Poll: Maturity Filter?

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Old idea, and bad idea. That means instead of actually creating good content or polishing the games, someone on the dev team has to sort through all the game's content to create these filters. Waste of time and money IMO.

never thought from this exact angle before, and it is true...

Except it's not. See post 10.

oh how i knew you would do that, i almost editted just to avoid having to do this, but i was hoping you would be lazy instead of adamant as fuck.

i know some coding, i have seen people do it on the job, i personally know people who do it, and yes i understand it really doesn't take that much to do it, but regardless of that, it still takes time, and you picked the near one game that is completely in your favore, fallout 3, as it has next to zero cutscenes (really i don't remember a single cutscene), most games have lots of custcenes/extras involved which would go for even more coding involved there

but really i am not gonna sit here and argue this ridiculously small point to death, so when you respond back with your high and mighty response as to why i am wrong, dont expect a response back beyond a troll reply

 

[aba1]

honestly I just want to play fun games I could care less if they are violent or not...

I'm not some little kid who need all this violence to try n make myself feel cool I just want to have fun

 

[Terminate421]

It was done in Gears 2 and Brutal Legend, it should be done in most other games (As an option of course)

 

[Kenjitsuka]

I also have an awesome idea, but it's for cars. You could put a belt on the inside of a car that you wear across your shoulder. Then, if you get in a crash, the inertia wouldn't propel you through the windshield.

Cool idea, right?

Hahaha, nice one!
I'm sure it'll make you a ton of money in a few decades when governments will make your new invention mandatory! Just what are you going to name it??!

 

[StBishop]

Does anyone even want excessive blood and nudity in games? Besides the under 15 that is. Hell not even just games, it's a bigger problem in movies.

I do. I am 21.

Just sayin'.

Well, let me be a little more specific.

What other people consider to be excessive, is not excessive to me, I am fine with what other people think is going too far.

I don't want what I would consider excessive.

I also think that blood and nudity are no where near as big a problem as violence. I'm fine with someone bleeding what looks like 50 litres of blood from a severed finger, I don't necessarily want to see a guy beat up 27 other blokes or blow things up unless it is integral to the story.

I don't think there's such thing as too much nudity. I do, however, understand modesty and taste; and I understand that other people are uncomfortable with nudity.

 

[lacktheknack]

Old idea, and bad idea. That means instead of actually creating good content or polishing the games, someone on the dev team has to sort through all the game's content to create these filters. Waste of time and money IMO.

never thought from this exact angle before, and it is true...

Except it's not. See post 10.

oh how i knew you would do that, i almost editted just to avoid having to do this, but i was hoping you would be lazy instead of adamant as fuck.

i know some coding, i have seen people do it on the job, i personally know people who do it, and yes i understand it really doesn't take that much to do it, but regardless of that, it still takes time, and you picked the near one game that is completely in your favore, fallout 3, as it has next to zero cutscenes (really i don't remember a single cutscene), most games have lots of custcenes/extras involved which would go for even more coding involved there

but really i am not gonna sit here and argue this ridiculously small point to death, so when you respond back with your high and mighty response as to why i am wrong, dont expect a response back beyond a troll reply

Not a fan of discussion, I take it?

Anyways, I'd agree, except nowadays most cutscenes are rendered in realtime, meaning they're still subject to any changes made by the filter everywhere else.

And this "ridiculously small point" could do wonders in repairing the relationship betweent video games and clueless parents (who, like it or not, still have a lot of say in the world). Seems worth shelling out the extra day or two to do that.

Was that really so high and mighty?

 

[Seishiroa]

I do sadly have to agree that it would indeed be hard to appease the angry parent faction. I mean even if you somehow got them to care (beyond banning the things) you still would have to put 70%+ throug basic IT education before the system becomes viable.

But that aside I do find it rather a good idea to introduce filters like that, not compulsory by any means, that would stand in the way of artistic expression.

And as a point against higher cost:
Once you start marketing a game in more than just one country you will have to do that kind of sorting i.e. mature,violent,politically offensive,... anyway. Having to suffer throuh the german "youth protection" laws (which make it essentially impossible even for adults to legaly get at a banned media) I always wonder how much money the publisher have to sink into tuning down the violence to be able to market certain games here.

What I wanted to say is, if you have to adapt to certain foreign markets anyway you can as well start the categorization process right from the beginning. Having a say, 3d modeler tag his work right after creation must be ceaper than having to sort throug the whole material and patch it up once the authorities complain. And you would also get a minor selling point would you not?

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I wouldn't mind a console setting that sets up the permissions of games for accounts. Lets use an example..

Rock Band is rated T, so songs are usually radio-edits. Say you have all adult accounts playing, the songs would be uncensored. But if you have a child account as well, radio-edits.

It'd be a neat thing to see, but a bit of work I'd imagine.

 

[WanderingFool]

And what is the point of a gangster game without gangster behaving like, you know, gangster? And a dark world (or World of Darkness) setting of violence and sex without blood and boobs?
Nothing will stop whining parents. Gaming industry already tried that saying "This is for sixteen and older, DO NOT BUY FOR TEN YEAR OLDS!" and it failed.

^^This.^^

I once thought (back in the day, al a N64 days) about why they didnt bother doing that. No, I realise it wouldnt do shit. You put a filter that prevents full nudity, blood, and language, the person playing will turn it off if they want that stuff. And do you expect parents to make sure that filter has its password lock or whatever active? Games that are advertised as being focused on blood and gore, and even say it on the cover, are still griped at by parents who say their child playing it... ignoring the fact that the parent in question probably baught the game for the kid.

The generation of adults and parents from before videogames even existed will possibly never fully understand and appriciate videogames enough to treat them the same as movies or music. Some may, and have, but most will not; like someone said in another thread, Videogames is our generations Rock n Roll.

 

[DestinyDriven]

I think it is a bad idea. Not only would it be a waste of time and money, if there are filters, that means that the original games are intended for more mature audiences right? That means that the game is meant to have gore, sex etc. It's part of the game. You shouldn't censor it.

What if you think it is OK to give your children a certain game and use the filter, then they go to, say youtube, and look at LP's of the game without the filter on?

If it is meant for mature people without the filters, then that is the target audience for the games. In other words, adults. If there is a sex scene in a game, that is part of it. That is how it is meant to be. If an adult is uncomfortable with it, it is the persons problem. Not the game companies. If you give your kids a game intended for adults and use the filters, don't blame anyone but yourself if your kids find a way to see the more mature things in the game.

 

[hotsauceman]

Gears of war 2 had one of those. My friend turned it on in the lab level. Didnt notice a difference. Removing the gore only still doesn't make it family friendly. I mean we where still chainsawing monsters in half. doesn't matter in there is gore.

 

[Nocta-Aeterna]

Gears of war 2 had one of those. My friend turned it on in the lab level. Didnt notice a difference. Removing the gore only still doesn't make it family friendly. I mean we where still chainsawing monsters in half. doesn't matter in there is gore.

Spoiler: Que appropriate Penny Arcade strip

OT. I think simply taking away the gore, swearing, nudity, inneundos an whathaveyou will not help very much, it's the premise of a game you need to look at. Try to immagine what God of War, or Ninja Gaiden would look like, with acontent filter on

 

[King Toasty]

Feh, the amount of extra work the devs would have to do isn't really worth it. If the game is super-killy-murder fun, don't buy it for your kids and don't play it around 10-year-olds.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

There is already a content filter for every game released. Here it is:

 

[Seishiroa]

OT. I think simply taking away the gore, swearing, nudity, inneundos an whathaveyou will not help very much, it's the premise of a game you need to look at. Try to immagine what God of War, or Ninja Gaiden would look like, with acontent filter on

You shouldn't really try. In those games the gore is to a large extent used as stylised artistic expression. Some games just don't work without hilarius amounts of gore, mostly used for not so serious purposes anyway.

Just look at say, bulletstorm. Funy game, but only when you get to see the gore.

Or take it the other way round: TES: IV Oblivion.

It had pretty lame combat that felt like holding down a key until your opponent finaly collapsed. DeadlyReflex, a very good mod rectified that situation. (Obviously this is not so much a point for or against filters, but it is an issue that could have been avoided if filtering had been done seriously with this game and not thrown in at the last possible moment.)

UPDATE:
@ChildofGallifrey:
No, sadly it is not. It may be for the american market but is not artistically viable elswhere in the world.

 

[Nocta-Aeterna]

You shouldn't really try. In those games the gore is to a large extent used as stylised artistic expression. Some games just don't work without hilarius amounts of gore, mostly used for not so serious purposes anyway.

Just look at say, bulletstorm. Funy game, but only when you get to see the gore.

Or take it the other way round: TES: IV Oblivion.

It had pretty lame combat that felt like holding down a key until your opponent finaly collapsed. DeadlyReflex, a very good mod rectified that situation. (Obviously this is not so much a point for or against filters, but it is an issue that could have been avoided if filtering had been done seriously with this game and not thrown in at the last possible moment.)

UPDATE:
@ChildofGallifrey:
No, sadly it is not. It may be for the american market but is not artistically viable elswhere in the world.

I'm not saying one should alter the premise through filtering. I'm saying filtering will not work given certain premises. You can censor all you want, God of War will never be familly friendly and on top of that will look simply silly if you hide the gore etc.

 

[Gigano]

It'd be pretty hard to think up an artistic vision that works both when sex, violence, and foul language is included as a meaningful part of the story and game world, and equally well when they're excluded from it.

I suppose creating the game based on the former vision, then neutering it for those whose pure little minds can't stand anything but purified wholesomeness might work out fine if they're still willing to pay for it. But if you try to please both groups then your storyline and game world will presumably end up being quite disjointed and bland, like jam spread thinly over two slices of entirely different kinds of bread; try stuffing your face with that and call it haute cuisine.

 

[KingofallCosmos]

I think it'll only add to long development times. Also, it's difficult to make interesting characters. If their attitudes can be preset it'll only make them more bland.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

UPDATE:
@ChildofGallifrey:
No, sadly it is not. It may be for the american market but is not artistically viable elswhere in the world.

You're right, I was looking at the topic the wrong way. Now I get that it's more of a "What if I'm interested in a M/Pegi 18/R 18+ game, but would rather do away with the excess" sort of thing.

If that's the case, then I've got no problem with content filters. Gears 2's filter seemed to work fine, and if you want all the sexy violence then you have the option of not enabling it.

 

[Seishiroa]

It'd be pretty hard to think up an artistic vision that works both when sex, violence, and foul language is included as a meaningful part of the story and game world, and equally well when they're excluded from it.

Well you don't have to exclude stuff like that completely. That would obviously not work.

As ChildofGallifrey put it so well: "What if I'm interested in a M/Pegi 18/R 18+ game, but would rather do away with the excess"

A goo example in that is DA:O it not only has a violence filter it also has a good one. Namely it lets you regulate the amount of blood you would like to see. No gameplay effect and no impact on the general feel and style of the game.

And on the whole sex in games aspect I have to say that while I can sometimes have fun in playing out the prefixed romances in games like Mass Effec or Dragonage I am always alinated if I have to watch the act itself. On the one hand it is, in my opinon at least, a mood spoling profanity to have to watch two lumps of pixes hump up and down. On the other hand it evokes no passion or emotion whatsoever. That would have to come from the depth of character anyway.

Or can you seriously give me an example game/scene that deals with sexuality and would loose it's storytelling or charactershaping value if the sexuality where not shown?

To make this clear with my DA:O example, would the character romance(es) become less believable if they showed you the characters steping up to each other (or the bed) with clear intent and then, instead of showing you the act or a semblance of it just blend and jump to the pillow talk afterwards?

This is what such a filter should be about. Not censorship, but adjusting the content to your personal taste.

Implied sexuality or violence can be just as effective at storytelling than directly voyeuristic acts, if not more so.