Will we ever see an A.O game with mature storytelling ?

[GodzillaGuy92]

Will we ever see an NC-17 movie with mature storytelling?

Because I can't think of any existing ones. When a filmmaker wants to address adult-oriented or controversial subject matter, the R-rating nearly always proves perfectly sufficient. When you progress beyond that, all you'll generally get out of it is more explicit sexual/gory/whatever imagery, which not only almost never improves what you'd get out of an R-rated cut (and stands a good chance of rendering it less effective), but lends itself to films that plug those elements in there in defiance of what good storytelling would dictate.

Same goes for AO games. Hentai visual novels that also have good stories can certainly exist, but you'd be hard pressed to come up with a way to make all the explicit sex scenes more meaningful than they'd be if you simply scaled back the pornography and put it into an M-rated game (controversial though themes and even cut-down imagery of sexuality might prove in a mainstream M-rated game; it's not as though dealing with such subject matter would automatically land the game with an AO-rating).

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

I get what you mean, but I just dont think an AO rating is necessary at all, I mean as long as the writing is good you can explore everything you could possibly want in an R16 rating

Fully agreed. The notion that maturity and excess are one and the same bugs me quite a lot.

 

[DementedSheep]

You have to work pretty hard to get an AO rating. I think I've only seen one game with it and that was because it had unlockable live acting porn scenes. You seem to either need really messed up themes, graphic rape, extreme gore or sex showing penetration. An AO can have a mature story but the stuff making it AO wouldn't really be helping with that. Not that there is anything against AO games but even if the media wasn't inclined to jump all over it if they knew about it I doubt there would be many. It's limiting your audience and not adding much.

 

[aozgolo]

It's definitely feasible to make such a game but unrealistic to expect it. There's an unrated eroge game that I played called Monster Girl Quest, it's a VN RPG where you literally get sexually assaulted by monster girls. Despite the premise however the story of the game was absolutely amazing, it was really top notch and INTERESTING, something I completely did not expect at all. I mean it's narrative struck me so hard that I actually recommended it to my girlfriend (who obviously didn't take me up on the offer) but it dealt with some pretty powerful stuff and strong character development. That being said it is still a hentai sex game where monster girls (some with extremely hideous looking... parts) take advantage of you.

The thing about AO is that it's kind of like the NC-17 or X rating, you practically have to be porn to get it. As far as violence goes, unless they plan on showing real footage of terrorist executions I don't see how you can push the envelope any further than what M Rated games have done with it (I mean have you seen Mortal Kombat?) If you look at the AO Rated games, pretty much all of them have strong sexual content, if not outright pornographic content. Most of what you want out of a mature game can be told with it still being an M rating.

 

[Juste Goose]

Well, "Mature" is 17+, "AO" is 18+. I'm pretty sure that AO is just saying "We can't sell this game to 17-year-olds." Or, in other words, "This game is porn."

So, unless Bioware makes TittyQuest 5: Revenge of the Booty, an epic RPG spanning the ages, I don't think so.

If you're asking for porn with a really good story, just watch Game of Thrones. *buh-dun chhh*

 

[leodetroit]

M is well enough for mature storytelling. For example nudity and extreme violence are both in mature games. AO would only be in like a game that has an extreme graphic sex-scene, and as we all know, sex-scenes in games are super-awkward.

 

[Abomination]

It would basically be PC only, and download only as shops wouldn't carry it. I'm not even sure if you could get it onto a major distribution platform like Steam.

Yeah, you'd need to find a distributor willing to be the first to step into that ring and given how knee-jerky and tumblr-trending the marketplace is at the moment... not in this immediate foreseeable future.

Perhaps GOG could bring it on? The Europeans are known for being a bit more liberal with their classifications... unless you're German, I guess.

 

[DataSnake]

I get what you mean, but I just dont think an AO rating is necessary at all, I mean as long as the writing is good you can explore everything you could possibly want in an R16 rating

The problem is that having no adult rating makes it possible for a few stick-up-their-ass types on the classification board to effectively ban a game they don't like. Take, for instance, the dickwaffles in Australia who "refused classification" to Saints Row IV until they cut Shaundi's loyalty mission (which, incidentally, was one of the best missions in terms of showing character development). And yes, I know that Australia has a R18 rating, but my point is that such events would be even more common without one. As another example, Hot Coffee. In GTA: San Andreas, you can steal cars, shoot civilians, and bury a guy alive in a porta-potty, but consensual sex is just over the line. What the hell kind of sense does that make?

 

[gamer_parent]

Yes, it is entirely possible. However, it would be a fluke, at best. Good writing in games is rare enough as it is. Asking for it in a gaming market that is already somewhat limited in distribution scope is... probably asking for a little too much.

 

[BrotherRool]

It's not that developers don't have the courage to make games that have very mature themes, it's that there wouldn't be a single large retailer in the US (or maybe even the EU) that will sell the title in their stores.

The EU almost certainly isn't an issue, selling 18 rated stuff in stores is pretty normal. Lots of successful films and games have the highest rating (for example Borderlands, GTA, Dishonoured, DX:HR, Saints Row 4 and Splintercell all receive the highest PEGI rating which is 18+)

I can't speak for other EU countries, but in the UK we don't have the same views on censorship as in the US. It's illegal to sell an officially rated game here to people underage (And I believe everything has to be rated). So there was never any big concern about age ratings (although there are lots of cracks) because you can always fine retailers who are discovered to be a problem and the fault always lies with them for breaking the law.

In the US you have much more stringent views on avoiding censorship so all ratings have to be voluntary and unenforcable. So to assuage pressure groups big retailers promised to not sell AO rated stuff in their stores at all.

 

[AT God]

Manhunt 2 on PC is the only game that I know of that was AO and didn't have a bunch of sex. It had some PS2-era graphics people in gimp suits but no actual nudity as far as I can remember. The story line was interesting, a variation on a common twist used in story telling. Story was more mature than the gameplay, which was just murder people violently for a better score.


Edit: I think Manhunt 2 is an exception to some distributors online because it isn't a pornographic game. I bought it using direct-2-drive but that is now owned by Gamefly. The Gamefly version has the image of a box where it is rated M and has the Games For Windows Live image on the box but the version that downloads doesn't have GFWL and is the AO version because it includes the interactive executions. The AO version of the game still had the filters that tried to censor some of the violence but they are easily disabled by setting the launch options to include "-stereo" since the filters are basically Red/Blue blobs like an old 3D movie might use. Makes me want to get a pair of Red/Blue glasses and see what happens when I wear them with the filter on.

Edit 2: While Gamefly hosts the games files it doesn't have a store page as far as I can tell so I guess they technically don't sell it, only host it for people who bought it from D2D

 

[Lisiecki]

I just finished playing this visual novel Kana little sister.. well yeah its a hentai 18+ novel but it surprisingly uses its AO rating to actually tell us a good mature story.

So when will we actually see microsoft&sony allowing AO games to be made for their consoles ? i mean what's the big deal about AO games ?

Why is A.O rating so taboo ?

Yes, It was Planescape Torment. Ok not an AO game, I'm not sure a game could get much more mature.

Or do you just mean a game with boobies?

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I just finished playing this visual novel Kana little sister.. well yeah its a hentai 18+ novel but it surprisingly uses its AO rating to actually tell us a good mature story.

So when will we actually see microsoft&sony allowing AO games to be made for their consoles ? i mean what's the big deal about AO games ?

Why is A.O rating so taboo ?

I'm just repeating what everyone else is saying, but still: A game can be fully grown up and mature without being rated AO. AO-rated games are something that go beyond GTA5, God of War 3, The Last of Us and so on in terms of graphic content, and the question you should be asking yourself is: Does a mature story need that? What does it need that is so extreme it goes beyond what is passable within the M rating? Graphic close-ups of genitals? Gory rape? Explicit pedophilia? Vivisections of old people and children? We've already seen all of that in exploitation movies and fucked up shit from Japan, do we need them in games?

I don't really think there's a story or theme so "mature" that it could only be explored in an AO game. Why don't we see more of them? Because they're bad for business, simple as that, like the NC-17 rating for movies.

Oh, and btw, the AO rating in the game you mentioned likely has nought to do with the story, but the fact that it is a pornographic game. I know nothing about it, but as a wild guess I'd say that if you took the porn out of it, it'd be rated R tops.

 

[Quadocky]

I would like to weigh in on this, but the OP answers its own question but fails to mention that visual novel has themes of incest.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I think Saya no Uta would be a good contender for this.

 

[Vegosiux]

Perhaps GOG could bring it on? The Europeans are known for being a bit more liberal with their classifications... unless you're German, I guess.

Germans just don't like violence in their games. Sex is free game.

I like to say just keep it as it is. The Yankees can keep their guns and gore, as long as we Europeans get the tits and sexytimes.

And I feel no shame in saying it - sex and pretty bodies are just so much more enjoyable than bullets and exploding heads.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Would any of these games be released on Wii?

No.

Would a Hentai/eroge game be released on Wii, XBox, Ps3, DS, Vita, PSP, Androis, IOS? Maybe one or two. But not many.

And probably not. These games exist for sub-par plots, and tentacles. Farenheit is included because its plot is so ridiculously horrible that one can only pay attention to the Matrix plagarism and sex.

Captcha: case closed

Goddamnit.

 

[Angelous Wang]

I say lets wait and see what The Witcher 3 does.

They started with nude 2D and then they moved onto nude 3D softcore, so it's only one more step.

 

[Do4600]

Will we ever see an NC-17 movie with mature storytelling?

Because I can't think of any existing ones.

A Clockwork Orange
Fritz the Cat
Eyes Wide Shut
Requiem for a Dream
Basic Instinct
Bad Education
Matador

All critically acclaimed films, all having either an X or NC-17 rating in their original formats.

It's possible to do, it's just rare that a film-maker can handle it. Apparently no games so far can really handle it.