28 replies to this topic

[Wizard]

BBC News

What do you guys think?

Edited by Wizard, 27 March 2008 - 15:07.

[TehKiller]

IMO ratings are pretty much useless as almost nobody cares about it....people try it and if they like they play it but if they dont like what they see than they will stop playin it. Also nowadays people can see the difference between right and wrong.

[Dauth]

Tbh, kids get the games anyway, why waste resources trying to stop them? Let the kids fry their brains legally.

[Slightly Wonky Robob]

Physical age never has been an never will be an indication of mental maturity... so i haven't the foggiest why games/movies/etc. a rated in such a way.

At the end of the day, it really should be up to parents/guardians to decide what their children are getting up to... but having said that, if a child wants something badly enough... they will find a way to get it

[Hobbesy]

Quote

It also recommends that new PCs be sold with software that will help prevent children seeing harmful online content.

FAIL.

[Cuppa]

Høbbes, on 27 Mar 2008, 14:37, said:

Quote

It also recommends that new PCs be sold with software that will help prevent children seeing harmful online content.

FAIL.

How so?

[Lizzie]

Ratings mean little in the long run. And whats so hard to understand about the ratings.
M for Mature. It's not that hard to understand IMO.

[Nid]

Lady Elizabeth, on 27 Mar 2008, 23:12, said:

Ratings mean little in the long run. And whats so hard to understand about the ratings.
M for Mature. It's not that hard to understand IMO.

In UK the Game Ratings are set by Age, not Letters with meanings. Logically It should be even EASIER to understand, unfortunately some Parents these days can't count or even read numbers.

[Lizzie]

Nidmeister, on 27 Mar 2008, 19:17, said:

Lady Elizabeth, on 27 Mar 2008, 23:12, said:

Ratings mean little in the long run. And whats so hard to understand about the ratings.
M for Mature. It's not that hard to understand IMO.

In UK the Game Ratings are set by Age, not Letters with meanings. Logically It should be even EASIER to understand, unfortunately some Parents these days can't count or even read numbers.

And yet they further the problem by dumbing it down.
Besides, parents should actually read about the game before getting it. It could seem harmless but end up being like GTA which they hate so much.

[Nid]

Lady Elizabeth, on 27 Mar 2008, 23:19, said:

Nidmeister, on 27 Mar 2008, 19:17, said:

Lady Elizabeth, on 27 Mar 2008, 23:12, said:

Ratings mean little in the long run. And whats so hard to understand about the ratings.
M for Mature. It's not that hard to understand IMO.

In UK the Game Ratings are set by Age, not Letters with meanings. Logically It should be even EASIER to understand, unfortunately some Parents these days can't count or even read numbers.

And yet they further the problem by dumbing it down.
Besides, parents should actually read about the game before getting it. It could seem harmless but end up being like GTA which they hate so much.

Parants should also be able to read before having kids
XD
Bloody chavs...

[Lizzie]

See everyone complains about violent videogames being exposed to their children, but their missing the major piece in the puzzle.

A: Stop buying your child violent videogames in the first place if you don't want them playing them.

B: If your child manages to bypass your authority and procures such a game, and if you find out about it, discipline your child for disregarding your parental authority.
Stop blaming the software they purchase. It doesn't control their mind. And even if it did, if a little piece of plastic can control your child, better then you can, then you have FAILED as a parent.

[Overdose]

Hear, hear.

[MentalAss]

Lady Elizabeth, on 27 Mar 2008, 18:26, said:

See everyone complains about violent videogames being exposed to their children, but their missing the major piece in the puzzle.

A: Stop buying your child violent videogames in the first place if you don't want them playing them.

B: If your child manages to bypass your authority and procures such a game, and if you find out about it, discipline your child for disregarding your parental authority.
Stop blaming the software they purchase. It doesn't control their mind. And even if it did, if a little piece of plastic can control your child, better then you can, then you have FAILED as a parent.

And the Prophet Truth speaks!

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm glad I live in the U.S. of A.w00t.

Quote

It also recommends that new PCs be sold with software that will help prevent children seeing harmful online content.

DOUBLE EPIC FACEPALM




1:Kids will ALWAYS be 20 steps ahead of anything the government or their parents can do. Its misguided at best and hopeless at worst to try and outsmart them. I could download a different browser, temporarily run a different OS(e.g. dual-booting Ubuntu with Windows), or maybe some other way I haven't thought of yet such as disabling/deleting the software's files on the hard drive.
2:If you did make it nigh impossible for kids to disable then it will probably a huge hassle for any adult who uses the computer.
3:I(and many other people), would like to look at things that these will probably label "inappropriate" even if it is relatively tame. That doesn't even include things that it might be more forgivable for(such as p0rn).

[Sgt. Nuker]

Dauth, on 27 Mar 2008, 10:39, said:

Tbh, kids get the games anyway, why waste resources trying to stop them? Let the kids fry their brains legally.

There is no stopping the inevitable.

In other news, I realized that most of the computer games I own have a mature rating, but to be honest, I don't think they really deserve that rating when compared to games, such as Hellgate London or the whole of the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series.

The thing that needs the overhaul is what game gets what rating. A game like Dawn of War or Tiberium Wars needs a rating LESS than Mature, seeing as Resident Evil 4 shares the same rating (and we all know RE 4 is 100x more gory than DoW or TW).

[Jok3r]

Agreed! not that ANYONE listens to the ratings to begin with...
~Swimmer

[Lizzie]

Major Nuker, on 27 Mar 2008, 21:25, said:

Dauth, on 27 Mar 2008, 10:39, said:

Tbh, kids get the games anyway, why waste resources trying to stop them? Let the kids fry their brains legally.

There is no stopping the inevitable.

In other news, I realized that most of the computer games I own have a mature rating, but to be honest, I don't think they really deserve that rating when compared to games, such as Hellgate London or the whole of the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series.

The thing that needs the overhaul is what game gets what rating. A game like Dawn of War or Tiberium Wars needs a rating LESS than Mature, seeing as Resident Evil 4 shares the same rating (and we all know RE 4 is 100x more gory than DoW or TW).

Yea I've noticed this too.

Example: On the rating for MechAssault. It says blood, yet I've yet to see a SINGLE drop of blood anywhere in the game.
It's just Mechs tearing each other and the environment apart.

The rating system as it is, is silly enough. No need for dumbing it up even more.

[RaiDK]

Quote

I don't think they really deserve that rating when compared to games, such as Hellgate London

Meanwhile I personally think Hellgate London needs WAY more blood

[Hobbesy]

You can always trust the ESRB to be biased against most games.

Edited by Høbbes, 28 March 2008 - 19:00.

[Rayburn]

Our rating uses numbers too; Free for all, 6+, 12+, 16+ and 18+
All RTS end up at 16+, all FPS at 18+
On top of that, most of our games, even those which are rated 18+ already, are censored i.e. no blood, no ragdoll.
Sometimes, they even censor mere words, for example in C&C3. In the German version, the nuclear missile is called "Aurora-Missile" because apparently, the word "nuclear" is bad for youngsters. It really brings my piss to a boil how disrespectful this is towards the developers. To our politicians, all that matters is that there is violence in the game. Whenever there is violence, the rest doesn't matter anymore. Many people now import their games from Austria or acquire them by illegal means, so all the rules do bugger all except that they hurt our economy. On top of that, there are double-standards. The uncut version of World in Conflict - the censored version simply uses more harmless names for nukes, napalm and stuff, totally ridiculous - is 18+ whilst Company of Heroes is completely free of censorship and 16+. So a game that has the word "nuclear" in it and which doesn't depict detailed violence is 18+ but a game with detailed images of people getting smashed into pieces by artillery-strikes is 16+...Awesome, just awesome...

Another thing is the whole debate whether violent games inspire people to kill in real life. After a series of school shootings, the politicians blamed videogames, mainly CounterStrike. The media depicted it as the source of all evil in the world, dramatising and exaggerating the shit out of it. It really pisses me off, they always depict gamers as potential mass murderers, they criminalise you.

Edited by Rayburn, 28 March 2008 - 19:54.

[Dr. Strangelove]

That's what happens when people think they should "help" other people.

[Dauth]

Beware of those who do good in your name...

@Rayburn I assume you import anything you play then?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Rayburn, on 28 Mar 2008, 19:50, said:

Our rating uses numbers too; Free for all, 6+, 12+, 16+ and 18+
All RTS end up at 16+, all FPS at 18+
On top of that, most of our games, even those which are rated 18+ already, are censored i.e. no blood, no ragdoll.
Sometimes, they even censor mere words, for example in C&C3. In the German version, the nuclear missile is called "Aurora-Missile" because apparently, the word "nuclear" is bad for youngsters. It really brings my piss to a boil how disrespectful this is towards the developers. To our politicians, all that matters is that there is violence in the game. Whenever there is violence, the rest doesn't matter anymore. Many people now import their games from Austria or acquire them by illegal means, so all the rules do bugger all except that they hurt our economy. On top of that, there are double-standards. The uncut version of World in Conflict - the censored version simply uses more harmless names for nukes, napalm and stuff, totally ridiculous - is 18+ whilst Company of Heroes is completely free of censorship and 16+. So a game that has the word "nuclear" in it and which doesn't depict detailed violence is 18+ but a game with detailed images of people getting smashed into pieces by artillery-strikes is 16+...Awesome, just awesome...

Another thing is the whole debate whether violent games inspire people to kill in real life. After a series of school shootings, the politicians blamed videogames, mainly CounterStrike. The media depicted it as the source of all evil in the world, dramatising and exaggerating the shit out of it. It really pisses me off, they always depict gamers as potential mass murderers, they criminalise you.

For the things in life that money doesn't buy, there's always torrents.

[Medve]

Well the idea of games making people violent is a big FAIL: People play games to give their anger into the game, not to draw some from it...
And I think that those people who have their mind REALLY "twisted" by the computer, are simply stupid. Computer or not, they wouldn't do well in life.

Medve

[Hobbesy]

They just use violence in video games to cover up the fact that they can't do it themselves. Of course is works because your average Plastic Surgery Loving, Blond All-American is to stupid to know otherwise.

Edited by Høbbes, 28 March 2008 - 20:47.