during my child hood, I was playing Duke Nukem when I was 5 and I was adicted to Quake at 10, and I'm quite a caring and passionate person who hates to see people hurt or get hurt.
So long story short, I think the ratings are doing bugger all to stop stupid people being stupid. If someone was born an idiot they'll probably end up being an idiot. Appropriateness depends on the person and how they perceive things. The original Terminator movie used to be rated X... and now its PG-13 or whatever. And if everyone thinks that Timmy the "I take everything literally" 7 year old Gropecunt stabbed his schoolmate because he played Gears of War and not because the kid he stabbed was a dick and deserved it, thats fine by me.
So don't let Timmy play those games, doesn't mean that I can't play Blood, Tits and Gore 2: The Revenge of Bloody Knives.
The list of the type of things is fine, and parents should not depend on a letter to dictate to them the appropriateness of a game.
When I have kids, I'll encourage them to partake in what I found enjoyable as a youth, and hopefully get them to play some of the old classics and not the mediocre "it prints money" shit that has been flooding my local game store for the past half decade. But thats beside the point.
I think that parents should take a more active role in what their children do for fun and if the media would pull their heads out of their arces and take an informed stand on whats going on there would be less need for ratings. If Jimmy the impressionable 7 year old farts for brains wants to get Bloody Manslaughter: Return of the Hatchet Killer thats fine by me, chances are he'll just have a few nightmares and that'll be his lesson learned. And if his idiot parents didn't check the content of the game thats their own stupid fault.
If more parents took the same approach to raising their kids as mine raised me, as in letting me do whatever the fuck I wanted as long as I didn't permanently injure myself or hurt/harm anyone else or other peoples stuff, the world would be a generally better place.
I grew up playing most of the violent games during my child hood, I was playing Duke Nukem when I was 5 and I was adicted to Quake at 10, and I'm quite a caring and passionate person who hates to see people hurt or get hurt.
So long story short, I think the ratings are doing bugger all to stop stupid people being stupid. If someone was born an idiot they'll probably end up being an idiot. Appropriateness depends on the person and how they perceive things. The original Terminator movie used to be rated X... and now its PG-13 or whatever. And if everyone thinks that Timmy the "I take everything literally" 7 year old Gropecunt stabbed his schoolmate because he played Gears of War and not because the kid he stabbed was a dick and deserved it, thats fine by me.
So don't let Timmy play those games, doesn't mean that I can't play Blood, Tits and Gore 2: The Revenge of Bloody Knives.
Adults only=porn
Sometimes a very voilent game (like Manhunt 2) will be threatend with an AO rating to get them to change their content. Other than that the Adults Only rating is used almost exclusivley for pornography.
Retailers wont sell porn games for the same reason they wont sell porn movies.
Sometimes a very voilent game (like Manhunt 2) will be threatend with an AO rating to get them to change their content. Other than that the Adults Only rating is used almost exclusivley for pornography.
Retailers wont sell porn games for the same reason they wont sell porn movies.
This is what I've seen as well.Squarewave said:
ESRB.org lists 23 titles on their site as AO. One of which was never released due to company buyout, most are porn games that frankly never needed the rating since people only buy that stuff from specific sites, the rest are fairly recent and no one played them much anyway. Excepting GTA:SA due to the previously mentioned HC news media blitz.
Supposedly the X rating was retired because it had built up a mystique, and was also assigned to films that weren't inclined to show nudity so much as adult (thought provoking).cleverlymadeup said:
You might find This Film Is Not Yet Rated fun to watch.
I think any ESRB ratings are ludicrous and pointless for two reasons (both of which have already been brought up):
1. Nobody abides by them. I regularly see 8 year old kids playing M rated games and watching R rated movies. Many of them get the game as a present from their parents and their parents don't even know what the game is about. It's amazing to see the first time a parent sees their young child playing GTA. "Wow, that's really violent. And hookers? That's awful. Why do you play that game?" And yet, they bought the damn game for them and they continue to let them play it!
2. They are completely arbitrary. Pretending to be an American soldier shooting Iraqis, with spurting blood and flying body parts and agonizing death throws is okay, but hinting at sex isn't? The worst violence imaginable earns you an M rating but even mild nudity gives you an AO?
Ratings aren't there to keep content of "questionable morality" away from kids -- they are there to inform parents so that they don't unwittingly give or allow their children to see/hear things that they don't feel are appropriate. If nobody pays attention to them and they are assigned arbitrarily, then they aren't even useful for their sole purpose.
1. Nobody abides by them. I regularly see 8 year old kids playing M rated games and watching R rated movies. Many of them get the game as a present from their parents and their parents don't even know what the game is about. It's amazing to see the first time a parent sees their young child playing GTA. "Wow, that's really violent. And hookers? That's awful. Why do you play that game?" And yet, they bought the damn game for them and they continue to let them play it!
2. They are completely arbitrary. Pretending to be an American soldier shooting Iraqis, with spurting blood and flying body parts and agonizing death throws is okay, but hinting at sex isn't? The worst violence imaginable earns you an M rating but even mild nudity gives you an AO?
Ratings aren't there to keep content of "questionable morality" away from kids -- they are there to inform parents so that they don't unwittingly give or allow their children to see/hear things that they don't feel are appropriate. If nobody pays attention to them and they are assigned arbitrarily, then they aren't even useful for their sole purpose.