Games rated M

[Erana]

Yes, I must admit, my mother bought me Halo when I was eleven.
She did the research, found that there was nothing she thought me and my sister couldn't handle. (considering the poor judgement of my father who played Duke Nukem and Doom as a part of our bonding time)

I mean, all that has done for me is to have reinforced nerdieness and taught me reasonable life lessons. You know, teamwork, appreciation for the great outdoors, that your looks don't matter... Oh yeah, and never trust a floating, pretentious robot.

You just described bits of my childhood, with Half Life and Castle Wolfenstien thrown in.

Oh, the nostalgia.

"Daddy, Please! Don't kill the sheep! Don't kill the sheep!"
*Erana's father kills the sheep on Heretic*

I was what, four? Six? Regardless, I should not have had to witness that.

 

[VoleurdeThym]

"Daddy, Please! Don't kill the sheep! Don't kill the sheep!"
*Erana's father kills the sheep on Heretic*

I was what, four? Six? Regardless, I should not have had to witness that.

Awww.... You poor thing. I'd hug you, but I'm sure my sweater would remind you of the sheep, and open all this up again. And oh the irony, I was the four year old cheering her daddy on in his maiming and pillaging. ^_^;;

 

[Erana]

"Daddy, Please! Don't kill the sheep! Don't kill the sheep!"
*Erana's father kills the sheep on Heretic*

I was what, four? Six? Regardless, I should not have had to witness that.

Awww.... You poor thing. I'd hug you, but I'm sure my sweater would remind you of the sheep, and open all this up again. And oh the irony, I was the four year old cheering her daddy on in his maiming and pillaging. ^_^;;

How I ever became a gamer is beyond me...
I used to be terrified of the ratatas from pokemon.
I thought they would kill you if you left the game for too long.

 

[Flour]

Alright, I see where you're coming from now. But there's a reason games like Dead Space and Gears of War have the ratings that they do. Perhaps they could learn to be a bit more lenient with the ratings they give (I agree that Mass Effect was in no way deserving of an M rating), but the idea that M rated games could be equated to PG-13 movies is a dangerous generalization to fall into.

There's no reason for those games to have that rating. All ESRB ratings are MPAA +1.
It's perfectly fine for me to see the alien [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brEzYdLrPws] movies, but I'm not mature enough to play Black [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-_S3jY1yAc&feature=related]? I know it is a bad example, because the alien movies are R, not PG-13, but R is only that parents are advised to watch the movie with their children.

For moviesMPAA)
PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
May contain moderate language, some explicit nudity, intense violence and/or gore, or mild drug content.

For gamesESRB)
M(mature)
Contains content that is considered suitable for teenagers and people over the age of 17. Titles in this category may contain intense violence (more so than in the Teen category), blood and gore, sexual themes/content, and frequent use of strong language.

 

[VoleurdeThym]

How I ever became a gamer is beyond me...
I used to be terrified of the ratatas from pokemon.
I thought they would kill you if you left the game for too long.

.....
*Stunned and confused*
Yeah, I have no idea either.
Pokemon has to be the least frightening game series ever, and Ratatas aren't especially fierce.
Guessing you.. errr... grew out of it?

 

[Erana]

How I ever became a gamer is beyond me...
I used to be terrified of the ratatas from pokemon.
I thought they would kill you if you left the game for too long.

.....
*Stunned and confused*
Yeah, I have no idea either.
Pokemon has to be the least frightening game series ever, and Ratatas aren't especially fierce.
Guessing you.. errr... grew out of it?

Not entirely.
Lets just say that all my true nightmares involve heavy pixelation.

That being said, I do think the ratings of games should be observed heavily.
If I were to go homicidally insane, it wouldn't be because of a game.
I'm just shocked that some of the Oddworld games and Morrowind weren't rated higher.
Throwing a slig into the recycler was also kinda traumatizing.

 

[Avalanche91]

last M-rated game I played was mass effect....for that 2 seconds of ass you could actually see. Sorry but if kids these day wanna learn how to commit cruel murder they learn more by watching movies as hostel.

 

[Mikaze]

the biggest problem is that the parents dont monitor the games their kids play. its not real hard to go on the internet and watch a trailer of a game or sit for a half hour and see what it is your kids are playing at home.

also i blame the news media, politicians, etc. because they use games as a scapegoat to blame for everything when they havent even played the games and have no idea what content is in them.

i would also like to add that most r rated movies contain way more mature content than most m rated games

well if thats the case what can we do to keep kids away from the games that are not ment to be played by kids? i say the stores by law have to card the teens so they cannot buy the game. but that isnt enough to stop the dumb ass parents to buy the game for them....

That happens in Australia, if you want to buy an MA15+ game (restricted to persons 15 years and over, the highest game rating we have) you need ID.

 

[MurderousToaster]

i was watching tv the other day and my attention was caught by the news telling another story how violence in games and tv are bad for todays youth turning them into anger management needed morons who think nothing for the life of another man and will go out killing animals or other people because they saw it done in a game or movie. The biggest examples they showed from games was GTA4 and Saints Row, then they showed man hunt. I think majority of the problem is that parents do not look at the game raitings on the damn box it is raited M for a reason it is not for 12 year olds. also the only people that are into man hunt are 12 year olds. you will not make many friends in high school or in the real world by telling people how you can kill people with a blade or a spoon *god forbid*. I do not blame the media for kids and parents being dumb enough to let there kids become blood crazy when they feel the only thing they can do is hurt people. the parents need to take responsibillity to look at the games and movies they watch and play.
what do you think the problem rlly is?

There isn't a problem. All of the deaths from "video game related violence" have stemmed off from some sort of mental issue. One boy killed his father after playing GTA for weeks, but his father had been abusing him physically since he was born. All of the problems are like this, and the media are just trying to find new things to get ratings up.

"There's no news like bad news."

 

[Spicer001]

I remember playing Doom and Duke Nukem as a young infant.

I played 18+ games when I was 12.

Reason for this? MY parents aren't bad parents, they just trust me enough and know me welll enough to know that these games won't effect me in anyway.

 

[Syntax Error]

I think majority of the problem is that parents do not look at the game raitings on the damn box it is raited M for a reason it is not for 12 year olds

Here's the thing, it sorta is since a movie that is rated PG13 (close enough to 12) is rated M as a videogame.

Are you serious right now? Really? That is some piss poor logic right there. An M rating means ages 17 and up, whatever the god damn movie it might be based on was rated.

In the US, the same content, especially sexual content, that will get a game an M rating would be PG-13 at most if exactly the same scene was in a film.

Mass Effect is a perfect example, there's no way that would have been more than R as a movie, and that would have been pushing it.

(Incidentally, it was a 12 in the UK)

Its official: 5 seconds (maybe less) of asscrack corrupts the youth more than exploding giblets. I haven't played Mass Effect, so I don't know if there are giblets in there. You just had to remind me of that "Some doctor named Cooper (was that her name, her exact name slips by me)) and other "experts" in Fox bash a videogame" incident. And yeah, Some Doctor Named Cooper got her book bashed by gamers at Amazon.

 

[Clashero]

I don't know why ESRB isn't made law... it would stop these stupid lawsuits (And it doesn't affect me now!)

Actually I'd disagree on that. If the parents consider their child to be mature enough to play a game, then they should be able to buy it. It's what my parents did, and I turned out just fine. I was playing Hitman at the age of 12, and other similar games at a similar age and I never did try to cut off the strings from my piano and strangle someone with it (although I thought that the idea of killing someone with a piano string instead of a gun was, for lack of a better term, TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME)

 

[Reqium]

Buying an M rated game for your kid is basically like buying them porno. Same level of maturity required (you know what I mean).

that can be quoted out of context

but i think it's well, as Yatzee puts it, 'domestic honking' really.

The parents cant deal with the fact that their kid is the fucking nutcase who just blungeoned someone to death with a hammer and is now fingerpainting with grey matter, they refuse to believe it so they look for something to blame, and the closest most violent thing is video games, and if its not video games its the TV, god forbid it's ever the fucking kids fault.

 

[Spartan Bannana]

Many criminals who commit crimes didn't really do it because they played GTA etc. They only say that because it takes attention off of them and they usually get less punishment or at least less publicity if they say it, because the media is focused on the dreaded videogame. Like that guy who tried to hold up a taxi driver because he "saw how easy it was in GTAIV", a game which doesn't even let you hold up taxi drivers.

Also, as long as a kid doesn't have a history of violence or mental illness and is mentally and emotionally mature enough to handle it, they should be able to play any game they want.
All the people who have committed crimes and said it was GTA IV were either lying. Or they had a history of violence and rage, or a mental illness. Or they were below the age of 10. That's right, Spartan Bannana, the kid who takes a strong stand against prejudice against child gamers, thinks kids under 10 shouldn't be allowed to play M games. But as long as they meet the criteria: Mentally and emotionally mature enough to play them, no mental illness that might cause them to think it's real, and no history of violence that might cause them to do something drastic, they should be allowed to play any game they want.

 

[Fraught]

The biggest examples they showed from games was GTA4 and Saints Row, then they showed man hunt.

Saint's Row is too over the top to be taken seriously at all. I can't wait until our generation is in charge so everyone can calm the fuck down.

Also, most people here are writers, so type better please. It annoys us.

Wait, what do you mean by writers?

 

[Ace of Spades]

It doesn't really matter what the rating is. If someone want to play a game enough, then they will find a way.

 

[Spartan Bannana]

The biggest examples they showed from games was GTA4 and Saints Row, then they showed man hunt.

Saint's Row is too over the top to be taken seriously at all. I can't wait until our generation is in charge so everyone can calm the fuck down.

Also, most people here are writers, so type better please. It annoys us.

Wait, what do you mean by writers?

Either studying to be journalists, already columnists for newspapers, or fancy themselves amateur novelists or writers.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Thing is, as a species our culture has ALWAYS circulated around violence.

Gladiators in rome.

Spanish bullfighting.

The bible.

We have an insatiable bloodlust as humans.

We are currently fortunate and evolved enough (at least some of us) to be able to recognise and accept our violent primal instinct but to know that it is just not cool to go around in real life hurting and killing people or creatures. To live them out through fantasy and simulation (i.e. exploding a raider's head in fallout 3) is therefore a healthy and constructive release.

I would go as far as to say that violence in movies and games could actually PREVENT real life violence, by giving people a release for thier repressed violent nature..

 

[Spartan Bannana]

It doesn't really matter what the rating is. If someone want to play a game enough, then they will find a way.

Oh, and this. If you prevent someone from playing a game, they will overload when they can play it. One of my friends had GTA III, once I found out, I played the hell out of that game just because my mom wouldn't let me play it at home. Sheltered children tend to overload on something once they can do it. If you let them do things like play GTA IV and Mass Effect, then it becomes the norm and they stop caring about it and start playing other things.

And you know what? It's not that kids shouldn't play videogames. Parents shouldn't be allowed to watch the news and see the anti gaming propaganda.

 

[Jolly Madness]

What were the statistics again... "90% of school shootings are casued by gamers, 96% of teens in the same age group are gamers" so according to statistics... gaming reduces the chance of causing a school shooting.