What if M rated games where only sold to adults like their cinema counterparts. Not to shield children, but to build for adult interests. Currently every game made assumes children may play it, thus including them in the target audience. In my perfect world the M rating would be taken seriously as it would limit your audience to being college aged and older.
It appears to me that we have created two thoroughly undeserved audiences; we are selling games to adults that intentionally appeal to children. One could assume that the T rating serves no purpose. However, most games contain at best PG-13 subject matter and similar mindset in regards to content quality.
I enjoy the silly and the strange, but I want more video games made purely for the adult audience.
Who Was This Made For
It’s known that dead space 3 included micro transactions for the younger gamer audience. In a pursuit to make games more “accessible,” quality is often traded for higher revenue potential. Sadly said potential rarely materializes in a more desirable game.
Similarly, men are reduced to the age of 14 when it comes to gender politics. We aren’t interested in having female characters with personality, we just want misshapen Boobies. If a girl does become a main character however, she is most often a blank slate. Which is great because blank slates don’t have cooties.
Perhaps the worst outcome is the over simplification of games beyond just plot or needless cash grabs. Accessibility now often translates to simple or easy. Where there was once depth to an RPG, the system must now be homogenized to make way for brain-dead enemies and linear progression. For example, Ryse: Son of Rome, meant to be a God of War rip off now fueled by micro transaction; Ryse is either intended to fall short of its sales target or they think your too lazy to play the game you payed for.
We aren’t 14 and porn is already free
Maybe my idea of only letting people over 17 play these games sounds insane. But why bother having the label if video games aren’t made for people over 17.