A Question For Americans - What Is Your Perception Of "Adults Only" Games?

[MichaelH]

Ahh but we must take into account that sex also makes more people. So its kind of redeeming itself.

This is why I always get confused when religious groups try to prevent human-cloning research. If we could grow people in labs, we could eliminate the horrid, sticky business of sex altogether, thus destroying one of the Big Three Motivators for Evil.

 

[deadly.by.design]

Sexuality in games is usually juvenile and adds little to overall gameplay value.

 

[MichaelH]

Sexuality in games is usually juvenile and adds little to overall gameplay value.

Games in general are usually juvenile and have little overall value. It's not sex's fault if devs are throwing nipples into a game for a cheap attention-grabbing device because they didn't taken enough screenwriting classes to understand story structure.

 

[Uszi]

I think there is a lack of AO titles just like there is a lack of NC-17 titles.

Producing a game is a long process, involving many people, and in the end, the only games that are produced are ones that are tailored to the largest demographics to ensure the most profit. And so, when the chief demographic seems to be children (either in appearence or reality) then a game that is inaccessible to children is sure to fail in the eyes of designers, producers, and store owners.

I watched a documentary about the MPAA and American Movie rating system, and there were some interesting features. I believe it was called: This Film is Not Yet Rated [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493459/]

Anyway, any NC-17 movie is immediately screwed because no theatres run it because it (a) doesn't bring in enough money, because the demographic is so small and (b) it creates more problems then its worth, what with angry parents and such.

 

[shadow skill]

I would say that the emotion of love kills more than sex. To confuse sex with love (in all of it's many forms.) is just a demonstration of one's own ignorance.

 

[flyer13]

what i dont understand is, why will they have the bloodiest and goriest of all games rated M, and then show 1 tit and it gets threatened with an AO....

 

[Pyro Paul]

what i dont understand is, why will they have the bloodiest and goriest of all games rated M, and then show 1 tit and it gets threatened with an AO....

because our very existance is paved with violence. any and Every nation on this world has had to pay for their existance, their freedoms, or there very ways of life with the blood of men willing to fight for that specific cause.

our history is mostly defined by war followed by bloody war.
our religion is filled with mass genocides in the name of one deity or another.
there for, our society is so deluded with violence.

that is why it is more acceptable than sex.

the second reason why sex is less acceptable is because we live in a mostly judeo-christian driven world, which has deamed sexual intercourse for pleasure only as a sinful act. over the 1500 years of a mostly judeo-christian drive society, the specific beliefs of the majority have become common held feelings for all.

 

[LisaB1138]

*Apologies for the Bolds. I confess to being too lazy to do credit mulitple quotes.*

All men do not care if their games have breasts in them, and those people that do care are not all men. My girlfriend passes out high-fives whenever her GTA character gets laid, so stop with the "men are pigs" nonsense.

I believe we were discussing what constitutes an "AO" game? I didn't say men are pigs; don't put words in my mouth. What I did was report accurately what happens on forums every time the issue of naked women comes up. Go on, type "God of War" and "boobs" into a search engine and see what comes up. Type "Conan" and "boobs." Go on, show me where I was wrong in characterizing the response to naked breasts in video games.

You can argue that something isn't what it is all you want, but in this culture nipples do mean something. A standard has been established. You can whine and cry all you want about how stupid it is, or how natural boobies are, but that doesn't change the culture. The culture has attached a meaning to it, and that is standard by with games should be rated.

I was more shocked that finally a company was starting to treat its customers as adults.

Can I just LOL that you think someone showing you nekkid boobies makes you an adult? Hon, it means the exact opposite. It doesn't make you an adult any more than being able to buy alchohol on your 21st birthday. Welcome to another great lie about maturity.

I would say that the emotion of love kills more than sex. To confuse sex with love (in all of it's many forms.) is just a demonstration of one's own ignorance.

There's a whole mess of people that have died or been killed as a direct result of careless sex. I'm sure you've heard of AIDS, Hep A&B, and a host of other diseases; I'm sure you've seen the stories of teenage mothers dumping newborns to die. Kids born to teenage mothers are at higher risk to be abused or neglected. I could google other statistics, but it's clear you didn't really think sex through to possible conclusions.

Again, this is a discussion about what criteria should make a game AO, not a moral discussion. Frankly, as a mother of a teenage son, I cringe at the thought of him "high-fiving" over getting laid in a video game. So IMO, that sort of activity in a game garners an AO rating. I'm not saying people can't make the game or qualified people can't buy it, just that that games that have such content should be restricted for sale to adults AND that games ratings be more edifying as to actual content rather than blanket "gore" or "sexuality" statements. That way, a parent can look at a game's real content to determine if their child can play the game. If a parent looks at the information and decides their child is mature enough to play it, then they can go buy it for their child.

 

[steveo_justice]

*Apologies for the Bolds. I confess to being too lazy to do credit mulitple quotes.*

All men do not care if their games have breasts in them, and those people that do care are not all men. My girlfriend passes out high-fives whenever her GTA character gets laid, so stop with the "men are pigs" nonsense.

I believe we were discussing what constitutes an "AO" game? I didn't say men are pigs; don't put words in my mouth. What I did was report accurately what happens on forums every time the issue of naked women comes up. Go on, type "God of War" and "boobs" into a search engine and see what comes up. Type "Conan" and "boobs." Go on, show me where I was wrong in characterizing the response to naked breasts in video games.

You can argue that something isn't what it is all you want, but in this culture nipples do mean something. A standard has been established. You can whine and cry all you want about how stupid it is, or how natural boobies are, but that doesn't change the culture. The culture has attached a meaning to it, and that is standard by with games should be rated.

I was more shocked that finally a company was starting to treat its customers as adults.

Can I just LOL that you think someone showing you nekkid boobies makes you an adult? Hon, it means the exact opposite. It doesn't make you an adult any more than being able to buy alchohol on your 21st birthday. Welcome to another great lie about maturity.

I would say that the emotion of love kills more than sex. To confuse sex with love (in all of it's many forms.) is just a demonstration of one's own ignorance.

There's a whole mess of people that have died or been killed as a direct result of careless sex. I'm sure you've heard of AIDS, Hep A&B, and a host of other diseases; I'm sure you've seen the stories of teenage mothers dumping newborns to die. Kids born to teenage mothers are at higher risk to be abused or neglected. I could google other statistics, but it's clear you didn't really think sex through to possible conclusions.

Again, this is a discussion about what criteria should make a game AO, not a moral discussion. Frankly, as a mother of a teenage son, I cringe at the thought of him "high-fiving" over getting laid in a video game. So IMO, that sort of activity in a game garners an AO rating. I'm not saying people can't make the game or qualified people can't buy it, just that that games that have such content should be restricted for sale to adults AND that games ratings be more edifying as to actual content rather than blanket "gore" or "sexuality" statements. That way, a parent can look at a game's real content to determine if their child can play the game. If a parent looks at the information and decides their child is mature enough to play it, then they can go buy it for their child.

I can barely type this as I am deafened by the beeping of my cocky-bullshit-omometer.

Here is the breif and 100% true list of facts:
ESRB's ratings only effect you if you are buying an "Adults Only" rated game (18 and over, as opposed to the 17 or over M rating, wooh thats a big difference) or are under 18. If you belong to the former, you have no taste because games like that are 1) dog shit and 2) only there becasue they are intentiuonally filled with porn, which is what the internet is for, instead giving games a bad rep. If you are under 18, you need to have a sensible adult sign off on you getting it, and make sure that they dont beleive anything it says on the rating panel, as ESRB's criteria are more backwards that California's gun legislature.

Case in point:
MASS EFFECT: breif nudity, tow scenes of lesbian sex, two sences of straight sex, inuendo.
Receives "Sexual themes" rating from ESRB.

TES4 OBLIVION: a kajiit says "mate", nord woman doesnt get married, racy women in Sirens Deception quest, downloadable third party mod contains nudity. Received Mature Sexual themes and nudity.

 

[MichaelH]

I believe we were discussing what constitutes an "AO" game? I didn't say men are pigs; don't put words in my mouth. What I did was report accurately what happens on forums every time the issue of naked women comes up. Go on, type "God of War" and "boobs" into a search engine and see what comes up. Type "Conan" and "boobs." Go on, show me where I was wrong in characterizing the response to naked breasts in video games.

You can argue that something isn't what it is all you want, but in this culture nipples do mean something. A standard has been established. You can whine and cry all you want about how stupid it is, or how natural boobies are, but that doesn't change the culture. The culture has attached a meaning to it, and that is standard by with games should be rated.

a) A vocal, immature, and Google-able minority does not make something universally true. If I Googled "black people spread more disease than white people," I'd get lots of hits, too, but I'd hardly be in a position to start preaching that everyone shares my opinion about bigotry.

b) No one is "whining" or "crying," but for some reason, you are limiting your derision to video games specifically when I don't see any difference between gratuitous nudity in games and gratuitous nudity on HBO, in the theater, in novels, in stage productions of The Graduate, et cetera.

Frankly, as a mother of a teenage son, I cringe at the thought of him "high-fiving" over getting laid in a video game.

Well and good. If you choose to be reactionary and hysterical at the thought of your spawn enjoying the thought of sex, keep him in a locked room until he's 34, but don't expect anyone with a mildly healthy attitude about sex and sexuality to applaud your efforts. The right-wing, religious, and "family-values" members of this backwards nation need to learn to take deep breaths and repeat the mantra of "not everyone needs to think like I do" instead of decrying the Evil Nature of everything that runs counter to their whims (since we're on the subject of a vocal and immature minority).

Go on, type "please stay out of my purchasing decisions, religious buttinskis" into search engine.

 

[shadow skill]

LisaB1138 I would be willing to bet money that there have been more cases of individuals outright murdering each other because of love than there are people who have died of STD's or mothers leaving babies in dumpsters. The supposed consequences of sex depend largely upon the culture they occur in and the availability of medical care. However people kill not just for the love of a partner, they kill for love of God, country, village, money and a whole host of other things.

There is a more important issue at hand here tha goes beyond simply drawing tits on the screen. It is the issue of whether a game maker should be able to make a game that asks tough questions about human beings and their experiences without getting hit with what amounts to a ban hammer with an AO rating. A team should be able to make a game where sex is used as a control mechanism in a relationship by a character or characters without having to conviniently hide the tits or the nether regions in order to avoid an AO banhammer because an AO rating should not amount to a banhammer in the first place!

 

[SenseOfTumour]

As someone who loves nearly all of rockstar's output and who enjoyed Manhunt as a game, I've tried Manhunt 2, and although I wasn't remotely offended, and its nowhere near as bad as say 'Saw' or 'Hostel' the movies, it did smack of someone trying far too hard to get a high rating and cause some offence to earn column inches.

Really, would most gamers have noticed Manhunt 2's release if it hadn't been for all the media furore?

 

[Xhumed]

....games that only Adults should play.

Is this a trick question?

- J

Not at all, that's a great answer. What I want is people's genuine views on the adults only rating. I'm from the UK so I find all the noise made about AO games to be genuinely perplexing.

Yeah, but we do get 18 rated games, which are really the same thing. There are some things children shouldn't have access too, which is right and proper. Under 16s generally (note the word generally) don't have the maturity of mind and attitude required to play games with that content. i think games get more flak because a) the powers that be are still stuck in the attitude that games are for kids, and b) the interactive nature of games. I don't think sex or nudity should be included in games to titilate people, but in some games i think its justified as part of character development (mostly in RPGS) or as part of the story.

 

[Anarchemitis]

I've never concerned myself with that extreme rating, seeing as only 26 games constitute it.

 

[SargentToughie]

I think of a game that I won't be seeing on store shelvs, but only like, three games in history have gotten it, so it really does'nt matter to me

 

[Isaac Dodgson]

I believe an AO rating in the Video Game business is synonymous with a NC-17 rating in the movie business. A bit of a sales killer really.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

....games that only Adults should play.

Is this a trick question?

- J

Not at all, that's a great answer. What I want is people's genuine views on the adults only rating. I'm from the UK so I find all the noise made about AO games to be genuinely perplexing.

Yeah, but we do get 18 rated games, which are really the same thing.

Not really. The AO rating is basically commercial suicide, while the UK's 18 rating is not.

 

[the monopoly guy]

also, on porn sites, they ask you for your age..... soooo yeeeaaaa

news flash, children lie.

so do the elderly not that that's relevent

really the ratings mean nothing here, they're like a sticker on a pice of fruit. They slightly hinder someone trying to use the product. A child will lie to get a game he may not supposed to be playing. With fruit you just have to peel 'em off but you never seem to have any fingernails at that particular point in time even though you swore you did a second ago and half the thing is off and you tried getting the other half and now there's two peices there and oh bugger screw it I'm eating meat!

as for games rated adults only...well generally they aren't that good so I couldn care less.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

As an outsider, the video game rating system of the USA is a strange and obtuse beast. I'm curious to find out how the Adults Only rating is perceived by the people it directly applies to.

When someone says "Adults Only" to you in a video game context, what do you think of?

When i think of an AO rating i think that the game either exposed a female nipple or somebody graphically attackd another man's crotch or anus. or at least the abstract potential of such an action, exists within the game.

as far as what the rating means....absolutely nothing. the ratings in the USA are applied by an arbitrary company that has no legal leverage on anybody unless they signed a contract that adhered to their criteria. video game stores simply adhere to the rules in order to retain good standing in the community. and videogame companis adhere to the rules in order to gain a specific rating which will secure distribution to specific retail outlets.

in truth, there is no teeth behind any ameican ratings (film, games, etc). it is all designed to convey a false sense of socialized security within a free market economy where freedom of expression is protected by the federal government.