Why are games held to such a double standard?

Mass Effect's scenes are as tame as seeing a love seen on a Fox sitcom, all it does is Fades out and jump to the next scene. Similar to a classic movie where the audience has to assume that couple did something the other night.

Cherry's right, I think it's garbage that movies can get away with anything with their proper ratings, but video games are always complained about, even with the proper rating!
 
Mai Valentine said:
QFT.

Part of the problem is also that despite all the studies NOW showing the average gamer is about 30, video games as a whole are still considered by many as something that younger people do (because that's how it was in the beginning), and therein lies the problem. If you assume that all people who play video games are under the age of 17, then of course you're going to jump to the conclusion that M-rated games are bad.
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Somehow what you stated right here has become ingrained into the mind of our present culture. Leftovers from that early era of gaming, I think. There are probably a lot of you that do not have funny looks from people when you say you play video games. I on the other hand seem to disturb people when they find out I play video games. You see, I will be 53 years old next month. There is still this hidden stigma that gaming is for kids. The name "Nintendo" seems to be synonymous with the word "kid." And yet you are starting to see stroke victims and elderly people playing the Wii for physical therapy. :huh

I think the present day console makers are trying to make the outward cosmetic design more grownup than the way they appeared in the past.
 
retro junkie said:
Somehow what you stated right here has become ingrained into the mind of our present culture. Leftovers from that early era of gaming, I think. There are probably a lot of you that do not have funny looks from people when you say you play video games. I on the other hand seem to disturb people when they find out I play video games. You see, I will be 53 years old next month. There is still this hidden stigma that gaming is for kids. The name "Nintendo" seems to be synonymous with the word "kid." And yet you are starting to see stroke victims and elderly people playing the Wii for physical therapy. :huh

I think the present day console makers are trying to make the outward cosmetic design more grownup than the way they appeared in the past.
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You think that's bad? I'm only 25 and I still get reactions like, "Aren't you too old for games?" sometimes. Awful.
 
This is why I'm almost a closet gamer. I never walk up to someone I don't know, and openly say I'm a gamer, because there's a stigma about it, even for me. After a while, I'll tell someone I'm a gamer, but I'm always reluctant to say I'm a gamer, to a non-gamer.
 
Homicidal Cherry53 said:
This is why I'm almost a closet gamer. I never walk up to someone I don't know, and openly say I'm a gamer, because there's a stigma about it, even for me. After a while, I'll tell someone I'm a gamer, but I'm always reluctant to say I'm a gamer, to a non-gamer.
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At work, I've seen a few guys get trashed on because they said they were gamers. Then I walk in and tell the person who is doing the ridiculing that I too am a gamer. Because I don't openly start every conversation with, "Hi, I'm a gamer!" I usually get a different response. A lot of people think I am too old to play games. Ignorant misconception is a 29 year old married guy should not be playing videogames. I see no difference between them and board games...

Okay back on topic. The difference is the interactiveness. But personally I think if games have nudity or whatever, they should be treated the same as movies. Because there is no interactivity in a cut scene.
 
Homicidal Cherry53 said:
This is why I'm almost a closet gamer. I never walk up to someone I don't know, and openly say I'm a gamer, because there's a stigma about it, even for me. After a while, I'll tell someone I'm a gamer, but I'm always reluctant to say I'm a gamer, to a non-gamer.
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Eh, when I introduce myself I introduce myself as a gamer. I feel that people should be open to everything. It's not like you introduce yourself as a prostitute or a pedophile

Dart said:
Okay back on topic. The difference is the interactiveness. But personally I think if games have nudity or whatever, they should be treated the same as movies. Because there is no interactivity in a cut scene.
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I totally agree with this but, people are ignorant and think that a cut scene is in itself a part of the game which the player controls the character, not a cinematic segway.
 
Dart said:
Okay back on topic. The difference is the interactiveness. But personally I think if games have nudity or whatever, they should be treated the same as movies. Because there is no interactivity in a cut scene.
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But, of course, they aren't.
 
Dart said:
At work, I've seen a few guys get trashed on because they said they were gamers. Then I walk in and tell the person who is doing the ridiculing that I too am a gamer. Because I don't openly start every conversation with, "Hi, I'm a gamer!" I usually get a different response. A lot of people think I am too old to play games. Ignorant misconception is a 29 year old married guy should not be playing videogames. I see no difference between them and board games...

Okay back on topic. The difference is the interactiveness. But personally I think if games have nudity or whatever, they should be treated the same as movies. Because there is no interactivity in a cut scene.
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I think that the conceptual idea that gaming is for kids is directly linked to this subject matter. When the big Lieberman crusade to save our kids from "video gaming sex and violence" was marching, I think this type of mindset was a part of their problem. They had no room in their head to conceive that there were actually mature, adult gamers that were a part of the scene. Till this day I think gaming has been effected by this. Gamemakers are putting the rating on games, but I think that there is still this underlining caution that it is "for kids" mindset still lingering. Or it is the aftermath of the Lieberman crusade that is still ringing in their ears and thus the Gamemakers overseas in Japan don't want to stir it up again. They are overly cautious. I really feel that there are many parents that still don't get it when it comes to the rating system on the video games. Parents are not involved enough to realize that not all games are for kids. That, I think, is the big caution of the gamemakers when it comes to sex and violence in games.

The interactivity can make some people very uncomfortable when it comes to sex and violence in gaming. (But then again this is what the ratings are for, if people take them seriously) Using the sex and violence in a cut scene can make it just as if it was a movie experience. But then again there is the repetitiveness to gaming that you do not find in watching a movie. Does, or could, this differentiation between gaming and movies cause the Gamemakers to be reluctant to treat Games the same as Movies?
 
I don't repetition would be a major difference between the mediums of film and videogames. A movie can be watched dozens of times, just as a game can be played through to completion more than once. Or were you referring to another sort of repetition found in videogames?

I remember we took an informal pole of the average age here at EGA. If memory serves it was somewhere between 20 and 30, and I think it was closer to 30. I thought it was peculiar to be 20 and be below the average age of a videogame forum, but that seems the be the case more and more these days.
 
I guess the repetitiveness I was referring to was, if you suck at playing the game, you continue to die and relive the scene over and over again. :lol
 
retro junkie said:
Gamemakers overseas in Japan don't want to stir it up again. They are overly cautious.
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Actually, many of the games called out by politicians for one reason or another are western-made games. Mass Effect, for example, is by Bioware, which if I'm not mistaken is based either in the US or Canada. GTA, Manhunt 2, every game that has ever gotten Rockstar in trouble...well Rockstar is primarily in the US, with a few studios in other countries. Bungie is based in the US. Ubisoft is in Canada. Many of the big producers of M-rated fps games are western-based companies.

Japan has a much different culture from ours, and as a result, there's a lot of difference between tastes and what is and is not acceptable. Dating sims, for example, are HUGE in Japan. Games and anime in general get away with a lot more sexuality in Japan than they do here.
 
It seems then that the problem lies with uneducated politicians that were elected by uneducated parents. I remember growing up, and having arguments with my mom because she was set and that was that, and I couldn't do anything to show her that she was being ignorant.

This issue also reminds me of the assault rifle ban that Bill Clinton signed into law in the 90s. And since the ban has expired, people have realized that the ban did nothing to stem violent crime. The reason? If guns were outlawed, then only outlaws would have guns. Same with videogames. Having elected officials get involved in an issue before obtaining the facts is extremely dangerous. It's the root of censorship. And as a gamer I am obligated to counteract and fight ignorance that threatens my hobby.

The doublestandard in a sense does not exist then. We buy games we like. We buy movies we like. We know what is going on in the gaming community because we ate gamers. And until parents want to make time to be involved with their kids in their hobbies and politicians do their homework on the issue, this double standard lies only with them.
 
Dart said:
It seems then that the problem lies with uneducated politicians that were elected by uneducated parents. I remember growing up, and having arguments with my mom because she was set and that was that, and I couldn't do anything to show her that she was being ignorant.

This issue also reminds me of the assault rifle ban that Bill Clinton signed into law in the 90s. And since the ban has expired, people have realized that the ban did nothing to stem violent crime. The reason? If guns were outlawed, then only outlaws would have guns. Same with videogames. Having elected officials get involved in an issue before obtaining the facts is extremely dangerous. It's the root of censorship. And as a gamer I am obligated to counteract and fight ignorance that threatens my hobby.

The doublestandard in a sense does not exist then. We buy games we like. We buy movies we like. We know what is going on in the gaming community because we ate gamers. And until parents want to make time to be involved with their kids in their hobbies and politicians do their homework on the issue, this double standard lies only with them.
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what we can do is change future and not be the ignorant kind of parents when we vote for polititans XD
 
Homicidal Cherry53 said:
Yeah, BioWare was based in Edmonton, until EA bought them. Now they're officially American owned.
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EA has several installations based in Canada. I know everything EA Big does is from a Canadian studio. There was a point in time where the only EA games being made in America were Madden games, everything else had been outsourced to EA studios based in Canada.

I don't know why I brought that up, I guess I just think it's kind of cool. :lol
 
Mai Valentine said:
Actually, many of the games called out by politicians for one reason or another are western-made games. Mass Effect, for example, is by Bioware, which if I'm not mistaken is based either in the US or Canada. GTA, Manhunt 2, every game that has ever gotten Rockstar in trouble...well Rockstar is primarily in the US, with a few studios in other countries. Bungie is based in the US. Ubisoft is in Canada. Many of the big producers of M-rated fps games are western-based companies.

Japan has a much different culture from ours, and as a result, there's a lot of difference between tastes and what is and is not acceptable. Dating sims, for example, are HUGE in Japan. Games and anime in general get away with a lot more sexuality in Japan than they do here.
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Yes that is true, but it has caused Japan to edit the games they send to the US. Back when Mortal Combat was a big deal with the political crusade, I remember SNK censoring the blood in the Samurai Shodown series. They didn't even tell SNK of America of the censorship. The fans were very upset. We got green blood instead of red for the Neo Geo made for US home consoles. Japanese releases are still being effected by this.

Anytime I hear of a parent that is going to get their child a gaming console I give them the advice to not get the console unless they get a controller for themselves. Get involved, I tell them. Learn what gaming is all about so you can understand. Learn what the ratings mean.

edit: a correction
 
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