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_g..._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) 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.