Games with wrong ESRB ratings

[vultar]

Hey all,

I'm apparently supposed to be writing a short research paper about media ethics towards the end of the semester. Right now I don't really know what I'm going to write about, so I'm just looking for information that might lead to something.

So, what I'd like to know is are there any games that got an inappropriate rating? I'm particularly intereseted in games that got lower ratings than they should have, but games that were grossly overrated are good too. Also are there any games that you know of where the rating was changed after it's release? I understand that this is mostly opinion.

I know that this happened to Lunar 2 on the Sega Cd. My copy of Lunar, which is the newer release, rates the game as MA-13 (is that the old teen rating?), while Lunar 2 is rated as E (Lunar 2's humor is quite a bit more raunchy than Lunar's IHMO). Both games have Teen ratings for the PSX re-releases.

If you guys have any suggestions about related stuff I should look into, I'd appreciate that too.

Thanks in advance.

[chrisbid]

i dont have any numbers, but from casual observation, the number of E rated games overall seems to be pretty small now. especially with the new e10 rating. a lot of innocent looking games now have an e10.

are 8 and 9 year olds incapable of playing the legend of zelda twilight princess?

[phreakindee]

Both Gta San Andreas and Elder Scrolls Oblivion were changed to AO ratings once hidden code in the game was discovered. Other games were rereleased with AO ratings by the publisher, like Leisure Suit Larry Magna Cum Laud, but they added that content themselves.

I have thought that game ratings have been pretty accurate for the most part, though when the ESRB was getting started it was really confusing transitioning from things like the RSAC.

Games like Half Life 2 I think should have been rated Teen. There's just a bit of blood, no language or adult situations... Why M?

Also, the ratings of America vs other countries is very interesting. Mass Effect got an M here but Britain got the equivalent of Teen, due to sexual content. And countries like Australia and Germany censor half their crap or ban games entirely, while they may be perfectly fine here or in the UK.

[PapaStu]

Well the ESRB has changed their ratings over time. There didn't use to be a e10 and i'm sure others have changed (as well as the parameters going into them over time). I'll look and see if I can find their ratings scales of yore.

The only one that 'changed' with real fan-faire was GTA: San Andreas which went from a M to AO after Hot Coffee came out.

[RCM]

MA-13 is from Sega's old rating system. As far as I know E-rated games make up a vast majority of the ratings each year.

Anyway, how does a few games you perceive to be over or underrated tie into a media ethics paper?

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Current ratings systems for reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_content_rating_system

Sega's rating system (for MA-13 reference):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videogame_Rating_Council

GA=E for Everyone
MA-13=Teen
MA-17=Mature

Besides Oblivion and GTA: San Andreas, I can't think of a game that was forced to change its rating here in the US post-ship. Re-releases are considered brand new games, which require separate ratings.

The reason for wanting ratings of E10+ and under is due to sales - there's a big drop-off between E10+ and Teen. There's also a big rise in sales between Teen and Mature. Someone can find a chart of this somewhere, probably on Gamasutra.

[BetaWolf47]

There are some games with stuff that just slipped by. When Breath of Fire 2 came out, ESRB hadn't been established. When it was rereleased on GBA, it received an "E" rating, despite it having bad enough language to warrant a "T".

[Gapporin]

I don't know if this falls under your criteria or not, but I remember getting a promo pamphlet that said that Fighters Megamix on the Game.com was rated AO. Try and wrap your head around that for a moment.


And countries like Australia and Germany censor half their crap or ban games entirely, while they may be perfectly fine here or in the UK.

Germany has the BPjM (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (http://www.bundespruefstelle.de/)) index, which means that (as Mobygames points out) "It is illegal to sell or make any indexed games available to minors in Germany and it is illegal to advertise for them in any form, including putting them on store shelves or publishing reviews in gaming magazines. The games technically disappear from the public. The only way to actually buy these games is via request ("under the desk", German unter der Ladentheke). There is, however, absolutely no law forbidding any adult to buy an indexed game listed on the so-called List A or List E (majority of entries)."

Some of the titles that fall under this index include Wolfenstein 3D (obvious reasons), Who Dares Wins, Bank Panic and River Raid (which was only recently de-indexed as of 2003).

[hbkprm]

mgs for gbc

[A Black Falcon]

Blizzard printed the initial (Limited Edition) run of Starcraft boxes with an M rating on the box and jewelcase because they did not have the final rating yet when they were printing it and wanted to err on the side of caution... the final rating was T, of course, and later boxes and jewelcases have the correct rating on them. Even beyond the special box covers or the version number listed on the disc, looking at the rating is an easy way to tell a launch Starcraft jewelcase from a later one. (the launch copies were all limited edition, which just meant that you got a special little marker on the cover saying that and there were three covers, one each for Terran, Protoss, and Zerg. This only affected the box cover though, contents were idential with all three, or later copies as well aside from that rating. I got the Terran box at launch, I did think it was a little lame that the manual and jewelcase inside had the usual Protoss face on them... oh well.)

[wingzrow]

The legend of zelda majora's mask got an E for everyone in north america. This still shocks me with the amount of psychological undertones, among other things, that exist in the game.

I also believe shin megami tensei nocturne got an M in America, and the cero in japan rated it a c or a b there, europe got a different rating there too.

[biscuitdough]

it's pretty rare that i notice a game that's been under rated, usually the opposite, but guilty gear xx for ps2 really shocked me.
It has a T rating, yet with every hit large amounts of blood are flung around, and in one victory pose, a woman turns around (faceing away from the screen) and takes her top off. I mean it would still be a very light M,but it's nothing i would put in the hands of a 13 year old.
Its goofy atmosphere and low profile launch probably kept it out of controversy, but still, quite a bit of blood.

[vivaeljason]

Both Gta San Andreas and Elder Scrolls Oblivion were changed to AO ratings once hidden code in the game was discovered. Other games were rereleased with AO ratings by the publisher, like Leisure Suit Larry Magna Cum Laud, but they added that content themselves.


Wasn't Elder Scrolls Oblivion changed to an "M" rating after the content was found?

[BetaWolf47]

Wasn't Elder Scrolls Oblivion changed to an "M" rating after the content was found?

It's true that the change in rating happened after hidden code was found, but the rating change has nothing to do with the hidden code. The graphical violence in the game was just more intense than was present in the review copy.

[PentiumMMX]

I always though Super Smash Bros. Melee had a wrong rating. A T rating is fine, but it's not that much more violent than the original game (Which got away with an E rating without a problem).

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I wonder if the ratings became more "sensitive" after the Columbine shootings? Perhaps for first-person shooters.

[vivaeljason]

It's true that the change in rating happened after hidden code was found, but the rating change has nothing to do with the hidden code. The graphical violence in the game was just more intense than was present in the review copy.

I stand corrected on the why it was changed, but regardless of that...my contention was that the game was changed to an M, and not an AO.

[Cryomancer]

ESRB is really inconsistent with nudity. If anyone knows situations similar to what I'm about to describe lemme know, I'd be curious about how this happens with God of War, Conan, etc.

Afro Samurai for the 360 has a "Brief Nudity" indicator. There is a level where 4 topless women are shown fullscreen for several seconds, and then you fight them for the rest of the level as regular enemies. Not that you can see much when fighting them, but they are still topless. All of this is in-engine.

HOWEVER, DOA Volleyball on the original Xbox got a full-blown "Nudity" indicator. The only actual nudity in the game is a two-second shot of Christie's butt in the opening video. The gameplay itself has thongs and otherwise fairly revealing outfits, but no actual nudity. This rating was also given before the "bikini with transparency effects + sun visor" camera trick was discovered, in which looking through the visor would make the transparent-effect bikini disappear. The final result? The girls all have stars where their nipples would be. Even with trickery, there is no nudity in this game.

Both games were given full M ratings. Afro Samurai has lots of blood, swearing, etc. DOA Volleyball is one of the most silly bubblegum games ever. It's a girly dress up sports game. There is no violence or language etc. But somehow DOA gets a higher nudity indicator and they get the same rating. My only guess is that perhaps the Brief Nudity indicator was not being used yet, but man that seems inconsistent. Oh, and DOA Extreme 2 for the 360 is an M rating with "Partial Nudity", by the way, whatever that means.

I for one am all for all of these things and more in my videogames, I don't think we should hold media back. But the ESRB's AO rating is exactly the same situation as the movie rating NC-17. Oh sure, it's there. You can even make something that has those ratings. But the stores/theatres are all geared to not allow them (because NC-17 means kids can't go, less ticket sales. AO means kids can't buy it, shelf space being taken up that could have been used to sell <shovelware cartoon game of the moment>), and thus you will not likely be able to make a profit on your work. Movies are somewhat sidestepping this now via "unrated" dvd releases (when they are not just there to make people buy it again, etc), but there is no second-release market for videogames. They could try doing say, titty-filled DLC for games (GTA threw a wang in one of their DLCs, so it's starting at least) but I'm sure someone will bitch about that too.

Because the children!!!11111 (won't someone think of the adults, and their boring entertainment?)

[Aussie2B]

are 8 and 9 year olds incapable of playing the legend of zelda twilight princess?

I think that's actually one of the better uses of the E10 rating. There are some parts that are pretty dark in that game which I imagine would scare little kids. It's when they use it on something like a Donkey Kong game is when I really scratch my head.

Although in general I think the E10 rating is pretty worthless.

ESRB rating are screwy as a whole for the most part. I mean, it's not like the people rating the games actually watch or play through the entire games. The ESRB relies on the publishers to honestly state what content is in their games, but obviously they're going to skew things towards whatever rating they think will result in the best sales for their games. Like with the above Dead or Alive example, it really doesn't matter what's in the games because Tecmo wants the M rating to go along with the image they're trying to portray with those games. If uninformed gamers think they're going to get some nudity, then that's only going to increase sales, so Tecmo will definitely play up whatever the games have. All the ESRB does is view the beginning segments and then maybe some select portions later in a game. It's been very common throughout the history of the ESRB to see something the ESRB descriptors didn't mention at all because the raters likely never even saw that portion of the game. It's never anything mind-blowing, of course, because the publishers know they'd be in deep trouble if there was something really controversial that the ESRB didn't catch, but it's not unusual to see some unmentioned smoking or drinking or what have you.

[bcks007]

The Guy Game.

If it got reprinted, I'm fairly sure it would need a AO rating. It's rumored to have a 17 year old show her self in the game.

[mobiusclimber]

What gets me is that whole Hot Coffee thing with GTA got the game reclassified with an undeserved AO. Look at God of War. It ALSO has minigames where you can have sex with topless women, but this is actually PART OF THE GAME, not some hidden code that's impossible to access. How do the God of War games escape from getting an AO rating when GTA didn't? It's basically just an example of punishment rather than actually rating content. (I also have to wonder if anyone at the ESRB understands unused code and how much of it is in all games that are published. I know news stations don't understand that given their coverage of the Hot Coffee incident.)

[phreakindee]

Wasn't Elder Scrolls Oblivion changed to an "M" rating after the content was found?

Yup, indeed it was changed to M from T.

ESRB Re-ratings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESRB_re-rating_of_The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion)

[PapaStu]

The Guy Game.

If it got reprinted, I'm fairly sure it would need a AO rating. It's rumored to have a 17 year old show her self in the game.

It's not a rumor, It's true (she was 17 at the time of filming, 18 by the time it released and had used a fake id yada yada yada). There are a bunch of threads talking about that game and its drama. The people behind the game are long out of business now and there is no chance of it getting re-released, so why bring it up?

[Famidrive-16]

I still find it funny that Donkey Konga 2 got a T.

[bcks007]

It's not a rumor, It's true (she was 17 at the time of filming, 18 by the time it released and had used a fake id yada yada yada). There are a bunch of threads talking about that game and its drama. The people behind the game are long out of business now and there is no chance of it getting re-released, so why bring it up?

Doesn't game quest direct do reprints? What would stop them from reprinting this? Would they need to change the rating then? Would they get sued?, would all copy's be pulled if this happened?

[calistarwind]

I worked for Gamestop when Elder Scrolls came out and they quickly sent us stickers to cover the "T" with an "M" and matching new descriptors for the content. The ones that got missed still rung up as M rated but it really threw the parents off.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I worked for Gamestop when Elder Scrolls came out and they quickly sent us stickers to cover the "T" with an "M" and matching new descriptors for the content. The ones that got missed still rung up as M rated but it really threw the parents off.

My Call of Juarez had a re-stickered ESRB as well...I thought it was odd. I looked under the sticker and they forgot to print the ESRB rating on the front of the box. This was later resolved, I think, but I thought it was interesting that GameStop had to re-sticker it.

[Tallise]

I think it boils down to whatever the company thinks they can get away with. Publishers of games like DoA with half naked adorable large breasted girls are automatically going to concider an M rating. If they don't people with way too much time on their hands will complain and protest. Their game is viewed in a very sexually suggestive manner. However if you look at a more serious adult game where nudity is portrayed as a more mature subject, or it is in general a game a younger child wouldn't be attracted to in the first place, such as Gods of war, they could probably get away with more using a lower rating like T if they really tried. Lower ratings open up their audience as teens can easily purchase their product aswell as adults, and teens have a much more diverse social group than adults and are much more likely to give free advertising to all their friends; companies know this. Though a scandal might also give free advertising, in the end they have to pay for all the trouble..
Sooo I guess what I'm trying to put together is lower rating could equal a larger audience with the right type of marketing. I'm sure some companies would be willing to try and bend rules based on this theory.

[j_factor]

I always thought it was weird that Syphon Filter is rated T, but Syphon Filter 2 and 3 are both rated M. All three are the same as far as violent content goes.


Doesn't game quest direct do reprints? What would stop them from reprinting this? Would they need to change the rating then? Would they get sued?, would all copy's be pulled if this happened?

All copies of The Guy Game were pulled when the 17 year old girl was discovered. It would not be possible to legally reprint the game, unless they removed the one underage girl. I don't see how the rating has anything to do with anything, as the content itself isn't any different just because the girl was 17 instead of 18. The point is that she couldn't legally give consent to her image being used in the game.

[chrisbid]

i have a question about the ESRB...

do they actually take time to sit down and play through the game to see all the content? or do they simply look at packaging, screenshots, marketing, and gameplay video to determine the rating?

with the number of video games that are published each year, i think it would be difficult to go through every single release with a fine-tooth comb to catch small things that would affect a games rating.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

i have a question about the ESRB...

do they actually take time to sit down and play through the game to see all the content? or do they simply look at packaging, screenshots, marketing, and gameplay video to determine the rating?

with the number of video games that are published each year, i think it would be difficult to go through every single release with a fine-tooth comb to catch small things that would affect a games rating.

Companies submit a package to the ESRB for each game. They have to fill out a huge checklist of items and are required to disclose any content related to the ESRB descriptors. Videos and screenshots are also delivered as part of the package. They don't play through the whole game.

It's possible to "fool" the ESRB, but it's not beneficial to do so.

[phreakindee]

Companies submit a package to the ESRB for each game. They have to fill out a huge checklist of items and are required to disclose any content related to the ESRB descriptors. Videos and screenshots are also delivered as part of the package. They don't play through the whole game.

It's possible to "fool" the ESRB, but it's not beneficial to do so.


It's probably better to just ignore the ESRB altogether if you wanted to try and pull one over on them. Like Running With Scissors did with the Postal Fudge Pack. That collection of games wasn't even rated by the ESRB, but then, it wasn't really sold in stores either. The one I got has no ratings on it anywhere, and it was out in 2008. ESRB is completely voluntary. It's just that hardly any store will carry non-rated product. Strangely enough, places like Wal-Mart did up until the late 90's. I have several games bought from there, mostly budget titles, with no ESRB ratings or rating of any kind at all!

[chrisbid]

Companies submit a package to the ESRB for each game. They have to fill out a huge checklist of items and are required to disclose any content related to the ESRB descriptors. Videos and screenshots are also delivered as part of the package. They don't play through the whole game.

It's possible to "fool" the ESRB, but it's not beneficial to do so.


i dont think it is much of a problem to do so either. M or T ratings do not seem to hurt game sales the same way an R rating hurts a movie.

to go off on a tangent, do retailers scan IDs for R rated DVDs the same way they scan IDs for M rated video games?

[Shadow Kisuragi]

to go off on a tangent, do retailers scan IDs for R rated DVDs the same way they scan IDs for M rated video games?

Wal-mart's registers will automatically halt the first time a product requires proof of age, including R-rated DVDs, M-rated video games, cigarettes, alcohol, aspirin, and firearms. Whether the cashier requests the ID or just skips it is another story.

[chrisbid]

i guess scan was the wrong word

way back in the day, when i was a cashier at a grocery store, scanning an ID would only scan the ID number... something that isnt very useful on its own. we simply had to key in the customers date of birth.

so i meant check id. there hasnt been a media blitz of stores checking IDs for r rated movies, and i havent been a minor for 15 years, so i dont know how things work these days

[PapaStu]

to go off on a tangent, do retailers scan IDs for R rated DVDs the same way they scan IDs for M rated video games?

Target requires an ID to buy all M Rated games (here in California). They can't force it through. They actually swipe it through the system as well and its not just a visual check.

[chrisbid]

Target requires an ID to buy all M Rated games (here in California). They can't force it through. They actually swipe it through the system as well and its not just a visual check.


right, but do they do the same with R rated movies?

[dbiersdorf]

The Guy Game.

If it got reprinted, I'm fairly sure it would need a AO rating. It's rumored to have a 17 year old show her self in the game.

Re-releasing it would be distributing child porn. So fat chance there.

[Graham Mitchell]

Two games which were big targets of criticism during the initial congressional debates about violent games in 1993 were night trap and mortal kombat. Both of these games had their ratings revised as a result of the hearing.

Night trap was released before sega started providing their own ratings. The original cardboard packaging for the sega cd version had an almost invisible snippet of text in the corner of the front cover that said: "WARNING: this game is intended for mature audiences" or something to that effect. When the game got some political heat, it was taken out of print, but was later reissued for 32x cd and 3do with a mature rating. I found this inappropriately high as the game depicts no nudity or seriously graphic violence. The only time a girl is assaulted is in the infamous bathroom scene, which depicts a little blood going through a plastic tube. That's it. Opponents of the game stated that the scene implied rape or something, but I wasn't left with that impression at all. I always felt the game was silly and campy, like a crappy 50s or 60s dracula mivie you'd catch on late night television, and deserving of a teen rating at best. I suspect it was bestowed with that rating for political reasons.

Mortal kombat, on the other hand, did depict some heavy violence and gore. I always found the violence in that game a bit silly, myself; too ridiculous to be really disturbing. Apparently sega agreed as the game gear and genesis versions were given an ma-13 rating on release. about a year later, after the start of all the political hullaballoo, mortal kombat was released for sega cd. The game, as I remember it, was darn near identical to the sega cd version with the exception of load times and improvements in the audio. Yet, the game's rating was upgraded to ma-17. Whether that's a more appropriate rating for the game is debatable, but it serves as anotherexample of a game's ratings being changed after release.

[NayusDante]

Oblivion, in my book, should have been left as a T. So there's zombies with flesh rotting off, big deal. Michael Jackson's Thriller video has more gore. And besides, I got carded when I bought the Oblivion guide!

Some of the 90s LucasArts games had some rating oddities. The Dig got a KA, but there's a good deal of profanity and even a scene where someone's arm is cut off with an alien jaw-bone. Rebel Assault 2, I believe went from KA to T, not sure why. My RA2 box says KA, but in orange print.

[j_factor]

Re-releasing it would be distributing child porn. So fat chance there.

No it wouldn't. There was no porn in that game. The issue is that a minor can't consent to use of their image, they need parental consent. If you bought The Guy Game before it was pulled, it's not illegal to possess or anything.

[Graham Mitchell]

Just checked my copy of Snatcher It's rated Teen, despite the fact that it depicts a disemboweled dog, maggots eating a rotting corpse, a decapitated man with visible trachea and esophagus in the neck, and makes implications towards strippers and prostitution. I think the ESRB's standards must have gotten a lot stricter since the 90s.