![]() ![]() This highest ranking is given out only in rare, extreme cases Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo do not allow AO games on their platforms and their sale is heavily restricted. Interestingly, there’s a ranking above Mature (17+), dubbed Adults Only (18+). Needless to say, these sorts of titles and their violent content tend to be locked behind age ratings, determined by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board similarly to movies. ![]() Then there's Mortal Kombat and its grisly Fatalities, which didn't go down particularly well with some parties either. Doom, with its roster of ghastly demons, has been criticized for its violence since the franchise began. ![]() "It was not easy to understand, and the conversations were vague.Controversy has always blighted the gaming industry. That left Rockstar without a clear understanding of what pushed the game over the edge into AO territory, Walker says. ESRB president Patricia Vance says it was based on "several factors, including not only the content itself and the context in which it is presented, but also elements such as the reward system and degree of player control." ![]() That rating effectively bans games because Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will not approve AO titles for their game systems, and retailers won't stock them.īut the ESRB had already given the game an AO, a decision announced the next day. That same day, advocacy groups in the USA pressured the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to rate the game AO, focusing on the Wii's interactive nature in the killing. The board banned the game on June 19, citing "sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game." (Rockstar is appealing the decision.) The last game the board banned was pedestrian hit-and-run Carmageddon in 1997. The first hint of trouble for Manhunt 2 came from the British Board of Film Classification (which also handles games). Late last year - about the time the Wii game system was being launched - Rockstar contacted Nintendo about designing Manhunt 2 for the Wii, because its motion-sensitive controller system promised unparalleled immersion into the game as compared with the usual button-based controllers. His quest to uncover his identity then leads to encounters with sadistic killers and sexual deviants. He's an amnesiac who has been experimented on and must go on a killing spree - using weapons, from hypodermic needles to an ax - to get out of the ward. Manhunt 2's story line has psychiatric patient Daniel Lamb escaping during a power outage. That game, which sold about 1 million copies, put players in the role of a death row escapee hunted in a gruesome contest, orchestrated by an unseen director, in which the methods of murder escalated. After the changes, "it's still Manhunt," he says. "We were planning an M-rated game," says Rockstar's Rodney Walker. 31, $30-$40) along with some insight into the approval process. Recently, a three-man team from Rockstar offered a preview of the finished game, now rated Mature for ages 17-up (due Oct. So the developer's dilemma became how to change it enough to satisfy the board but retain its (literal) cutting edge. With its new Manhunt 2, Rockstar Games wanted instead to make players wince in horror.īut the industry's rating board winced first: Manhunt 2 received a dreaded AO - Adults Only - in June, equivalent to an X-rating for a movie. — - The Holy Grail of video games has been to create an experience that, like the best movies, can make you cry. ![]()
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