StarCraft: Rated Mature?!

[DukeLeto]

I was reading some Gamespot reviews, and I looked at the StarCraft one. It had the little box saying it was rated "M" by ESRB, but I figured that was a typo. But when I enlarged the boxshot, sure enough, it had an "M" on it:

How long as StarCraft been rated M? Is this something new? My box says "T" for "Teen". :O

Edit: I just checked the listing at EB Games, and the boxshotr shows "M":

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/171980.asp

Curiously, the little thing nes to it says "T". How very odd. ???[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Acriku]

Why is this game rated Mature, you might ask? I hardly think it deserved one, really, but a bit of a stretch on the Teen genre's gore is displayed in StarCraft. Blood simply gushes out of dead bodies, just gushes. There are a few lightly disturbing images made out of the units too. Like those Dark Achrons, heh!

From http://www.epinions.com/content_92449902212

At the bottom of: http://www.blizzard.com/starcraft/ is has Teen Rating, so I think older versions got the Teen rating, and then it was changed. Who knows, really.

[Andrew]

I would think newer versions have the teen rating. :-

[Acriku]

I wonder what would have changed it?

[DukeLeto]

I have no idea. I be inclined to think Blizzard payed them off. YOu know how low my opinion of ESRB is.

[Caid Ivik]

Bah, these teen ratings, I was playing mostly Carmageddon as a young when I'd discovered power of 3D acceleration... But for StarCraft, seeing news on TV Markiza I consider it bloodless.

[Navaros]

ESRB are a bunch of bureaucratic morons

the game Soul Reaver also originally got a "T" [Teen] Rating and it was later changed to "M" [Mature]

of course, when the ESRB commits an about-face like this they try to cover it up as if they were dumping toxic waste into the Mississippi. if you try contacting ESRB about the changes, they will deny all knowledge of it ever happening and pretend that nothing was ever changed and that they are all-knowing, honest and perfect ::)

[Terror]

who ever looks at those ratins anyway. You can buy all the games you want. Mature rating or not

[Acriku]

Not minors under 17 for Mature, NC-17, etc.

[DukeLeto]

who ever looks at those ratins anyway. You can buy all the games you want. Mature rating or not

Maybe where you live, yes, but not in the good old US of A. While ESRB ratings aren't government enforced, most stores enforce such neo-Nazi business practices anyways. Especially Wal-Mart, hence why I never buy anything from them. >:(

[Acriku]

I went up to the checkout counter in a store that I forget the name of, and was ready to get my dad from the car parked outside to let me buy a Limp Bizkit cd (I was young and irrational ;)), but to my delight they told me there was no need, and I didn't have to bring him in. I respected that store a lot ever since. Seemingly not enough to know the name of it, but you get the point. :D

[DukeLeto]

Stores to avoid like the plague

EG, those "I want to lose the majority of my demographic" companies that enforce ESRB ratings. >:(

[Navaros]

not selling games to minors is retarded. there is *NOTHING* in any "Mature" rated game on the market that is worse than what a minor would see on Prime-Time TV. (ie: even in the "controversial" Vice City game, no woman ever takes off her clothes or even gets topless in the "Strip Club"!)

even the most "Mature" games on the market are tame and that just makes it especially absurd and offensive that stores take it upon themselves to refuse to sell to a customer who wants to buy something.

the solution is to buy from stores run by gamers, like EB. their staff are cool.

i remember being in EB once, and two kids aged about 9 -11 were at the counter ahead of me trying to buy Vice City. the staff said: "I can't sell this game to you, your parents will come and yell at me".

i was just about to offer to buy the game on behalf of the kids...

then the kids said something like: "we live in Cornwall, it's two hours away so you don't have to worry about our parents. they wouldn't come all that way just to yell at you"

the staff then sold the kids the game. that was funny :) they coulda been lying, or had their parents waiting around in the mall etc. i am sure the EB guy knew that, but he just didn't care. i'm guessing that most EB staff only mention the "Ratings" because they get orders from their Head Office to do so, but when they see a willing gamer, they'll do their best to accomodate him regardless. too bad the EB refund policy sucks tho (14 days), otherwise i'd shop there a lot more.

[Andrew]

you obviusly have not seen some games that were produced Nav. Like knights of zentar or something. It had anime nudity. I am not a perv it was actually a good action/rpg game. no pun intended.

What about Leisure suit larry??

Sure the big time marketed games are of little harm, except for games that make people want to go kill people or do illegal activities.

[Navaros]

you obviusly have not seen some games that were produced Nav. Like knights of zentar or something. It had anime nudity. I am not a perv it was actually a good action/rpg game. no pun intended.

What about Leisure suit larry??

Sure the big time marketed games are of little harm, except for games that make people want to go kill people or do illegal activities.

Anime doesn't show any sort of "private parts" since that is illegal in Japan, so the nudity you speak of is surely as i said, tame. Leisure Suit Larry doesn't really feature anything "hardcore" either - that is mostly just raunchy dialogue.

i've seen far more "T"-rated games that promote illegal drug use than "M"-rated games. ie: the Gothic games, which quite literally ***GLORIFY*** the smoking of illegal drugs. so your argument that the Ratings System accurately reflects the degree that promotion of illegal activity is represented in a game does not really hold up

[Andrew]

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=2629

Xentar deserves recognition as the first PC game ever made with a voluntary 17+ rating (before ESRB ratings were compulsory). Although the graphics have been improved (including, of course, the obligatory sex scenes that qualify the game as a Hentai title), gameplay unfortunately suffers from extreme linearity and way too many pointless combat sequences. There is a lot less subplots in the game than Cobra Mission, and while there are more options during combat, they don't really make a difference since most monsters are easy to kill anyway. In contrast to Cobra Mission in which you know exactly when to expect adult scenes (i.e. right after you rescue a maiden), in Xentar these scenes appear almost at random, often with very little relation to the plot. Of course, if looking at pixellated adult scenes is your only reason for playing this game, this is a minor point. But for the rest of us who want to play a game and not watch endless slideshow of gratuitous sex scenes, this is just plain annoying.

:)

[Navaros]

Andrew, get your terminology right then. originally you said "Anime", not "Hentai". Those two words have very different meanings.

and i still maintain that no hardcore game has come on the market since the ESRB ratings started becoming mainstream. i've heard that there are no games that ever received the "Adults Only" rating

[Andrew]

:)

same thing. ;)

Nav is you delete a post of yours, can you post again?(it goes back into your count?)

[DukeLeto]

Sure the big time marketed games are of little harm, except for games that make people want to go kill people

Actually, recent studies have shown no link whatsoever between video games and violence.

[Acriku]

Only for the mentally disturbed, or the extremely socially inept that violent games become a factor. But, that leaves no fault on the games, however.

[Navaros]

no Andrew, i don't get posts back for deleting :(

and i also get ripped-off all the time in terms of my allotment. if you are enjoying my posts and wish for me to be freed, please do not keep it to yourself. IM Gob and tell him to free me.

i saw a very good quote about the subject you guys are talking about: "blaming violence on video games is like blaming fat people on a spoon"

[Sneakgab]

Actually, recent studies have shown no link whatsoever between video games and violence.

Didn't earlier recent studies show a link between the two ;D

But seriously, studies tend to be stupid bull... 5 people surveys regarding important,profound and widely varying factors from the survey to apply to everyone in particular should not be taken seriously (as in, those surveys in particular should not be taken seriously, not as in: everyone in particular ;D)

Regardless though, we can safely say that video games are not a major cause of violence

More irritating though, is the work of mindless mongrels who refuse to sell rated games to children without even considering the values they are simply accepting from their beloved, divine, all-knowing, and perfect goverment/authority sarcasm/

Fortunately, in here in S.A (South Africa), I have yet to come across such barring

[Babylon]

<alert> <alert> I actually agree with Navaros in this thread (Nav: pun intended, no need to be in war all the time, now is it)

Ratings for games are nonsense. And saying games cause violince is stupid. A lot of violent people that I know can control themself becuase they can release their anger in games.

If a teen murders a few classmates and is playing computer games, they tend to blame the games. But what if that same kid allways eats the same kind of cereal? Well, blame the cereal than I say.

[Acriku]

Does the cereal condone violence and killing?

[Babylon]

No it doesn't, nor it's makers. Just like computer games and their makers.