Poll: Over Rated

[Demon_Zeya]

A lot of games are rated high for good reasons, but some are exsessively high. I've been badgering my parents to get me the ES4: Oblivion- GotY edition, but since it's rated M for "blood," my dad is against it. He says, and I quote: "Sex, drugs, and alcohol I won't mind you seeing in a game, but lots of blood will be bad."

Bad? Bad? what the hells wrong with red colored water flying every time you hit something alive?


But really, what are your personal Over-Rated games?

 

[Leorex]

gta 4, oh look some dumb ass pixel is dressed like a slutty dirty pixel. saying bad bad pixelating words.

 

[Altorin]

A lot of games are rated high for good reasons, but some are exsessively high. I've been badgering my parents to get me the ES4: Oblivion- GotY edition, but since it's rated M for "blood," my dad is against it. He says, and I quote: "Sex, drugs, and alcohol I won't mind you seeing in a game, but lots of blood will be bad."

Bad? Bad? what the hells wrong with red colored water flying every time you hit something alive?


But really, what are your personal Over-Rated games?

That's not usually what over rated means. The only reason Oblivion was rated M was because of hanging zombies and some unused textures for topless women that were hidden in the files and never used.

It was originally rated T, and they had to recall it and change it.

 

[Barry93]

all of them, ratings seem pointless to me because kids know those things exist anyway. I guess that means you never played God of War, and i pity you for that. If half your creen isn't covered in blood, your not playing it right.

 

[Altorin]

yeah plus hacking and slashing people from a first person perspective isn't really teen material in their eyes.

it was approved and released as a T rated game.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

Actualy, your dad has the right idea. It sickens me the way people are so much more okay with their kids seeing heads lopped off than an exposed female nipple.
Ratings are a guideline to help parents/guardians decide what they're okay with their children seeing. They're pretty much fine as is.

 

[AceDefective]

Oblivion was made M because of some nude mods

 

[Steeveeo]

I agree that sometimes the ESRB can be, at times, a little overzealous in the ratings, but on the question to the poll:

I do not think lessening the ratings will even DO much for kids who've "seen it all" in video games, likely because their parents stupidly bought a 6 year-old Mortal Kombat or the like. When parents decide to totally throw the ESRB's rating out the window and buy their kid a Mature rated game WAY before they're legally supposed to be able to play, that's when the ratings become essentially meaningless. Instead of keeping the impressionable away, parents decide to get the game and then blame the industry for violently misbehaving children.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

There are some instances of the ESRB rating being completely inappropriate. Some E-rated Mega Man games have swearing and/or suggestive content, while a game like Project Snowblind or Zone of the Enders has a pretty much completely undeserved M rating.

I'm fine with the ratings system, but the people who classify games should play at least to the end of a game before deciding on a rating. I get the impression (from the ratings) that this doesn't always happen.

Besides, most parents are morons who don't care about the ESRB, don't understand it, or don't make an effort to be involved in their child's life and so don't KNOW what games their kid is playing. No offense to the good parents (all six of you.)

 

[Erana]

What I want to know is why Halo was rated "M." I mean, the flood isn't possibly that bad; they're less graphic than eating a roasted chicken.

 

[Altorin]

There are some instances of the ESRB rating being completely inappropriate. Some E-rated Mega Man games have swearing and/or suggestive content, while a game like Project Snowblind or Zone of the Enders has a pretty much completely undeserved M rating.

I'm fine with the ratings system, but the people who classify games should play at least to the end of a game before deciding on a rating. I get the impression (from the ratings) that this doesn't always happen.

Besides, most parents are morons who don't care about the ESRB, don't understand it, or don't make an effort to be involved in their child's life and so don't KNOW what games their kid is playing. No offense to the good parents (all six of you.)

they rarely play the game.. they ask for the worst content available in the game's files (whether they're used in the game or not), and rate the game based on that. If a developer fucks up, like Rockstar, or Bethesda did, and either intentionally or unintentionally forget to submit something, and it comes out after the game's release.. they have to spend a buttfuckingload of money to recall the game and put the new rating on it. It happened to Oblivion and San Andreas. I'm sure it's happened to others.

So, because companies don't want that, they freely give their worst to the ESRB for rating.

 

[Demon_Zeya]

Actualy, your dad has the right idea. It sickens me the way people are so much more okay with their kids seeing heads lopped off than an exposed female nipple.
Ratings are a guideline to help parents/guardians decide what they're okay with their children seeing. They're pretty much fine as is.

You've got a point in this, but what I'm saying is that he takes it too seriously. Some hanging zombie's aren't going to give me a mad slaughtering rage, mostly because I already have one,... since I was 10...

 

[Xan Krieger]

Oblivion was made M because of some nude mods

completely optional mods should not be taken into account when rating a game. It's like the whole hot coffee thing with San Andreas, the average kid won't see it or even know it's there.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

Actualy, your dad has the right idea. It sickens me the way people are so much more okay with their kids seeing heads lopped off than an exposed female nipple.
Ratings are a guideline to help parents/guardians decide what they're okay with their children seeing. They're pretty much fine as is.

You've got a point in this, but what I'm saying is that he takes it too seriously. Some hanging zombie's aren't going to give me a mad slaughtering rage, mostly because I already have one,... since I was 10...

So you're saying he should let you see blood and gore because you're already more than okay with blood and gore?
Think about it, dude. That's some pretty flawed reasoning.

But yeah, you should probably rent or borrow the game and then get him to watch you play it. Oblivion is pretty mild, in my opinion, so after seeing it he should be okay with it.

 

[Altorin]

Oblivion was made M because of some nude mods

It was made M because it was shown that the textures used in the mod were included in every copy of oblivion, sitting there unused until the modding community found it, and the ESRB rates EVERYTHING included in a game, even if it's unaccessible. It's the same reason there was a huge ESRB uproar and recall of San Andreas over the Hot Coffee footage.

Also, there were some mutilated corpses in the game that were presented to the ESRB with dark lighting. In brighter light it was found to be a straw breaking the camel's back on the M rating, and a recall was ordered.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Heck Oblivion is a lot more mild than say Jericho or Soldier of Fortune.

The categories are to general in my opinion. And frankly, I'm surprised you're Dad cares enough to express such concern. Most parents don't seem to give two shits about their kid, then complain when it backfires.

 

[TaborMallory]

What I want to know is why Halo was rated "M." I mean, the flood isn't possibly that bad; they're less graphic than eating a roasted chicken.

Indeed. I have no idea why Halo was rated M. One of my friends still isn't allowed to play it, because he's not 18 yet.

 

[Ancientgamer]

Blood in oblivion can be turned off, and there's no gore. It's less violent than most star wars games.

There's absolutely no reason it shouldn't be teen.

 

[hopeneverdies]

Steam it seems is pretty relaxed on the whole ESRB thing, so if you have a gaming PC, try to get games there. When buying any game including M "Click here if you are 13 or over". My parents don't even know the majority of the Orange Box is rated that high.
So a body in TF2 explodes into bits, I'm not going to go out and test that with an Anti Tank launcher am I?

 

[Dys]

A lot of games are rated high for good reasons, but some are exsessively high. I've been badgering my parents to get me the ES4: Oblivion- GotY edition, but since it's rated M for "blood," my dad is against it. He says, and I quote: "Sex, drugs, and alcohol I won't mind you seeing in a game, but lots of blood will be bad."

Bad? Bad? what the hells wrong with red colored water flying every time you hit something alive?


But really, what are your personal Over-Rated games?

I actually agree with your dad, I think it is far worse for young people to be exposed to violence than sex/swearing/normal situations. (I haven't any remote clue how old you are, but it's been shown people under/around 13 can be heavily affected by video games..might be nice if the ratings were done to mirror that but whatever, I'll try to stay on topic...) I think the ERSB ratings could perhaps be more consistant, however I don't think they should be tuned down because of worse things children have potentially seen.

Someone is always going to lose out in a blanket rating system, and ultimately it is your parents choice as to whether they think the ratings reflects whats best for you or not.