It's Rated M for a reason!
Posted by DareD3vil2404 July 17, 2005
MATURE
Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language. (Taken from ESRB.org)
For some reason or other Rockstar Games is constantly under the magnifying glass when it comes to their Grand Theft Auto series. Although the company is constantly pushing the envelope when it comes to “questionable material” the game comes with an M rating for the following reasons: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs (according to EBGames.com). So why is it that people even as high as Mrs. Clinton are bashing this company? I'm not a fan of explicit content but in my opinion Rockstar has done nothing wrong according to the ESRB rating system. I'd compare an M rating for a game to an R rating for a movie – and I know there are some pretty provocative R rated movies out there. Some people might want the rating pushed to AO (adult only, 18 and up) but the M rating is 17, what's one year going to do?! It's not like the graphics in the game are as realistic as a game such as Half-Life 2 or Doom 3, so even if Rockstar did put the content in for the “Hot Coffee” mod (contrary to what they are announcing) it's probably not quite as bad as people might think.
So, time to pick the news media apart because they are constantly using video games as a scapegoat. It's particularly interesting to know that the people who seem to be the most outraged about certain video games have never experienced games for themselves. Games are the ultimate escape from reality that are said to be able to both increase your health and help your reflexes. The people that are the most upset obviously parents but if they would just read the labels on the games they give a very clear picture of what the game includes. Other reasons are the fact that the video game industry is growing so large and this game series in particular is quite popular. In fact, many celebrities do voice-overs for the characters in the game including: Ice-T, Clifton Collins Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Penn, Peter Fonda, Charles Murphy, James Woods, William Fichtner, Debi Mazar, Bijou Phillips, Lazlow Jones, and Andy Dick. This game series definitely pulls in a big celebrity cast while other games usually have only one, at most two. The Grand Theft Auto titles are very popular which is probably one of the biggest reason they are under so much scrutiny.
I find it strange that this kind of controversy is coming up in the news when the ESRB rating system is already in place. If they had no ratings and anyone could buy them it might make a little more sense. Again, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas comes with an M rating and in my opinion Rockstar has done nothing that might violate the rating for the game. Even if the ESRB recalled the game, which I highly doubt will happen, it would only be changed from an M rating to an AO rating; the difference in the age requirements to buying the two games being one year. From what I've read I guess it would also be pulled from many retailers but with the polularity of this game series, Rockstar would still sell just as many copies. This controversy is pointless and even though Rockstar originally put out a statement saying that “hackers” were responsible for the Hot Coffee mod (which turned out not to be true according to Gamespot) I still don't think there is much to be upset about besides bad parenting and an overzealous news media.
