Ratings That Make No Sense To You? (ESRB/MPAA/Etc)

[Jamash]

Fable Anniversary in Australia.
Fable: The Lost Chapters is rated MA15+ (restricted to 15 years and over).
Fable:Anniversary, which is the exact same game with updated graphics and smartglass integration) is rated R18+ (restricted to 18 years and over).
The reason? A brothel in the game. The same brothel that was in the Lost Chapters game.

Isn't that because when Fable: The Lost Chapters was released, MA15+ was the highest rating a game could be given and Fable: Anniversary was released after the introduction of the R18+ rating for games?

It seems that both instances of the game were given the highest allowable rating for the same reason, but if things were different, Fable: The Lost Chapters would be rated R18+ if released in 2015, just as Fable: Anniversary would have been rated MA15+ if it had been released before 2013.

It's just a change in the classification system, not the fact that in the 10 years or so between games, brothels have suddenly become more risqu? and less suitable for teenagers in Australia.

 

[NPC009]

Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii somehow got a PEGI 16 for... I have no idea. (It's rated T or similar in other regions.) It sucked for teens who wanted to slay some dragons, because not all European stores sell 16+ games to people under 16.

Anyway, I've always wondered how some of the RPGs that came out during the PS1 era got away with T ratings. Everyone was sort of aping Final Fantasy in seeing how far they could push the line back then, so I have to assume it was just because the graphics were too shit to be considered graphic.

It probably also had to do with how some of the 'worst' things were implied rather than explicitly shown. The ways ratings work is that there is basically a giant checklist for content. If things aren't listed, they can't be checked off, and if they aren't checked off, they may not affect the rating. My guess that the old checklists weren't complete enough to cover some of the stuff games like Final Fantasy VII threw at it.

 

[Creator002]

Snip

DOUBLE SNIP! Woo!

I understand all that, but games were getting RC status before the new rating was introduced. That should've made TLC refused classification, considering Anniversary gets an R and they're the same game with minor changes that shouldn't affect the rating.
The reason the ACB stated at making the game R over MA15 was because of the brothel. THAT is the part I take issue with. They bumped up the rating due to existing content. Not new content.