What makes a game mature?

[Racecarlock]

This is a question that popped into my mind today, and I think I've got the answer. A game does not become mature when it subtracts out a bunch of stupid violence and replaces it with stuff about the human condition and emotions and thoughts and stuff, and vice versa. I think a game truly becomes "Mature" when it becomes the best at what it is meant to do. When an action game does action perfectly, it is mature. When a heavily story based game that touts non-linearity actually does that well and it feels like you're not being lead along by the nose, then it's mature. Maturity doesn't mean hunkering down and getting a dead end accountancy job, knowing the best years of your life are behind you. Maturity means, at least in my mind, picking a lifestyle then perfecting the lifestyle, making it the best lifestyle or best life possible. That is what I think makes a game, and indeed a person, mature.

So what about you? What makes a game mature to you?

 

[Salad Is Murder]

Whether it can buy me a pack of camels when I send it to the store with 6 bucks.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

A game is mature when you can have fetishistic things that people won't get unless it's their fetish, and still get a less than M rating. Dragon Quest 9 did this so very much...they even pulled a joke about you getting your face massaged between boobs...ah, if only the parents knew what their kids were playing!

 

[bluewolf]

What makes video games mature are those dumb fuckers at the ESRB.

 

[Drakmeire]

When the violence has a purpose, when the sexuality is justified to the storyline, when the choices make you ponder your own morality, that makes a game Mature.
sadly, that means 99% of "Mature" rated games are not Mature.
wow,the word mature losses all meaning pretty fast if you say it a bunch of times

 

[Gabanuka]

Boobs. Lots of boobs.


In all seriousness: and adult story with complex characters and narrative that tackles more adult issues in a sensible and well done way.

 

[Quantom Quak]

If it has values important to any demographic that plays it.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

When it properly handles themes that are not usually considered child friendly...

For example:

Drugs
Violence
Sex
Crime
War

What I mean by "properly" is when the game portrays them as they are in real life
and not as the developers warped vision of such themes.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

A game is mature when it can have mature themes (death, violence, sex, crime, etc) without them being the entire point of the game. The early GTA games, for example, were not mature because even though they had mature elements, they delighted in them the way a child does, gleefully showing them off and making them the focus of the game. GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption, on the other hand, are mature, because they have the exact same elements but instead make the games about their characters and stories. The mature elements just serve to reinforce the type of world the story takes place in, and give a context to the actions of of the various characters.

Niko or Marston's attempts to be "good guys" in the cartoonishly violent worlds of, say, GTA: Vice City or Saint's Row would seem laughably forced, but in their own worlds it comes off as much more serious. Marston can still go on a killing spree and Niko can still hit old ladies with a taxi with no repercussions, but the world and story at least pretend like their are consequences for these actions, which is a big difference in my eyes.

Or, we can look at a game that actually flops from mature to silly within the bounds of its own story. Resident Evil 5 (I know, bare with me for a bit) starts off actually fairly mature. Chris's presence in Kijuju is clearly unwelcome by the locals, and he's completely out of his element as far as the culture goes. The locals aren't portrayed as zombies, just a crazed mob who have been worked into a frenzy. Even when it starts introducing B.O.Ws early on, it still has this element of "This is a really, really foreign, hostile place" and Chris's mission feels less like "save the world" and more like "GTFO as fast as possible". Of course, then Wesker shows up doing his best "Cobra Commander as portrayed by Neo" impression and forces the story in a completely different direction. Sigh.

 

[Yoh3333]

Personally it's when a game handles "mature" content correctly.
Usually, a lot of developers cut back on this content simply because it's harsh. Then there's the counter to that who use this to extremes. (Kane and Lynch)
Rockstar are propably the best at handling this kind of stuff in my opinion

 

[Canadamus Prime]

When the violence has a purpose, when the sexuality is justified to the storyline, when the choices make you ponder your own morality, that makes a game Mature.
sadly, that means 99% of "Mature" rated games are not Mature.
wow,the word mature losses all meaning pretty fast if you say it a bunch of times

That's pretty much what I was thinking, I just couldn't figure out how to phrase it.

A game is mature when you can have fetishistic things that people won't get unless it's their fetish, and still get a less than M rating. Dragon Quest 9 did this so very much...they even pulled a joke about you getting your face massaged between boobs...ah, if only the parents knew what their kids were playing!

It did? I must've missed that part.

 

[Racecarlock]

A game is mature when it can have mature themes (death, violence, sex, crime, etc) without them being the entire point of the game. The early GTA games, for example, were not mature because even though they had mature elements, they delighted in them the way a child does, gleefully showing them off and making them the focus of the game. GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption, on the other hand, are mature, because they have the exact same elements but instead make the games about their characters and stories. The mature elements just serve to reinforce the type of world the story takes place in, and give a context to the actions of of the various characters.

Well, sure if that's what the game is AIMING for. But I think that when a game does what it's aiming for the best it possibly can with the tech at the time, that's when I think a game is mature. SR2 aimed at stupid fun and nailed it right on the head and took certain criticisms into account and improved the mechanics around them, and they're doing the same for SR3. People don't like the respect for missions mechanic, so it's being scrapped and being replaced with using repect points on skills. When a game takes criticism, when a game improves itself to the maximum, that's what makes it mature in my eyes.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

]
It did? I must've missed that part.

Do you remember the pafu pafu attack that early boss does (that Demon/succubus style enemy)? That's what the Japanese call it.


Also, in a later part of the endgame in the Shepard town, you pay a little girl to do it to you, then the screen goes blank and you hear bouncy sounds...it turns out she had 2 sheep massage your face...so yeah, they don't actually do it, they just make a high level joke about it that will go above most people's heads.


That's being mature, not just showing boobs everywhere like in GoW...oh and don't let me get started on all the outfits they let you wear either...there's a bunch of different types of lingerie and other stuff .

 

[Veldel]

When the violence has a purpose, when the sexuality is justified to the storyline, when the choices make you ponder your own morality, that makes a game Mature.
sadly, that means 99% of "Mature" rated games are not Mature.
wow,the word mature losses all meaning pretty fast if you say it a bunch of times

this is exactly what i would say

 

[Racecarlock]

A game is mature when it's smart and serious, and not trying to be goofy and/or comedic.

Take the average Pixar film and compare that to South Park. Pixar is intellectually mature, entertaining children while making their parents think about their mature themes. South Park, on the other hand, is immature, tossing in too many swear-words, sex-jokes, fart-jokes, drug-references, gory-violence, and other offensive content just to make it as "mature" as possible.

For a game to be mature, it doesn't need to offend anyone. It just needs to be intellectual.

In your opinion it does, but does it improve a game if it moves away from its roots (I.E Goofy and comedic) just to make it more "Intellectual"?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

]
It did? I must've missed that part.

Do you remember the pafu pafu attack that early boss does (that Demon/succubus style enemy)? That's what the Japanese call it.


Also, in a later part of the endgame in the Shepard town, you pay a little girl to do it to you, then the screen goes blank and you hear bouncy sounds...it turns out she had 2 sheep massage your face...so yeah, they don't actually do it, they just make a high level joke about it that will go above most people's heads.


That's being mature, not just showing boobs everywhere like in GoW...oh and don't let me get started on all the outfits they let you wear either...there's a bunch of different types of lingerie and other stuff .

Oh yeah right her. I didn't know about the sheep thing though.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

]
It did? I must've missed that part.

Do you remember the pafu pafu attack that early boss does (that Demon/succubus style enemy)? That's what the Japanese call it.


Also, in a later part of the endgame in the Shepard town, you pay a little girl to do it to you, then the screen goes blank and you hear bouncy sounds...it turns out she had 2 sheep massage your face...so yeah, they don't actually do it, they just make a high level joke about it that will go above most people's heads.


That's being mature, not just showing boobs everywhere like in GoW...oh and don't let me get started on all the outfits they let you wear either...there's a bunch of different types of lingerie and other stuff .

Oh yeah right her. I didn't know about the sheep thing though.

It's done after you beat the final boss, in that town where they talk funnily and you help the son of the village leader. I forget the name right now.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Well, sure if that's what the game is AIMING for. But I think that when a game does what it's aiming for the best it possibly can with the tech at the time, that's when I think a game is mature. SR2 aimed at stupid fun and nailed it right on the head and took certain criticisms into account and improved the mechanics around them, and they're doing the same for SR3. People don't like the respect for missions mechanic, so it's being scrapped and being replaced with using repect points on skills. When a game takes criticism, when a game improves itself to the maximum, that's what makes it mature in my eyes.

Maybe so, but a game never got an M rating for being really good. Also, Saints Row may have been a good game but I don't think ANYONE would call it a very "mature" game, seeing as how it had an entire sidequest dedicated to spraying buildings and people with feces. Not that it isn't funny, but it isn't mature either. Maturity requires having a certain amount of human dignity, for yourself and for those around you. A serious contemplation of events and outcomes. Saints Row stands better as the ultimate example of an un-mature game. Its entire premise is a power fantasy. Go blow stuff up, kill anyone you want. Spend several million dollars on an underwear collection. This does not make it bad, in fact, it makes it ridiculously fun. But it prevents it, by nearly every practical definition, from being mature.

You've made the common mistake of assuming that maturity=quality. But don't think that I am trying to say that a mature game has to be completely serious, either. The problem is that, honestly, maturity typically tends towards the mundane and realistic.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

A dude in the ESRB or whatever rater system you got makes it mature.

 

[The Abhorrent]

The difference between "adult content" and "mature content" is somewhat hard to describe, because the two should be one and the same... but the problem is, they aren't. I guess I'll go for the examples then.

SPOILER WARNING!

The God of War series are adult games, but they aren't mature (at least not past the first one). The Extra Credits episode "No Redeeming Value" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/1946-No-Redeeming-Value] does a good job of explaining why the series strayed so far in terms of storytelling. Even then, all the games are guilty of being quite gratuitous with the violence and nudity. The first game can be called mature to an extent, in that it does a great job demonstrating that Kratos isn't a good role model... well, provided you don't ignore his negative traits because of the whole "badassery" thing (and just guess what sequels did).

For a more mature series of games, we have Mass Effect. Unfortunately the games have plenty of opportunities to be very immature (mostly the Renegade options), but it still weighs in some particularly hard questions. Do you spare or kill the Rachni Queen; there is the risk of them attacking everyone in the galaxy again, but has this queen done anything wrong? Is it right to assist the morally ambigious group Cerberus to deal with the Collector threat everyone else is ignoring? Is forcibly reprogramming the Geth the better option over blowing them up? Is it justice or vengeance for Garrus to kill Sidonis? And probably a few more I can't think of at the moment. This isn't to say the game isn't violent (got a few "messy" deaths in there), but it certainly isn't over-the-top blood & gore. Nudity? The first game had some (I believe there's a bare ass or two, can't recall specifically), but done is a tasteful manner; furthermore, it isn't a "fling" either (there is at least one example with this, in that you could have sex with Jack quite early... but that actually is the way to pre-maturely end the romance sidequest with her).

---

Either way, mature games tend to have two main qualities:

1. There is adult content (sex & violence), but they aren't treated as spectacle; their presence isn't gratuitous nor excessive. This is probably the closest description one can get for adult being handled "maturely".

2. Show that there is some morally gray decisions in the world. Not everything is black & white, and maturity often means acknowledging that fact and dealing with that type of situation.