Still accurate?

So this is something I've argued on and off with a few of my friends over the last year: Is the Video Game rating system still accurate?

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I've played lots of games over the years, games of all kinds, but I've noticed that games I used to consider appropriately rate(like GoldenEye) have continuing themes that get rated so much higher then they should(like SC:Double Agent). I can't help but feel if a game like GoldenEye came out today it would be rated M while a game like Prince of Persia would be given a rating of E if it had been released 10 years ago. Whether this is just a personal view becoming more mature, a changing of overall maturity in children and teens, or really an overcompensation to the content controversy that's occurred in the last 8 years I'm not sure. Let me give you an example, I've got 9 games for my Xbox 360 at the moment, two are rated T the rest M and they are:

Assassin's Creed - Rated: M
Assassin's Creed 2 - Rated: M
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - Rated: M
Battlefield: Bad Company - Rated: T
Halo 3 - Rated: M
Mass Effect 2 - Rated: M
Prince of Persia - Rated: T
Splinter Cell: Double Agent - Rated: M
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Rated: T

Now I have a feeling most of you have played all of these in some form whether the whole game, a Demo, or at a friend's place. But do you really think those are accurate? To me half of those are accurate, mainly AC(series) for having a very dark theme, TFU barely because of the level of death you deal out, and Bad Company the only one I truly agree with. But you probably disagree on a couple I've mentioned so let me go over them.

Halo 3 - I think should be rated Teen. It's rated M for(off the box): Violence, Mild Language, & Blood and Gore. Right off the bat I'm discarding Mild Language, if you have to qualify language with Mild it is not so bad that a Teen hasn't heard it a hundred times before. Likewise Violence is a little hard to qualify, but you kill in Bad Company with full effects so it really has no place in this rating system. Now we're into the real issue many consider Blood and Gore, I really fail to see how this has any disturbing or unnecessary levels of Gore. I mean yeah there's blood, there's blood in every game, there's blood in half the movies and shows out there, these aren't children, by the rating they are Teens, they've seen blood before. Gore I can only guess refers to using the sword which causes decapitations(something you find in JKA) and since they don't bleed out of these decaps it has the same relevance.

Mass Effect 2 - One of the more iffy ones, but I would still place it in Teen. It's listed as M for Blood(refer above), Drug Reference, Sexual Content, Strong Language, & Violence(again refer above). Drug Reference, by their own admission most people know about drugs and the addiction it causes before they leave Elementary School, it has no place in rating today unless it gets graphic at which point it should fall under something other then "Drug Reference". Sexual Content, don't make me laugh, you have more semi-erotic stuff on Funimation and CSI then is in this game, the most you see is a fucking bra, you see women in bras on commercials, give me a break. Strong Language, well I did say Teen, give me one teenager that doesn't know what: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Ass, Cunt, Cock, Damn, & Hell mean and I'll show you someone that hasn't seen a media outlet in the last 10 years. The ONLY thing about this game that even brings it close to Mature level is the fact that you CAN lose close team mates, something most teens don't have experience with is learning of their own mortality.

Prince of Persia - No question on this, E or at most E(10). It's rated T for: Alcohol Reference, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, & Violence. So Alchohol Reference, apparently if you say "I got drunk" in the dialog you qualify for this because I played the game and that's the ONLY reference either character makes of alcohol. Mild Language, I don't know about you guys, but Damn isn't really a curse anymore, still I'd list that as E(10) since it's very common to anyone at the age of 10 anymore. Mild Suggestive Themes, again you have dialog going "you look hot" it qualifies as this, shouldn't even register in my opinion. Violence, the only reason it would get E(10) in my book is this reason, but they list it as Teen, well I guess Mario should qualify too as the violent actions have about the same relevance here. When you take the enemies out, you don't chop anything off, they just blow away, and there's no blood whatsoever, hell the game goes so far as to inform you that none of these monsters are human at all. The final death scene is the only quality that MAY bump this over E(10), but that's because it's not a happy ending, something any 10 year old should know by that time in my opinion.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent - Easy, T, not even a question, when I bought the game I was totally shocked that I needed to show my ID to the clerk. It's listed as M for Blood, Language, & Violence. Blood and Language isn't even as bad as Halo 3, I don't think the words: Bitch, Shit, Fuck, Cunt, or Cock show up so does this really even belong on the box? Blood is practically non-existent, I think there's a couple bits when you shoot someone, but it doesn't pool or show up on clothes so I have no idea why it's there. Violence is the only thing that belongs on the box, and even then you are DISCOURAGED from killing anyone, in fact it costs you a shitload of stealth points on all but one mission. There are three scenarios that arise where violence takes on a more serious tone, but even then the actions you perform have more of a moral effect than a graphic one as there's not blood or gore when they happen. I can only imagine it got an M rating because of the betrayal and at-all-costs mission attitude, but it's nothing you haven't seen in PG-13 movies and TV-14 shows.

As for the ones I agree with the rating. I agree with Bad Company, in fact it's exactly what a T game should be, a perfect example of how incorporating death and violence don't automatically make a game Mature. The Force Unleashed has you killing essentially good people and allies, not surprising it deals with the dark side in heavy doses the level of death, even though not graphic is a little much since they do in fact scream as you kill them. If you severed that human element and gave your character no consequence it would be... well Mario with the Force. Then finally you have one of my favorite series of all time, AC. This series is the only one I think deserve an M rating. Not because of the violence, although the graphic deaths in some scenes certainly do fit, and not because of the sexual or language content since it doesn't come up often enough to warrant an M title. No I think the morally ambiguous nature of the role you play is what warrants an M title. There's no right or wrong in the game, in fact the series drives this home very harshly, especially in the first game where your role as an Assassin for a religious war is questioned until you find out the one person you trusted is the enemy you've been hunting the whole time.

I don't know, most of you probably won't read all that or just plain think I'm nuts for ranting it just seems like giving your actions consequence is something you can only deal with if you're 18 or older, and that's the wrong message to send. As it is now games rated E make it so none of what you do has consequence that the end justifies anything you do to achieve it, while M games are full of moral choices. We're telling any child that plays video games that they can do anything so long as they have a goal in mind and then suddenly once they've grown up with this being hammered into them we throw them into a world where even the slightest choice has repercussions that may haunt you for the rest of your life.

Assassins creed and Mass effect are for mature audiences aard. Mass Effect is MADE for mature audiences. The overall theme, the language, the communication, the lack of taboo subjects(theres sex drugs swearing and violence galore). These games are mature. The only i dont agree there is Halo 3. Maybe the decapitation thing is what gets it. Aside from that, its a Teen game. Straight out. The rating system works.

That's because you're lowering the value. Many people including many of my friends don't think of T as in games for Teenagers, they think of them as those games with more violent tones, but still no swearing or gore. The system is outdated right now. I would recommend every single game in there to anyone above the age of 13 with the exception of AC which I would reserve for an audience 16 and above.

Now I agree the ORIGINAL Mass Effect got an appropriate rating, but ME2 is not a Mature game the iffy subjects are avoided or alluded to rather then being talked about out-right. The ONLY reason ME2 is rated M is because ME1 was.

Aside from that if you listen to most people when they see a game you'll find a majority of M rated games they see as fine for a Teenage audiences otherwise they wouldn't have to qualify it as Ultra-violent when they talk. Look at God of War, now look at Halo, I would let just about anyone play Halo, I wouldn't let a child of mine play God of War until they were 16+. But according to the system they should be treated as equally harsh elements.

Eh I can see how more games are rated T. The graphics and various ways to kill people have increased dramatically since the old days. People can feel more connected to or involved with the games. I wouldn't want my kids to be torturing people and finding creative ways to kill stuff like in TFU2 until they were at least the age of 13. I don't think video games cause shootings and crap, but I could see certain games being unhealthy early on in a child's developement. As for prince of persia... Never played it so I have no idea how accurate that one is =)

its not accurate. at least teh knew ones. Now Warrior Within and Two Thrones....kinda dark. T suits them.

The Sands of Time: E if we're honest. Not a single curse, your enemies literally dissolve rather than die. The only reason it's more suited to a teen audience isn't because the content is too much for kids to handle but because the story and internal conflict are relate-able mainly to teens.

Warrior Within & The Two Thrones: T, I really didn't know either was rated M until I read the premise on the back and stumbled upon the M rating.

Prince of Persia(4) was less violent then WW or T2T, it only suited Teen again because there's no happy ending. Gameplay and story wise it really was more suited to E10.

Forgotten Sands I haven't played mainly because it looks like a piss attempt to combine Dynasty Warriors with WW.

Its better than Prince of Persia 4

No, no it's not. Really hate that people harp on it, it's not a bad game, I can think of hundreds of "good" titles that sucked more cock. Haven't seen a single guy play through the game without dying 50+ times.

Sorry, Its better than Prince of Persia 4. Stupid game is stupid. Forgotten Sands is a lot like Sands of Time.(Aka, its good, unoriginal, but good)

I did play the demo, that's how I know IT SUCKS ASS. The only version that sucked more ass was Warrior Within. Sands of Time, The Two Thrones, and the fourth game were really the only 3 worth playing in the series. I would even call The Two Towers the best if it wasn't for the fucking chariot races and horrible execution on the Dark Prince.

It's the two thrones, fab.

PoP such a bad game sereis he had no choice but get it confused with LOTR

Deadly Assassin wrote:PoP such a bad game sereis he had no choice but get it confused with LOTR

Sands of Time is awesome. The rest is stupid. Two Towers and Warriors Within have untapped potential, as well as clunkier gameplay. The 4th one is just bland, and copy pasted.(Combat is clunky and dumb) The new one is back on the same level as the 2nd and 3rd. untapped potential.

I agree that the first was the best, was an epic game. Hated Warrior Within, it I wanted a slasher game I'd play Tekkan. The Two Thrones was soooo close to being epic, had all the elements there good characters, but not explored enough; good stealth element, but ultimately unnecessary since you could hack your way through; good internal conflict, but a cumbersome dark prince system that you hated playing with; nice rail segments, but too linear and no checkpoints so you'd have to play through the same segment over and over. The combat could have taken a page from Warrior Within, although a bit more simplified. The fourth game was different, it wasn't supposed to be like the others it was suppose to flow together and it did a decent job, but the combat came across as a secondary aspect and the puzzles were so simple that it was pointless to have them.