Content Ratings

[Jourdy288]

I was reading an old issue of EGM when I came across an article on the ESRB. That got me thinking about the Pandora (near automatically, in fact) and I began to wonder; what could we have for a ratings system? I doubt the ESRB/PEGI/OFLC etc. would look at games for the Pandora, so perhaps we could have an internal board to do our own ratings like SEGA?

I'd love to take part in something like that, in all honesty I think I'd be quite useful in that department.

 

[danielliu88888]

mature content

no mature content

 

[Vorporeal]

Seeing as you're not old enough (technically) to play M-rated/AO-rated games, you wouldn't be a very good candidate for doing ESRB-style ratings.

 

[Consequence_9]

I was reading an old issue of EGM when I came across an article on the ESRB. That got me thinking about the Pandora (near automatically, in fact) and I began to wonder; what could we have for a ratings system? I doubt the ESRB/PEGI/OFLC etc. would look at games for the Pandora, so perhaps we could have an internal board to do our own ratings like SEGA?

I'd love to take part in something like that, in all honesty I think I'd be quite useful in that department.

are you serious? if you know how to operate a pandora chances are you're already old enough for rating systems to not matter. Ratings are all bull anyway.

 

[darien]

If it's on the App Store, most it could have is boobs if I recall correctly. Other than that, if I'm the author of the game, it will have obscene language or sometimes suggestive cursing. There's your ESRB ratings.

 

[craigix]

If it's on the App Store, most it could have is boobs if I recall correctly. Other than that, if I'm the author of the game, it will have obscene language or sometimes suggestive cursing. There's your ESRB ratings.

I'm not too worried if it has more than boobs, but it can't just be porn. There is a fine line and I guess we will know it when we see it.

 

[MDave]

If it's on the App Store, most it could have is boobs if I recall correctly. Other than that, if I'm the author of the game, it will have obscene language or sometimes suggestive cursing. There's your ESRB ratings.

I'm not too worried if it has more than boobs, but it can't just be porn. There is a fine line and I guess we will know it when we see it.

You might get bitten in the ass by some country's law if you don't look into it now and not when it's already too late

 

[God Ginrai]

If it's on the App Store, most it could have is boobs if I recall correctly. Other than that, if I'm the author of the game, it will have obscene language or sometimes suggestive cursing. There's your ESRB ratings.

I'm not too worried if it has more than boobs, but it can't just be porn. There is a fine line and I guess we will know it when we see it.

So no port of GP LadyKiller? ;P

-God Ginrai

 

[Wolenber]

I know for the US at least, all he'd have to do is slap a warning when you enter the site that says it may contain adult content, and that would cover anything they decided to put on it. I'm sure for most other countries a generic warning up front would work too.

 

[Jourdy288]

Naturally I'd avoid anything too violent seeing as I'm too young (and quite frankly, don't want to deal with) that sort of thing, and what exactly is it you plan to put in the App Store?!

I'm getting my little sister one of these things, I'd hate to... ugh.

@Consequence9:
I do think that the ESRB has gotten worse in it's ratings, too lenient in some areas, too restrictive in others. However, I still think we need a ratings system, all our own.

 

[NLS]

Can't people just mark their own apps/games as they see fit in the description?
If I were to make and app with boobs in it, I'd be responsible enough to warn anyone in the description that it's not for kids. That way, you don't need whoever works on the app store to verify and rate everything that's uploaded. Same would go for extreme violence.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Parental Alarm Factor

 

[Wheels]

I'm not too worried if it has more than boobs, but it can't just be porn.

So if we include some other stuff it should be okay?

 

[Jourdy288]

@NLS:
Totally agree.

I'm totally sure (ok, somewhat sure) that our developers are responsible enough to warn you of that kind of stuff, but what I had in mind was something more along the lines of, say, more minor things. Suppose your game contains the word 'dadgummed' (not that it should...) and some parents allow it, some won't. That kind of thing should be in the ratings system, get my drift?

My parents let me play whatever I'd like, but I'm very selective in my games.

Also, I think that we should have, for those dadgummed little things, perhaps just a mention of this in the description, while for situations where kids shouldn't be/it could be offensive to some there should be a universally recognized warning.

 

[DaMummy]

really? this is what we're gonna sink to? we're just gonna go from an open source community to a full blown "industry" w/o ever passing go and collecting our $200?

 

[lulzfish]

really? this is what we're gonna sink to? we're just gonna go from an open source community to a full blown "industry" w/o ever passing go and collecting our $200?

Who said industry?
We just want a way to summarize the content of a game so parents don't BAAAAAW at Craig for selling a system that can watch / play porn.

Maybe a huge warning label that says "We are not responsible for the content of anything you put on this system", like on Linux CDs. "no warranty whatsoever".

 

[WizardStan]

really? this is what we're gonna sink to? we're just gonna go from an open source community to a full blown "industry" w/o ever passing go and collecting our $200?

Who said industry?
We just want a way to summarize the content of a game so parents don't BAAAAAW at Craig for selling a system that can watch / play porn.

Maybe a huge warning label that says "We are not responsible for the content of anything you put on this system", like on Linux CDs. "no warranty whatsoever".

Also, without content ratings, how will you know what stuff is really good?

 

[mali]

I dont think that a full rating system is necessary. Ports of commercial games like Quake need the original game data, which is already rated and has nothing todo with the appstore. Other stuff should also be treated with common sense. Most games won't be too realistic anyway and p0rn should be pretty rare, I guess. Critical games could just be tagged "mature" with a popup warning when trying to download from the app store.

 

[Poem58]

I guess I too get annoyed about ratings. Granted if a game was titled "Mario's Wild Ride" and it was all about Mario "riding" Peach without falling off (You know, U,U,L,D,A,B,U..ooops Mario Fell off! Press B as fast as you can to get Mario hard again) Then one could argue about ratings systems.

As for ESRB ratings like the following:

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.

ADULTS ONLY
Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.




There will be some who think certain software should be in the Mature category and some that think it should be in the Adults Only category.
As long as the app store allows comments about downloaded software, then this should keep problems from popping up.
I think personally a Dev should mention of any software has any content that is say, not safe for work, inappropriate for children, etc. But ratings "systems"<---(finger quotes) are just to generic and should be avoided. Simple, descriptive text, is all that is needed.

I'd hate to think that the community would have to worry about software being delayed for categorization under a ratings system. Or having software pulled for incorrect placement under the wrong rating etc. A good software description should make the end user aware enough of what they are downloading, and I trust no one is going to try to sneak in Porn images just to see if I get mad cause my 5 year old played the game and saw it.

Just my opinion on it...not that it is worth much.

 

[Tensuke]

I too think there's no need for a real ratings system, although maybe some would prefer to have an nsfw tag, so one could browse games and exclude those marked as nsfw?
Also I never noticed that AO is for 18+, pretty stupid that they have a 17+ AND 18+ rating, as if one year makes any real difference... :rolleyes: