Controversial game gets new rating – Video Game News – Yahoo! Video Games

Controversial game gets new rating – Video Game News – Yahoo! Video Games

M-kay….

I have to admit to being confused about this one. OK, so the game’s original version was quite violent and had been toned down. That part I get. It’s the seemingly insane American rating system that I can’t get my head around.

You see, for those who aren’t familiar with it, in the UK computer games either use a system similar to the rating system for films. The film ratings go like this: U, PG, 12, 15, 18. Or the games use the Pegi (Pan European Game Information) system, which rates the game on the intended audience age (e.g. 7+, 12+, 16+, etc), but also contains specific information helpful to parents, so warns if the game contains any of the following: bad language, discrimination, drugs, fear (likely to scare children), gambling, sex, or violence.

Here’s where I get confused about the American system:

…the launch was indefinitely delayed after the Entertainment Software Rating Board, an industry group, slapped it with an adults-only rating, for consumers 18 and older. It also faced bans in several European countries.

An “AO” rating would have essentially prevented the game from being sold. Large retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. don’t stock “AO” games, and the three major console makers – Microsoft Corp., Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. – do not allow “AO” games on their systems.

“Manhunt 2″ maker Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. said the revamped version of the game received a less-stringent “M,” or mature, rating for consumers age 17 or older.

So the game originally gets an AO rating, so only 18 year olds can play it. This means most retailers won’t sell it and none of the three console manufacturers would allow it to be released on their consoles, so it would be a PC only title that no-one could buy.

However, then the game gets edited into an M rating, so only 17 year olds can play it.

Does anyone else see the problem there? There’s only one year difference between the AO and the M rating. What could possibly happen to American children in that one extra year of growth that would make them more mature and less impressionable? I accept that the distinction between childhood and adulthood is, and always had been fuzzy and hard to define, but one year?!?

There’s a three year gap between the UK 15 and 18 rating for a reason, which is precisely to prevent this kind of idiocy.