Why do games have to be rates by the ESRB...

Why do games have to be rates by the ESRB? Why can't developers just say fuck these losers and release their game without a rating?

C E E T
M A RP

every time

eceet maorp

eCE10+ET
MAoRP

Because what platform are you going to have your game on? What store is going to sell your game? If you're a major developer, you have to get this because you need those sales. If you're not, then who cares?

>The ESRB ratings system is enforced via the voluntary leverage of the North American video game and retail industries; most stores require customers to present photo identification when purchasing games carrying the ESRB's highest age ratings, and do not stock games which have not been rated.
Straight from wikipedia, the thread ends here.

They aren't enforced by law or anything, at least in the US, but if you want your game published on major consoles and sold in retail stores then you'll have to follow that company's rules. Major companies like Nintendo and Sony do it probably to appeal to normie parents who buy their kids games and to avoid lawsuits for missing warnings such as "This game is only for people 18+". Don't underestimate these soccermoms. They are the psychos who created this group and even tried making this a real law several times.

NightTrap

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you people are like toddlers

Voluntary self-regulation is better than having the government step in.

and yet you can't be assed to do 5 minutes of research

What's the point of early childhood if everyone includes young children?

at least i'm not such a fucking mental midget that i pretend every other post is the same person
I'm not OP, retard

Will digital distribution kill the ESRB?

sure you're not

Because soccer moms

When Night Trap got a rating it was rated M for some reason.

no, I'm pretty sure console manufacturers still require games on their platforms to be ESRB rated

t. underaged

Wasn't it Mortal Kombat?

Not american, just curious what's even the difference between M and AO? It's just a one year gap.

Educational games intended for young children. Stuff like Sesame Street and Dora. E-rated games are just games with no real objectionable content.

AO games don't get sold in stores, it's an arbitrary line and the rating is almost never used except for explicit porn games (which usually don't bother getting rated anyway) and the latest example I can think of for an AO game is Hatred

Because the reason it began existing is to prevent little kids from buying an eroge with a vague age rating

>Why do comics have to be (rated) by the comics code authority?
No one in the AAA industry has the balls to say "fuck off nigger, get a real job" to the censorship board members at ESRB and sell their game in stores anyways

Thankfully the internet is full of indipendent games developers who don't give a single fucking shit about the ESRB and make the game they want the way they want to without being rated.

In movies, an R rating and an NC-17 have a zero year gap. The difference is that theaters won't screen NC-17 movies.

Wow, that's actually pretty cool in first person. I may have to try the game out again now.

I see. Kind of makes sense but doesn't.

literally the only difference is that stores will refuse to stock AO games. its really dumb because games are constantly pushing the boundary of an M rating.

t. brainlets

deeee yuor god me!!hhehe

Moral panic in the 90's over video game violence caused a bunch of congressional hearings that resulted in the government laying down an ultimatum that either game companies agree to create and submit themselves to an independent rating board, or the government would regulate it themselves like Australia/Germany/etc does. They picked the lesser of two evils and created the ESRB.

>Moral panic in the 90's
2 decades and still going.
First the right, now the left.
Just fuck both wings.

90s was really the first pussy whipped decade

The ESRB is good in theory but the industry uses it the wrong way in many ways such as using ratings to sell more product instead of keeping true to a game's artistic design and retailers banning AO games. Because of this it's abused and Steam does it better at the end of the day.

AEIOU

>esrb is bad mmkay
>the jews use it to sell more games
>retailers shouldnt ban AO games despite the vast majority of AO games are actual porn games
>posts pedoshit
like pottery

Did your brain just puke out of your mouth?

My only issue with the ESRB rating system is retailers refusing to stock AO titles.

its not even just retailers. microsoft, sony, and nintendo refuse to have any AO games on their system

what's the point? most AO games are porn anyway

Sounds like some D&D shit. Like THAC0+3.

At the beginning it was a bipartisan effort. Hillary Clinton was a huge advocate for regulating violence in video games while she was first lady, probably trying to mimic the success Nancy Regan had in her crusade to slap parental advisory stickers on "offensive" music.

Late 90's-early 2000's the left mostly backed off the issue and the right added it to the pile of moral crusades. This was Jack Thompson's era.

Late 2000's-present the right basically doesn't give a fuck any more, but the left has raised the moral panic flag again except now it's about SJW shit instead of sex/violence in general.

I extend my complaint to Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo

And? Acer has never bitched to me about watching porn on the monitor I bought from them. Where does Nintendo get off telling me not to use their system for porn?

are you stupid?

>can't come back with an argument
>better call him stupid and post a meme anime picture

Devs pretty much are the ones rating themselves.

there's nothing to argue, your point is idiotic

>The ESRB is good in theory
It's not. It will be always useless. Make your own research if you're a parent worried about what you child might consume instead of blindly trusting some association's rating.

are you just upset mommy didn't let you get the latest cawadooty?

>t. still butthurt mummy didnt let him get GTA 5