You're probably too young to remember the huge debacle over censored music and such...but it's happened and been worked through already. The video gaming controversy is more current event, but I can guarantee that in some years it'll all be worked through and we'll all forget about it and move on to whatever.

I always get carded when I try to buy M games from Wal-Mart. And the new Leisure Suit Larry game sucks. Absolutely boring and repetitive.

Uh... you ever seen that little "parental warning: explicit content" thing on these rap cd's that you're referring to? It's not like they'll card you for that or anything....

Or maybe that's just the area that I live in.

Hmmm, this is interesting, especially since I just walked into GameStop in Asheville mall last Thursday, and bought UT2k4 Editor's Choice on DVD (which is rated "M" for anyone who doesn't know) without any questions asked. Saying that, I am 16 (and many people have asked me what college I go to, when in fact I'm just a 10th grader), so that could explain why. Stilll, if new rules are being enforced, it seems funny that the retailer wouldn't ask for some ID?

That is because we will be fired for selling M Rated games to minors.

Despite how much I loathe Walmart, I need my job.

The decison to ID people buying games is up to the retailer. In some caes, it might even be the owner of the store rather than the chain itself.

One time, my brother borrowed his friend's snes. He had MK3, and we were playing that. My mom found out and made us stop (I was I think 15 at the time, my brother 10).
Well, I was like "I can't wait till I'm 17; then I won't have to put up with this anymore"
My mom's like "What do you mean? AS long as you live here, you'll never play M games"

Way to crush my hopes, mom!
This is the only thing stopping me from getting HL and a few other games that I can't remember atm. (I am 17 now, so there's no legal issue anymore. HA!)

Is there ANYONE here who has parents like mine who don't allow you to get these games (and not just because you're a 'minor'; I mean indefinitely -- simply because it's 'M')
I don't know anyone who shares this situation.

I wouldn't feel too bad about it, you'll be off to college pretty soon probably, and there's always your friends' houses in the meantime.

And as for anyone stuck in a similar situation, one of my friends wasn't allowed to watch James Bond movies - and I don't mean the lastest ones, I mean the original '60s movies as well. And he was about 13 at the time!

Gamestop refused to sell me Painkiller: Battle out of Hell. Which is funny because I obviously need to own Painkiller (Rated 'M') to play the expansion. The guy at the counter told me that I need parental consent, because for all he knows my mom might not want me to own the game... I already OWN Painkiller, the expansion is rated 'M' for the same reason the game is...So my mom might not approve of a bloody expansion but she approves of a bloody game :p

I never had any problems with buying 'M' rated games until that one.

So I bring my mom in and the guy is like "You sure you want to buy this?" She is like "Yes" the guy at the store says "You know because it has gore, blood, violence, horror, death, killing, demons...". My mom already knows this as she has seen me play Painkiller! The guy was trying to convince my mom out of buying the game -_-.

Me? I just turned 18 and got the hell over it. So much easier that way.

I once bought a two pack of Shogo and Septerra Core... Shogo is M, at Wal*Mart

Yeah it's a big conspiracy to not let you buy the game
I worked at gamestop. The managers are encouraged strongly to make sure the parent knows exactly what they are buying their kid. In turn, regular employees are also. It's a public service, they don't have to make sure the parents know...but the parents appreciate that the employee is just making sure they really know what's going on. I can't believe how many people came in to buy their kid a game, and didn't even really know what it was about. Several times a week a parent decided not to buy a kid a game because the child had mislead their parents. "Are you serious? No, billy, you can't have this game! You said it wasn't violent...".

GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

Yeah but I've never had that problem before. I mean I know all the guys at this Gamestop pretty well. Unless the man at the top caught up with them..In which case bullocks

That could be the case. I know when I was working there, it was a really tight-knit community between stores and such. Everybody from our district knew each other, and we had halo-lans and such. It's actually a really great job, if you can get past the entrylevel-minimumwage position. One of my long-time childhood friends (who was my store manager @ 20) is now a district manager at 21. He's the youngest district manager in gamestop history, and deservedly so...he's an awesome people person and lives for games.

My parents are the same way - but I think worse yours. I'm 13, and I even have to fast-forward through some scenes in LotR, and the only R-rated movie I've ever seen was at the college I go to. (Long story.) I have never played a single M game, and I'm not allowed to read the Harry Potter books or watch the HP movies - they contain witchcraft and are therefore "demonic."

The sad truth is, as SG1_129 and Freelancer said...if the ESRB didn't come into being and help the industry foster self regulation, Lieberman and co would be regulating it right now and we'd have nothing but crap titles.

I'm glad the industry was wise enough to see what would have happened, and took logical steps to avoid that.

I agree. After school shootings and such with no one left to blame, they were going to blame videogames. I had only been carded once, that was when I went to buy Perfect Dark a couple years ago. I didn't have my license, so I had my then fiancee show hers. This was at Wal*Mart.


Man, I'm glad I work at Target:P

Target ro><0rs! Seriously, I think they are a better a store than Wal-Mart on so many different levels. Generally, they are much cleaner and brighter, the people working there are friendlier (at least they are at all the Targets I've been to), and their products are reasonably priced and sometimes the cheapest around. I love their stores!

I've played through all of them, and I am currently playing through the latest one. They're a lot of fun, and good for many laughs.

I just went to EB and picked up The Getaway: Black Monday and didnt get asked for ID or anything. Maybe they only card you if you look younger than 17.

I've never been carded, but then agian, I don't purchase too many games. And most games I've purchased recently have been online purchases (I'm still kicking myself that I forgot to redeem the promotion code for a free copy of XIII when I bought PoP:WW).

I've been asked for my birthdate at Target, but never had to show ID.

Well, I ended up getting Diablo 2, and the expansion for 25 bucks...In another city (I had an appointment :D) I went into EB in some mall and bought it, I asked the guy after I bought it what's up with all this M rated stuff, he told me that it was because the companies (I'm assuming the video game companies and ESRB) got together just after Christmas and decided make a contract, instead of a law to "crack down" on this crap so the parent might not get pissed off and go suing the company for millions of dollars for selling a video game which could potentially make the kid want to shoot people at school due to being pissed off. Then I asked him if he really cares, he said yes, that he did but it depends on what game, and how old and mature the kid seems... So I'm thinking I could go to my mother right now, get her all hyped up and she'll sue the EB Games for millions of dollars for him selling the game to me, an "under the Mature rated age group" a mature game based on the devil, that we'll win, and I can have a better life, and he'll get fired, and sued by EB games then he'll commit suicide and it'll all be my fault, the end.

No, I'm not... I got my game, I’m happy. I see a place for this rating system and believe it's there for a good reason and that it should be enforced, but come on. This is just ridiculous.

Christ. You make me glad my parents are normal.

Wait...your 13 and you go to college?

And yes your parents are tyranical. I honestly would have run away from home by now if I was you.

see, that is why in australia, we have more ratings and only two of them have any compulsory part to them.

G- recomended for all ages.

PG- parental guidence recomended for persons under 15 years.

M- recomended for persons 15 years or over. (this rating contains a great many R movies from the U.S)

MA- Only persons over fifteen and those inder fifteen who are accompanied by a parent or guardian may buy tickets/ buy this film. (this rating is for the more worse of the U.S rated R movies and probably some NC-17 movies)

R- Only those over the age of 18 may watch this film. (note 1: A parent that has a young baby [up to about one year I think it is] the parent may take that child in)

(note 2: Nothing can stop a parent from letting their child watching an R rated film at home)

(note 3: This is very rarely given to theatricly released films. this is prety much the equivilant to the worse NC-17 films and all of those pr0n films.)

for games, I think we have the same system as you guys. Except our ****ing government thinks that Australians aren't able to handel games with extreme sexual content and that if we play them we will go on sexual rampages (note: R rated games without sexual cxontent are reslapped with an MA rating)

so if we want uncut games, we need to order them from overseas. (We can get uncut GTA 3 from the Kiwis. finaly we have found a use for that semi-colen of the south pacific :p )

My grandfather refers to a family friend of his who has banned their kids from read HP as a Crank. The fact that that family is also one of those "go to church every sundy or face eternal damnation" types may also have some influence on his think of that family (i.e. the parents).