Eggsnham said:
snowfox said:
I personally think that the rating system needs a full overhaul with less gap between the age groups i.e. "E" is intended for everyone between 6-12 (I don't care about "E10") and "T" is intended for kids 13-16 while "M" is obviously 17+. This is unfair and biased towards teenagers, basically it's like saying "We know that you can handle this game mentally, but we won't acknowledge that, because hey, rules is rules." They might as well just flick off anyone between 13-16. And I always thought that Ratchet and Clank was spot on with the humor (then again, my closest memories of R&C was "Up Your Arsenal" when I was 11-12). Everything else I agree with you on.
That's a good to hear you agree with me. It's a safe bet that mid-teens are indeed getting the shaft.
One thing that I want a point out that's related however. I've noticed in a few T or E(insert number here) games. They insult the players intelligence by having some one constantly remind the player of their current goal within a 20-30 second mark. Sure an on screen blip of the current goal is always nice, but do they honestly think that people can't read that they need to have a verbal reminder every 30 seconds?
I'm not sure the rating of the game but I'm assuming it's either E or T but the original transformers game for the Wii and other possible systems is a fine example of this, since right now nothing else comes to mind at the moment.
Putting all Wii bashing in a box for now. I honestly felt that by having some one constantly remind me of my goal, despite having in game blips and icons directing me visually, was a tad annoying to the point where even I wanted to yell "HULK SMASH!!!"
I wanted to assume that it was in there for younger gamers to help them direct them to their intended target, but I can't think of a certain kid in
any age group needing such a constant reminder.
Even if I was of actual age for the games targeted audience... [small] Outside the targeted audience that were either fans of the movie, or people in their 30's that were huge transformer fans back when the original cartoons were a riot, like my brother who practically soiled himself when he first hear there was a live action movie coming out.[/small] I would have felt this to be extremely irritating, regardless of what age I was at the time. Perhaps if I were an extremely young gamer at the age between 5-9 I wouldn't matter so much, because it's obvious that the younger you are, the less irritating everything is for you.
That doesn't make sense though, if they were going to make a game that they knew that, not only were they targeting a younger audience, but also an audience that either grew up with transformers in their hearts
and an audience that was moved by the movie. Why irritate 75% of your audience to compensate for the rest?
I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's little things that get passed in development like that, that make the game lose it's appeal to those in the age group that want to be viewed as more mature because at that stage in life, their minds and bodies are taking a turn... [small] For the worst... HAH!!!

[/small]
They are trying to make these games that are rated T appeal to not only 11-13 year olds, but also 14-16 year olds... Which if memory serves me well, and indeed it does... I can recall having interests at 14-16 years of age that made me wonder why I liked the things I did at 11-13... Though different for everybody, 14-16 year olds start to see themselves a lot differently. For their bodies and minds have passed the rough spots of maturity that left their 11-13 year old selves extremely confused.
Infact, when I placed in charge of a clan in cod4. I found myself making exceptions to my 17+ rule, for I kept finding players with exceptional skill and attitude that were in the 14-16 age group. Although I didn't let every person in that age group in for obvious reasons, there was a good handful that proved to be matured beyond my expectations that made even some of my older clan members seem a little questionable.
It just depends on the person of that age group, but the fact that they are all shot down by the rating system, does not seem very fair for those that could hold a good, deeply serious conversation with me despite our age differences...
I do see a valid point in your response that the rating system needs to be reworked. There should be more of a closing gap to appeal to those in that middle group that depending on the person, they will either most likely feel shafted, or there may be a game here and there that they find entertaining despite it being extremely dumbed down to the point of just damn near insulting.
I do believe it's all a part of the "babying" trend the country is going through these days... Where no company, whether it be gaming, film, or television, wishes to suffer the wrath of the parents for something that could potentially warp the minds of their children.
So they simply just take anything remotely mind warping and we're forced with more or less, 16 years of entertainment that is suitable only for 5-9 year olds.
On the cartoon/television side of things, it is almost as if they assume that every single child has a form of ADD. Hell I know people who take medicine for ADD and ADHD that find these shows to be a giant cluster fuck of illogical random BS. [small] I don't actually believe in such things as ADD. I have a very logical explanation, that I won't get into now to keep the flow of the post going, but if you're a person who was prescribed with ADD medicine and feel slightly offended to this, please don't, it's not to be an insult towards you.. Instead it's an insult to doctors/government/ parents/ etc etc. [/small]
For those who read this that are of my age group, [small] (I'm 23) [/small] Don't you remember shows like Hey dude, Salute your shorts, Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, Angry Beavers, and although the name escapes me I believe the show was called Gak?
A great portion of these shows were targeted to young viewers and older viewers at the same time. As a youngin when those shows were in their prime, I enjoyed all of them because they all had great storylines, [small] well besides Gak because that was more of a game show if anything[/small] GREAT jokes, and characters you could relate too or connect with.
The shows they have out these days, it makes you wonder, who in their right mind that isn't a preteen or older, watch this crap!!! Everything is so void of anything of intellectual value, only because companies and developers are too afraid to make something that would make younger minds tick, because some parent will go ape shit if it happens to be something that made their darling little angels' mind tick in the wrong direction.
Isn't there anything the TV, film, and gaming companies can do in terms of legal defense that protects them against this sort of thing? Creating a disclaimer for each show and game stating that they aren't responsible for anything the parents feel is unsafe for their children, and if they feel that way they should change the channel or turn it off or take the game away etc etc.
There has
got to be some form of legal protection they can come up with to defend themselves from the onslaught of over protective parents so they can get back to releasing products that the other 80% of the population can enjoy..
One can only dream though, I'm sorry if I may have strayed off the topic here and there, but I feel it is all related... Thank you Eggsnham for your response, I'm glad to see I was able to touch on something that you agree with. Although I never got to play that R&C game, I was referring to some of the demos they have on the PS3 at the moment. I forget which one it is, but I remember you played as Clank and had to solve puzzles. The visuals were amazing, the game play was exceptional, but the voice acting and dialogue seemed extremely annoying and, dumbed down. [small] (Especially that damn robot that served as your tutorial guide >:O) [/small]
Edit:
Don't get me wrong, R&C looks like a great game, infact I could safely say it could be one that I may rent one of these days, but I just feel that it may have fallen victim to the degrading affect that the Transformers game suffered from. If you feel differently, just remember it's just a general opinion based on how much of the actual game i got to play.