Shoggoth2588 said:
I don't think San Andreas counts. Hot Coffee was a mod wasn't it? I've got GTA:SA on the PS2, unmodded and thus, am unable to partake in hot coffee.
I am not aware of any AO games. None whatsoever. I know there are 'dating sims' and hentai quizes on newgrounds.com and other such websites but those have no rating and limited/ no actual gameplay. I think games rated Z by the CERO would count as AO here...but then, Gears of War is one such game rated Z...
I think there are PC games rated AO that you can buy at certain 'adult novelty' shops but I could be woefully mistaken. Really, if I were to play a game rated AO, I would rather it be for a game with excessive violence and swearing.
...Upon reflection, I've never heard the N word in ANY game before or sense San Andreas. I'm not saying the N word is worse than fuck but...being a white guy, the N word makes me a bit nervous. Stupid genetics...
In another message in this thread I mentioned two places you can find AO games if your ever interested. Both Jlist and various Abandonware sites (for free) have them. A lot of abandonware is going to take some effort to run though.
Otherwise, at least in the US your not going to see something get an "X" rating for violence, despite numerous attempts (some briefly successful) to achieve this. In general to become an X rating, or what is supposed to be the equivilent (AO) for video games, there must be graphic sexual content. When I was taking Criminal Justice many years ago this was apparently defined as the work in question having to show penetration. This is how so many movies can have some pretty intense sex scenes and still only have an "R" rating, the so called "Erotic Thriller" genere being paticularly infamous for this.
A fairly current example of "how far" things are going are so called "simulated cumshots". Months ago I was reading about how the scene in "Cabin Fever 2" (A gore-based horror movie) was pushing the limit because it has a scene where a guy gets head in a bathroom, something which stands out here only because afterwards the girl spits out his "load" (fairly realistic looking) into the sink. This "passing" apparently because at no point do they show any actual penetration, even orally.
You can also find movies like "Ghost in a Teeny Bikini" which consist of little more than a string of simulated sex scenes held together by the loosest thread of a plot, and again it doesn't get an X rating because of what it DOESN'T show.
Now, one thing you might notice from this is that the infamous "Hot Coffee" content doesn't even go all that far. It's not as pervasive as the latter movie, or as graphic as the former (which is why I use two examples). There is no reason why that content should have rated higher than an "M".
To me I find the "Hot Coffee" incident a sort of turning point for the video games industry, both in terms of the industry backing down when it should have fought (and causing me to lose a lot of respect for Rock Star) and also fueling persecution of video games because the apparently victory encouraged censors to push even harder. By backing down, Rockstar which unknowingly was sort of acting as an envoy of the gaming industry, was sort of "admitting" that the content went too far for the rating, which it did not. Consenting to "blur" their second "Manhunt" game also opened the door for censorship of violence, when no amount of violence should be able to get something an "X" rating.
Rockstar's behavior pretty much encouraged politicians to push to actually pass laws. Truthfully if it wasn't for "Hot Coffee" years ago, I doubt the chain of events that lead up to the current Supreme Court issue would ever have occured.
I'm getting well off subject though. The big differance between the game industry and Hollywood/movie makers, is that the latter have fought for their rights, the game industry really hasn't tried to fight all that much, until just now when it's been backed into a corner. That is why you can see things like "Cabin Fever 2" and even buy a copy in "Wal Mart" but have people screaming because a game like "Postal 2" might have gone too far simply on the merits of violence (and let's be honest here, "Cabin Fever 2" pushed things further in terms of simple nastyness than "Postal 2" did, and aside from the scene which is sex, not violence, that I mentioned above it's a bloody lightweight compared to some other movies).
