Why are so many games rated M?

[Skwink]

So I'm strolling through Wal-Mart today, and I go look at some 360 games. Almost every game except sports, kid's, and kinect only games were rated M. I got to thinking, why is that? Why do most developers feel the need to put tons of blood and cussing into a game? Take the game Call of Duty Black Ops for example. Why does it have to have so much blood and cussing etc.? Were the old Call of Duty's that were rated T unfun because the lacked M rating qualifiers? No, they were great games, better than the ones released today. What do you guys feel about this?

 

[Maniacal]

Black Ops is a shooter all about shooting people, and none of the big publishers are going to make this. The rating doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the game either (which is going downhill because of short/rushed development times, loss of most of the important members of infinity ward, different developers (Treyarch is only doing so well because of the zombie mode and being able to piggy back off of IW's work). The early CoD games were also developed for the PC first, and their console versions weren't very good until CoD4 when they started developing with the console crowd in mind.

Big publishers aren't willing to take many risks, which is partly why there are so many FPS games, and the M rated ones sell really well hence CoD's ever increasing pandering to the console crowd. I have no idea who thinks buying a ~13 year old Black Ops is a good idea) because they also are not the target market. Dunno why the "blood" would be a problem, as many games that claim to have blood in them have weird puffs of red pixels or other strange red substances that don't really resemble blood (you can easily see worse on TV). As for the swearing, probably because they are too cheap to hire good writers who don't rely on lots of swearing for their 6 hour SP campaigns that most people only play through once or twice (if at all) that is attached to the multiplayer portion (although that does still have swearing).

Once you are old enough to have money to buy your own games and not worry about the ratings you will stop caring about them completely. I don't want to have a bunch of (with few exceptions) annoying kids running around mouthing off in my multiplayer games anyway. Not that M rated games (especially for the consoles it's a pity it doesn't keep the annoying children (that apparently are a major plague upon X-Box live) out of the game. Sure they are present on PC too but at least you have server admins who can mute or ban them.

Besides, if you have a xbox 360 get a kinect and get Dance Central 2 It's rated Teen, is a much better game and a hell of a lot of fun, especially with friends. There's also Batman: Arkham City. Although perhaps you should have looked at the games available for the Xbox 360 and their ratings before getting one in the first place.

 

[Skwink]

Black Ops is a shooter all about shooting people, what the hell did you expect? Flowers and dancing cats? The rating doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the game either (which is going downhill because of short/rushed development times, loss of most of the important members of infinity ward, different developers (Treyarch is only doing so well because of the zombie mode and being able to piggy back off of IW's work).

I don't have any problem with them being rated M, I don't want to have a bunch of (with few exceptions) annoying kids running around mouthing off in my multiplayer games anyway. Not that M rated games (especially for the consoles and x-box live) aren't filled with irritating kids regardless... (which makes me all the more glad that I don't have a console).

The earlier Call of Duty's and Medal of Honors didn't have the F-word a couple hundred times, nor blood everywhere, and were still great games rated at T. Your post fails to give a reason as to why these things are in almost all new games.

Incase you haven't noticed, there are kids with mouths and microphones on computers too.

 

[Maniacal]

That's because I clicked post instead of Go Advanced (and then checked some other stuff while the page loaded). It's still being edited. EDIT: And done.

Incase you haven't noticed, there are kids with mouths and microphones on computers too.

Actually I haven't really noticed, because they get trolled, muted and banned by the server admins fairly quickly.

 

[Arexander]

I have to agree with Maniacal here and in addition to that, the earlier CoDs do have swearing inside. It's just that they use the common language of that time. In WWII they didn't use the F-word as much as they used in, say, Cold War or today. And the "lack of blood" might be only due to graphical or technical reasons.

 

[The_J]

It's all wrong perception .
The german statistics (sure, our rating system is a bit different) from 2010 says:
- 2844 games in total
- 46.5% without any age restrictions, 0 years +
- >80% fall in the category 0 years +, 6 years +, 12 years +
- Only 6.3% with 18+ rating (~M rating)
- 0.8% without any rating (-> get's same treatment as e.g. porn)

(source site, german only)

But well, that's for germany. We're concerned about violence, but not that much about drugs, language or sex.
But we know it's elsewhere not the same, the US is more picky about language + sex, and AFAIK Australia is very uneasy with drugs.

 

[Luckymoose]

Because the generation that grew up on games are in their 20s now, and they have jobs and continue to game regularly, which makes it smart to aim the majority of gaming at them rather than youth.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I'd have to agree with The_J that most games actually aren't rated Mature... Only just many of the ones we discuss here as adults. In any case, I always had a short fuse for censorship, ratings and the like, I think judgement of parents, and often the kids themselves, is the best. In the case of ratings on games, I hope they are viewed as tools and an indication, and not as a panacea. As a kid, I remember clearly that when a movie said 16+ (Quebec rating), I didn't actually want to see them because I knew they would disturb me. I was able to choose by myself based on my experience and where I was in my development and so were my parents, although they basically gave no control whatsoever on my choices. Eventually I turned 13 you know and I didn't mind playing very violent games and was really annoyed when I was almost 17, playing Diablo, and one of my friend's parents were nazis preventing my friend to play with me because of the rating. He was obviously going to be able to cope with pixelated hell.

I don't know just... like many things in society nowadays... we trust individuals less and less to make intelligent and personal decisions.

 

[Darth Caesar]

The rating system is useless anyway, I have nine year old cousins who play Black Ops.

 

[OrsonM]

Back in the day there was the perception that the audience was mainly kids spending their parents money, so most games had kiddie-like themes to them.

I think we all have the know that all the blood, swearing and nudity are mainly just filler.

It's weird that the rating is "mature" as well, as if there was a level of maturity needed in order to grasp the depth of games such as Duke Nukem Forever or any of the 57 Call of Duty sequels.

Before playing any of these games, please refer to the follow materials and study them thoroughly in order to reach the required level of maturity for their enjoyment:

"On Blowing up stuff good" by Marshall Mcluhan
"you've been sniped b*tch!" by Jean-Paul Sartre
"On the appropriate use of ethnic slurs in COD:MW" by Albert Camus
"t*ts or GTO! and other roles of girls in Videogaming" by Simone de Beauvoir
"Reflections on how awesome guns is" by Søren Kierkegaard

 

[Rub'Rum]

"On Blowing up stuff good" by Marshall Mcluhan
"you've been sniped b*tch!" by Jean-Paul Sartre
"On the appropriate use of ethnic slurs in COD:MW" by Albert Camus
"t*ts or GTO! and other roles of girls in Videogaming" by Simone de Beauvoir
"Reflections on how awesome guns is" by Søren Kierkegaard

hahaha
+1 ... x 10

 

[OrsonM]

(repeated post, please delete)

 

[Maniacal]

The rating system is useless anyway, I have nine year old cousins who play Black Ops.

I think nine is too young to be playing Blops...

 

[Sonereal]

Well, Bad Company was rated T. Bad Company 2 was rated M.

It isn't like BC2 was any gorier or graphic. It was just because BC2 cussed more and FPS developers throw in swearing so their game can get bumped to the mythical M rating where they can advertise their latest modern warfare gag reel "realistic" since it's rated M. Hur hur.

 

[Ninja Dude]

I think nine is too young to be playing Blops...

....Okay?

Really, the ratings don't matter. If a kid wants a game, their parents will buy it for them if it's rated M. I don't think the rating really has anything to do with the quality. It's just like Luckymoose said though, older gamers are being targeted more. So of course the more popular and successful games are typically gonna be rated M. It's just how things are now.

 

[JtheJackal]

Ratings help prevent government regulation, at least in the US.

 

[Thrawn]

Really, the ratings don't matter. If a kid wants a game, their parents will buy it for them if it's rated M. I don't think the rating really has anything to do with the quality.

Ratings do indeed have nothing to do with the quality. Ratings on games are meant to serve exactly the same purpose that they do for movies and TV.

Any parent that ignores the ratings and just buys a game because their kid wants it does not deserve to be a parent.

 

[Ninja Dude]

That definitely seems like a harsh conclusion to jump to. Especially considering how many parents, who love and take care of their children, still do it. Are you saying that, a 15 year old's parents are not deserving to be a parent if they bought him a Call of Duty or Battlefield game?

 

[Maniacal]

A 15 year old is probably fine but no one wants to play a multiplayer FPS with 9 years olds, they don't know how to deal appropriately with online interactions, and these games are definitely NOT made with 9 year olds in mind. There's also plenty of language and content in the game that isn't exactly considered normal, good or allowable for children to see. Halo would probably be fine too, but not Blops (plus it gives them nostalgia for a crap game).

 

[Ninja Dude]

Not all people who aren't adults are 9 year olds though. Plus, parents could, you know, not let their children play online if they believe their children cannot handle playing online. I do believe that letting someone below say 12 online is unwise, but to say someone doesn't deserve to be a parent for doing it seems a bit extreme.

And the whole issue about no one wanting to play with younger players is kinda iffy. If you don't want to hear them, mute them. If you don't want to play with them, either play with a group of friends, or deal with it. There are plenty of other horrible players out there besides children after all

Just saw your edit. I agree on the whole Halo and Black Ops thing.