http://pc.ign.com/articles/592/592778p1.html

Personally i think that this is a pretty stupid thing to incorperate. Basically, for those who are too lazy to actually read the article, there is now the rating of Everyone 10+. To me this is practically pointless. There are basically no games on the market that will just be the plane E, because just about every game out today has some sort of violence, and some mischief. I would actually be really suprised if a game came out that was just E.

Meh...thats just me. Discuss.

Heh.

I have yet to see an ESRB "adults only" game.

SWEET! I'm above 10!

Utterly pointless, as some parents are still not going to pay a damned bit of attention to the ratings and complain when their 5 year olds end up playing Doom 3.



And while it's completely off topic, that's wrong. Give me a two button mouse and I can right click in OSX. Remap the right button to Control Click.

its just a joke dude :p

Wow. What the hell man. Just what the hell.

What are you overreacting to now?

Same here. I figure it's because game companies tend to market to kids and teens after all.


<3<3!!!! *SAVES FOREVER*

Which completely defeats the purpose of a "right click".

Actually . . . it's not!

What purpose? The purpose of being exclusive to PCs?

What if you have to CTRL-right click?

Just because you were flaming in that thread for no reason, and me and quite a few others called you out, doesn't mean you have to be bitter.

I'm just amazed at Ian's utter mac fanboyism. The sad part--it's probably got more to do with his bungie infatuation than his love/lackthereof for macs.

i have...

Bah. Whatever. I was partially in hell when I wrote that. I was fighting my printer and it's tendancy to jam every other page, and writing a really LAME 5 page english paper. Not my idea of a fun evening. I needed a break, I came here, I appear to have vented without realizing it.



Yeah, so what? I happen to like Apple over the variety of PC crap on the market. Why do I still use one? I have a need for it, and I'm poor. College does that to people. Same goes for my interest in Bungie. So what? They've made games I've liked since I was EIGHT. It's really little different than all of the Nintendo fanboys, the Playstation fanboys, etc., etc., etc.

Sure, if you ignored the part where I completely debunked you. In this case it was more a combination of genuine curiosity as to what is so controversial, and being annoyed by the fact that 50% of your vocabulary is comprised of, "wow", and "wth?".

There are plenty of games that would fit here. You don't see most of them, but they exist.

Besides, developers should be excited. If I were one, I would take it upon myself to make a really good game that would fit in the all ages E category.

I'm guessing, as a result, a lot of games that would have been rated T are now going to be rated E(10+)

that wasn't what i was referring to. i was talking about the comment that phoenix made about how his mac can right click.

Pfft.

I remember when you had to right click on an Amiga to get the toolbar at the top of the screen to show up, then drag the mouse down to find the option you wanted. Then release the right mouse button to select what you wanted to do.

To be honest, I miss that setup.

And ESRB sux. Let kids get their values from wherever they want.

Sure you did, free, sure you did. If it makes you feel better at night, you did.

I personally don't see what difference it makes, I can still buy any game I want, hell, I bet I could probably buy porn and nobody'd say anything.

The ESRB has nothing to do with values.

I'd love to see you get carded for stuff like that

What's wrong with the BBFC ratings? 15 and 18 is all you need.

ESRB is a good guideline for parents to use when perchasing video games for there kids, however there is nosubstitute for parents who take a proactive stance in choosing their children's entertainment. Checking out a game (playing it, reading about it, etc.) is much more informative about it's appropriateness than a one-inch one-letter sticker on the game's packaging. Parents that use ESRB as their sole guideline when giving games to their kids are only doing half the job.

That said, I also don't agree with Electronics Boutique/ Best Buy/ etc. "carding" kids who come in to buy games. It is not the store's job to police what games kids can play - that's what parents are for.

No...no it's really not. The ESRB is so crappy...they label games very incorrectly.

Bleh.

I think it's better than nothing. At least it gives uninformed parents a chance to look at a game like GTA and say, "Hmmm.... rated M, maybe not so good for little 10 year old Stevie". Of course, as I pointed out, in the end is should be the parents themselves determining what is and what is not appropriate for their kids, not a postage stamp-sized label.

It seems to me like it does the opposite. If they just let the kids buy any game they want, then the kids can forego their parents' approval completely.

I'd say 70% of parents still think of games as "something stupid" and usually take no interest AT. ALL. Plus, kids these days usually can get whatever they want by *****ing 24/7.

my parents are special then...they both play video games...even my mom o_O

Not completely.

1: I don't know about now, but when I was younger I received an allowance which was hardly enough to purchase video games. Even If I was saving up for a video game, my parents would usually know about it. Mostly, I just spent my money on snacks, etc. When I got video games it was usually as a preset or reward from my parents, thus they were doing the buying.

2: If the parents are doing their job and paying even an ounce of attention to what their kids are doing, even if the kid managed to get the game in the house past the parents, how long would it be before the parents knew what the game was all about - and potentially confiscate it.

In either case, good parenting is the only way to keep inappropriate games away from young kids - of course even this isn't perfect, kids will always just go over a friends house who has the game. But as far as kids acquiring the game I still don't think it is Electronic's Boutique's job to decide who is mature enough to handle a certain game.

1) No, it is not better than nothing. My friend's dad won't let him get Halo because it's rated M. And he's 16. It's ridiculous. It should be rated Teen, it's really not that bad. Just some gratuitous blood, and maybe the odd cuss word?

And not to mention, a parent can pay attention to every aspect of what a kid's doing, and the kid can still slip through the cracks. Doesn't mean they're doing a bad job of parenting. You forget, you can't watch kids all the time, you have to give them some alone, private time.

The ESRB is very good at rating games. I mean if there is a large ammount of combat, blood, gore, and violence in a game, they have every right in the world to rate it M. Grand Theft Auto is a great example. Sexual Themes/Content, violence, language etc... If anything the ESRB was being kind by giving the GTA games a mature rating.



Your friends dad just doesn't want his son playing those kinds of games. He's trying to be a good parent. Nothing wrong with that. Even if you think it's stupid because kids will find ways to play these games blah blah and they really aren't that bad. Atleast the PARENT is doing all he can to prevent his child from being exposed to things he doesn't want him exposed too (so is the ESRB).

Jesus christ SAJN, take the most obviously M rated title and use it as an example. I'm talking about the fringe titles. I have no qualms with GTA being rated M, because it REALLY really needs to be. But some games don't. Halo being one of them. Sure there are guns and combat, but it's fictional, with minor blood spatters here and there. Hell, Goldeneye for the 64 had TONS more blood, much more realistic weaponry and combat, and is rated Teen.

You see, the problem is, the father's basing his son's experiences on some stupid rating, and he shouldn't. He should see it in action first. It's ridiculous. He's shortchanging the kid of a fun and enlightening experience...for nothing.

Woah there killer. Don't get yer panties in a knot again. First of all Halo is a much more violent game than Goldeneye. Goldeneye is not filled to the brim with buckets of blood, but neither is Halo. Halo is a more violent game and detailed game though.

Halo - M for Blood and Gore,Violence
Halo 2 - M for Blood and Gore,Language,Violence

Goldeneye - T for Animated Violence,Animated Blood

TEEN
Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood and/or infrequent use of strong language.


MATURE
Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain mature sexual themes, more intense violence and/or strong language.

my grandma plays Zelda. Constantly.

She mastered link to the past, orcarina of time and majora's mask. Dunno about others.

Yeah Goldeneye had nothing but red blurs when you shot them.

In Goldeneye, you get shot, a red blur appears under you and you do a cute little death animation where your screen fades to red.

In Halo, you get shot by a rocket launcher, blood splatters everywhere, and your body goes flying through the air and smacks into a wall or hits the ground.

Yoshi, you're not your friend's dad. Your friend's dad is your friend's dad. Who said he decided Halo wasn't good for his son based solely on the rating? And even if he did it is still irrelevant. He is just trying to do his job parenting using the resources available to him (the ratings). I'm sure your friend is quite capable, if he wanted, of asking his father to download the Halo PC demo and play it to get a more accurate idea of the game's contents (assuming they have a PC that can run it I guess).

But ultimately that is an issue that needs to be resolved between your friend and his father.