70°

The cold war on the Adults Only rating must stop if gaming is to grow up

Game ratings were designed to open the door for different kinds of content, not limit what can be shown or addressed in a video game.
The idea was that developers and publishers would be given more freedom in their games if it was simple to indicate that some games were aimed at an adult audience. The games were clearly marked that they weren’t for kids, retailers would enforce the ratings, and the stigma of gaming being a pursuit where children would stumble across potentially damaging content would be removed.

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sungam3d3766d ago

Tell me about it.
Australian gamers fought hard for an R18+ for our games.
But guess what? Nothing changed. MA15+ games were just re-branded as R18+
We still get contented from our games removed because our lame ass government doesn't think adults can deal with sex drugs and violence.

I thought that was the point of an R18+ rating, to have games available for all adults. But apparently not. Just another way for some old fart to make money by complaining about a game, getting content removed and setting the age rating on it.

Nothing has changed, and nothing ever will as long as old farts are running the show.

ziggurcat3766d ago

Unfortunately, what happens is you get negligent parents that buy these games for their children... and then complain about games being too violent.

ibrake4naps3766d ago

but if the games have an age limit, that's the equivalent of negligent parents buying porn for their kids and complaining about the nudity.

Naga3766d ago

I partially agree. Consider, however, that many parents who purchase video games for their children have a completely different idea of what a video game even is. They consider "video games" through a lens which is dated by their age. They probably think of Mario, Sonic, Frogger, or any number of benign gaming experiences - what games once were.

Gaming, however, has grown up in a big way, and now rivals the mature experience of movies... and many parents don't realize this. This, I think, is one of the reasons video games aren't given the same level of scrutiny by parents. And in that way, it's very unlike the example you bring up of buying porn for children and complaining. The content of the latter is well known and always has been, while the same cannot be said of video games.

I'm not suggesting we give negligent parents a free pass, by any means. I'm just positing a partial explanation for the problem. At the end of the day, however, I think that if parents have raised children in an environment where video games can have such an impact on their conscience such that disrupts their moral compass... the parents have already failed in their duties. Video games have never been the real problem - bad parents have.

ibrake4naps3766d ago

The videogame medium shouldn't be held back from anything film does just because parents are out of touch and think that games are a child's play thing.

Naga3765d ago

That may be true, but I never suggested otherwise. What part of what I said are you disagreeing with?

ibrake4naps3765d ago

My reply wasnt a dissagreement. I was just adding that since it's the problem of the parent's outdated perceptions, games should be rated but not censored...

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MasterD9193766d ago

As a kid, I would always play games that were meant for mature gamers. The only effect it has had on me is that I still enjoy playing them to this day.

It truly depends on the person. However, I completely understand the concern as games now a-days are significantly more graphic.

alexkoepp3766d ago

The only thing that isn't in MA games anymore is showing sexual penetration... honestly does the author think this will make gaming grow up? AO games are made, if you are in such a thirst for them go buy them. Better yet when you are at the porn store to buy one just skip the game and buy a DVD or magazine instead...

xymox3333766d ago (Edited 3766d ago )

This is so stupid. I am getting sick of this, Does every single game made have to be rated MA17+ (Intended for people 17 and up) in the untied states before people are happy?

I swear these so called "adults" need to stop trying to make every single thing in this country for them and them alone. It's like they forget that there are other age groups are something. To be honest most of the people complaining seem to be in there 20s and 30s, they act like the world revolves around there age group only, therefor everything should be for them. Most of the other age groups seem to be fine with gaming how it is.

And for the love of God parents. Will you stop overprotecting your kids! Generation Z might be the last group of non-babied people born if parents keep this up. I understand wanting to keep your kid safe, but come on!

How do expect your kid to learn anything about life, if all you ever do is protect them, baby them, and deal with all of there problems for them. It is really hard for some kids after being raised like that to have any form of independence. Why? Because they got used to mom and dad doing everything for them.

jessupj3766d ago

You have completely and utterly missed the point. Well done sir.

It's not about wanting more AO games. It's about giving developers the freedom to add whatever content they feel is necessary for their vision and it's also about giving adult gamers the choice of what games they want to buy instead of letting 3rd parties decide for them.

You do understand how immoral that is? Been forced to let a 3rd party decide what you can and can't buy.

You could even argue it's unconstitutional and against basic human rights.

I'm not asking for more AO games. I'm asking for the short sighted, stuck in the past 3rd parties to stop babying gaming and give the industry it's freedom.

CrossingEden3766d ago

@jessupj, You basically just said that every developer should be allowed to put whatever they want into a game without taking any of the responsibility for it. If game developers wanna put whatever offensive content they want into a game then they need to take responsibility whenever that content is offensive to a large majority of people. That's how adulthood works.

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90°

15 Great Games Where Every Minute of the Experience Feels Earned

GB: "We take a look at 15 amazing games that had the perfect length."

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7d ago
coolbeans7d ago

Pretty good list. Botany Manor would be the newest addition that encapsulates that title.

400°

Anyone else not blown away with graphics these days? Me neither

Talal writes: "I'm talking about having that rush of excitement - that feeling you get when you know you've just made a memory for a lifetime."

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OptimusDK10d ago

There are different games. Some have gamplay at it highest priority, some have the story, some have the replay value and choices... There are a lot of different game experiences.

It is laughable that just now graphics does not have anything to do with that experiene. We have had many games of that type over time. This is just the one that have come closest to feel like playing an actual movie. Just look the the Digital foundry walkthrough it is a masterpiece in that perspective and hence wrth trying. But yes do not do it for the gameplay - but that was never the goal of this experience.

GamerRN10d ago

It's because it's on Xbox. When Xbox has amazing graphics, they don't matter. When PlayStation does, it's a game changer!

Lightning7710d ago

Pretty much my thoughts. They were technical marvel's on PS and still are. The moment Xbox puts out a graphically intense game is doesn't matter suddenly.

4 years ago this month would the UE5 tech demo debut with the girl flying (tech demo said it was only possible on PS5 because of the SSD. Glad to finally see it in its glory.

fr0sty10d ago

FFS, gaming journalism has really gone downhill. At least hire people with a basic grasp of grammar... "Me neither" means the exact opposite of what the "author" is trying to say. That's like saying "I could care less"... lol.

S2Killinit10d ago

Maybe because the gameplay being dull allowed it to have the amazing graphics and people are not as impressed by graphics alone anymore? I mean there is a lot of sites saying the story and the gameplay are lackluster. So what are we supposed to enjoy then? Cgi graphics are beautiful but since they arent interactive, they dont impress me as much as they used to. Thats an extreme example, but you get my drift.

Terry_B9d ago

When Playstation (Sony) does it..its usually a great game and not a cinematic experience..or at least something new at the time..like Until Dawn back in 2015.

1Victor9d ago

@gamer:” It's because it's on Xbox. When Xbox has amazing graphics, they don't matter. When PlayStation does, it's a game changer!”

The game looks as good as any other PlayStation game in my eyes why can’t you and the other hardcore Xbox be happy about it and drag PlayStation into every conversation and force PlayStation hardcore to look into the game and find flaw that most games have in one way or another.
@light: “ 4 years ago this month would the UE5 tech demo debut with the girl flying (tech demo said it was only possible on PS5 because of the SSD. ”
Yes at that time it was only possible on PlayStation SSD how ignorant of you to think that after 4 years the technology wouldn’t evolved and move to a industry standard 🤦🏿I wish your mentality wasn’t so naive and narrow to post stuff like that 😩 in a year or 2 a new game will come out that might look better, it’s the nature of the industry.

Now that the distraction is gone I feel that is a good thing that the graphics in games are starting to hit the rooftop and hopefully the developers will put more thoughts into story and gameplay mechanics than just the next shiny oily skin of old.

Reaper22_9d ago

So true. Not surprised by all the negativity. It's a really good game and looks better than any game I've ever seen. GOTY nominee for sure. Like I said before, sony screwed up big time by not purchasing Ninja Theory.

Asplundh9d ago

Pretty much. It's like how the Switch and Steam controller using haptic feedback in their controllers wasn't a big deal but then Sony did it and it was then a "game changer".

fr0sty9d ago

The game runs at as low as 21fps... That isn't much to brag about no matter how good it looks.

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MajorLazer9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

We've had graphical gamechangers before, such as Crysis but those games still had gameplay to compliment it. Hellblade pretty much has none, and only achieved such graphics through being incredibly linear and having very small, closed off environments where very little is happening.

Vx_9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

GFX does not mean anything if the game is boring. It is simple like that and these major companies need to understand this simple concept.

Games are like your lady, she may be beautiful to look at for a while but then it gets boring if her character isn't interesting and fun to be with.

10d ago Replies(7)
Kneetos10d ago

Mario kart 8 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Sonic188110d ago

Horizon forbidden West has great graphics and great gameplay

GamerRN10d ago

Yeah but graphics don't matter, remember?

anast9d ago

@RN

I've been pretty consistent in saying that we need both.

GamerRN8d ago

So until dawn, too human, or whatever those series of games were... Graphic masterpieces it garbage with no gameplay?

VincentVanBro10d ago

I agree and I actually think Forbidden West looks better than Hellblade 2. I easily prefer looking at it at least.

Sonic18819d ago

It does look better in my opinion as well. I don't know why it looks better but there's something about the Decima engine or that guerrilla games is using tricks that we don't know of

Abear219d ago

Can you fly a mount under water in Hellblade 2? I think not! One of the best moments this Gen

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90°

Two Decades Later, the Original Splinter Cell is Still a Masterpiece

They don't make games like this anymore.

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vgvill19d ago

Too dated in my book. The AI is way too unpredictable to be acceptable today. It's definitely a game of its time.

Jingsing18d ago (Edited 18d ago )

Agreed with those sentiments. The quality of the CPU controlled characters make or break a stealth game and they are pretty poor in all the Splinter Cell games by today's standard. This is what led me to playing Spies vs Mercs all the time in later games just to get a better stealth experience from a real person. Arguably Sony are making better stealth games albeit not Tom Clancy stuff.

TheProfessional18d ago (Edited 18d ago )

You should stick with fortnite or one of the countless bloodborne style games then. What a joke.

rlow118d ago

I had a good time with the game. It is a product of its time. But when it came out it was a must have game for a lot of people. I wish Ubisoft would make another game in the series or at least a reboot.

vgvill18d ago

They are making a remake, I think. I loved the original game when it was released, but I tried to play it again in recent years and just couldn't get on with it. The same with the older Hitman games.

PrecursorOrb18d ago

Yeah chaos theory still holds up though I gotta say. If you’re a fan of the series I highly suggest you go back to that one. Ubi has said they are remaking sc for “modern audiences”. I don’t have a lot of faith for the future of that company

Chocoburger18d ago (Edited 18d ago )

Due to the lack of modern stealth games, and me constantly playing the MGS series, I've been looking for alternative stealth games to play, and went back and re-played the SC series recently. I wouldn't call SC1 or SC:PT masterpieces, there are AI issues, they're very much trial-and-error games, and that can lead to a lot of frustration. I also found the stories in this series to be boring, uninteresting, and just sloppily told. Cinematics are also of poor quality for both in-game scenes and CG cut-scenes, the soundtrack didn't leave any impression on me either.

Chaos Theory is better, but there was still a lot of room for improvement, and Double Agent (old gen ver.) was a sloppy mess that ended up a regression from CT. But still, at least they tried back then, these days Ubi-junk doesn't even try to make good games!

HvNzSoul10d ago

Everyone needs to quit with all of the unnessacery Ubi-hate. SC Conviction and Blacklist are both still good games.

HvNzSoul10d ago

Everyone needs to quit with all of the unnecessary Ubi-hate. SC Conviction and Blacklist are both still good games, they just weren't 100% focused on stealth with Conviction and they remedied that in Blacklist. The only thing they have released recently that I was disappointed with was Watch Dogs Legion, and Skull & Bones. Everyone seems to be salty about the misleading trailer for the original Watch Dogs and The Division. Which are also, both good games, and actually Watch Dogs seems like it was ahead of its time even with all the trailer drama (having gone back and played recently, can say the game didnt deserve all the flak). Yeah the misleading E3 trailer that had better graphics than release is understandable to a very small degree, when most Teaser Trailers, or Game Demo's only have that portion of the game developed so they use the highest quality assets of w/e they have being showed, or what they are showing was made purely for the showing, allowing for extra polish . As to the gripes about minor game design changes, or cut features upon a games release just goes to show how unknowledgeable most gamers are in terms of how game development works or to even understand what what the hell a WIP, let alone titles still in early development.

Good games from Ubi since 2014 (Year that SC Blacklist Released) include:

Watch Dogs 1 & 2
The Division 1 & 2 (Although I had a hard time getting into The Division 2 at first)
R6 Siege
Ghost Recon Wildlands & Breakpoint
Immortals Fenyx Rising
AC Origins, Odyssey, MIrage (Haven't finished Valhalla games too damn long)
Far Cry Primal, and 5 (6 also has a length issue)
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
Prince Of Persia The Lost Crown

Haven't played a couple of titles those being For Honor (played at launch but didn't honestly give it an actual go), The Crew, R6 Extraction and at the time of writing this xDefiant.

Even if you absolutely hated any of the above titles, they aren't inherently bad games, they're just good, but not always top quality either.

I say give Ubi credit where credit is due, they at least fix games post launch if they start out rough, Breakpoint is an excellent example this and is such an enjoyable experience now compared to it's launch.