I've known for years that the ESRB's rating system was flawed in a lot of ways, but all the recent controversy and outrage over Manhunt 2 has brought it to mind again. (Now, the whole Manhunt 2 thing isn't really the ESRB's fault--it's the console makers' fault, for not allowing us to play AO rated games. But I digress.) And so, I have decided how I would redo the ESRB's rating scheme if I was in charge. (And now that I think about it, from what I know of it's pretty similar to the way they do things in the U.K.)
First of all, switch the letters to numbers. Yes, there's no excuse for any parent with kids who game not knowing what the various ratings mean, but having the main focus be something like 18+ rather than something like M or AO is much easier to understand.
Second, completely revamp the ratings.
E: I'll let you have the letter for this one because there's no good number to represent it. This is where the games currently rated E and EC go. Basically, suitable for all ages--if you can hold the controller, you can play it.
10+: Games currently rated T.
15+: Games currently rated M.
18+: Some of the games currently rated AO, and probably some of the more adult M titles as well. You'd have to show ID and prove you were over 18 to buy any of these. Games like Manhunt 2 would go here.
X: The porn game category. The only games that would get rated X are those in which the entire purpose of the game revolves around some kind of explicit sexual content. Obviously, you'd have to show ID and be over 18 to get these. Stores might refuse to carry them like they do AO titles now, or they could simply have them behind the counter. But even if they were hard to get, the console companies would still let you play them, conflabbit.
..And there you have it. My idea of the perfect game rating scheme. :) Hey, maybe the ESRB will come see it and steal my idea! :lol:
So, it's come to my attention that there's a lot of controversy surrounding the release of Manhunt 2. Not that this is surprising; its predecessor was also controversial. But a lot of people are singling out the Wii version as being worse than any other violent game ever released, simply because of its more immersive motion controls. Now, this is something I find myself very opinionated about, so I decided to ramble about it over here. :P
First of all, let it be known that I don't buy into the idea of violent media influencing people to go out and be violent. If you're the kind of person that's going to kill someone, then you are that type of person regardless, and even if you do nothing but play Nintendogs and watch Disney movies that will still be the case. And if you're a stable person who's not going to kill anyone, then you're that regardless too, and no amount of watching Saw movies and playing Manhunt is going to turn you into a psychopath. People killed people long before violent media existed, and violent crime among youths has actually DROPPED since video games became popular.
Now, I can understand where the people against Manhunt 2 on the Wii are coming from. One of the big arguments against people like Jack Thompson blaming violence on video games is that using a controller to perform violent acts is nothing like doing them in real life. With the Wii remote, this is no longer the case. Suddenly the things you do to perform violent acts are a lot more realistic than ever before.
I can understand how someone would have a problem with that. I can understand how someone would hate and be disgusted by the mere idea of Manhunt games in general. And if they want to do so, express their opinions, not play it, tell their friends not to play it, keep their children from playing it, whatever--that is all perfectly fine because that is their right. What gets me are the people saying the game should never have been made in the first place, that it shouldn't be on the Wii, that anyone who wants to play it is a psychopath.
First of all, I would like to know why these people find Manhunt so much worse than other games. I'm quite sure that some of the people criticizing Manhunt 2 are people that have played war games, that have enjoyed chainsawing people in Gears of War and blowing people's heads off with a shotgun in Resident Evil 4. Yes, the violence in Manhunt 2 is extreme, but why is it any more wrong than the aforementioned games? Why is it morally acceptable to chainsaw someone's head off, but not to rip their testicles off with a pair of pliers?
Either violence in video games is bad and shouldn't be allowed, or it is no problem because the vast majority of people can distinguish between real life and fantasy. It's either one or the other, and you can't try to take a middle stance. That's like saying racial slurs are perfectly acceptable only if used by the race they're against--but that's another rant entirely, and one I won't get into here. :P And if you take the stance that all violence in video games is bad, then that includes almost every video game ever made. Even Mario kills those poor Goombas, after all.
Take Dead Rising, for example. A game I just got the other day, and am massively enjoying. In that game, you can take a coat hanger and stick it in a zombie's eye socket and watch them stumble around with it embedded in their eyeball. You can take a scythe, hook it around a zombie's neck, put your foot on their chest, and behead them in a spray of blood. How is this any better and more morally acceptable than Manhunt 2? Is it because they're zombies and not actual human beings? But they still look more or less like (very screwed up) humans, and the gore is even in high definition.
Is it because of the controls on the Wii? What's funny to me is, I bet the majority of people saying the realistic controls on the Wii are bad for Manhunt are people who have gone to arcades, played light gun games, and were perfectly fine with it. How is that any better? You're taking a realistic gun controller and shooting it at people. No better or worse than taking the Wii controller and making realistic violent motions with it.
I believe that the vast majority of people can tell the difference between fantasy and reality--and that includes children. People tend to underestimate children MASSIVELY. Now, I'm not saying young kids should be playing Manhunt 2 by any means. I would be the first to agree that it should probably be restricted to legal adults--18 and up. But even if they do, the vast majority are still going to know it's just a game. If kids were so terrible at distinguishing fantasy from reality, then why would we let them watch cartoons? In cartoons, people get rolled over by steamrollers and are perfectly fine, they just have to blow on their thumb and they reinflate. If violence had as much of an effect on children as people would have you believe, then your average cartoon would be FAR worse for their minds than a video game that actually shows the real, grisly, terrible results of violence.
I played the original Doom when I was five or six, with the full knowledge and permission of my parents. My dad actually sat down and played it with me. I was also raised in a house that had more than one fully loaded gun where I could get to it if I really wanted to. Did I play Doom and then go grab a gun to try to shoot people because I did it in the game? No. It never even occurred to me. Why? Because I actually had a brain stem, and I knew Doom was JUST A GAME. I was told from birth that you do not play with guns, they are not toys, they are very dangerous--and I never touched them, even after Doom. And I think 99% of children in my position would have been the exact same way.
Now granted, there is going to be a small percentage of people that are unstable and DO have problems distinguishing fantasy from reality. And yes, there is the possibility that Manhunt 2 could, if nothing else, give them ideas. (Although I stand by what I said earlier--if you're the type of person who's going to kill someone, then you're going to regardless.) Does that mean Manhunt 2 shouldn't have been made, just because there's a small chance that it might bring someone to violence? No. That's like saying that cars should be banned because people are killed in automobile accidents every day. You can argue that cars have contributed worthwhile things to the world whereas Manhunt won't, but point me to one video game that has. Just one.
The point is, I think people are blowing the Manhunt on the Wii thing massively out of proportion. You're entitled not to like it and to avoid it like the plague, of course. And if you're a parent, feel free to prevent your kid from playing it. That IS why we have the ESRB ratings, after all. Just because parents don't spend time with their kids and people have no personal responsibility anymore doesn't mean people should stop making violent games. The vast majority of people that play and enjoy violent games, including me, have never harmed another person in their life, and never will. You could even make an argument FOR violent games--they both show you the results of violence realistically (as opposed to cartoons, as I mentioned earlier), and they give people a perfectly safe and acceptable outlet in which to let out their violent urges. (And psychopath or no, we all get violent urges sometimes. You can't tell me you've never been irritated by someone and wanted to just smack them upside the head one time. :P)
In conclusion: you don't like Manhunt, that's fine. Don't play it. But for the sake of the rest of us, don't say it should be banned when it isn't harming anyone. First it will become acceptable to ban video games simply because some consider them morally unacceptable, then it'll be music with explicit lyrics, and before you know it we'll be living in the world of Fahrenheit 451. (VERY good book, by the way. I highly recommend it to...well, anyone. It'll make you think.)
P.S. Nintendo really can't win, can they? First their console is too kiddy, now it has a big M-rated game and the Wii controls shouldn't be used for violence. :P
Originally I was going to ignore this blog, then I decided it would be a good idea to post my gaming related rants over here where people might actually care, instead of cluttering up my main blog with them. So, here's the first one.
So today I finally went and got an Xbox 360, thus completing my collection of game consoles. XD PSWii60 for the win! Or something.
My initial impressions of the 360...are actually quite good, although I hate having to pay extra for EVERY damn thing. It's not as loud as I expected; louder than the PS3 or the Wii yes, but no worse than my PS2. (I turned on my PS2 the other day and was blown away by how loud it seems after getting used to the new and quieter consoles, heh.) The power supply...is **** HUGE. O_O And I can see why the heat is an issue. I'd only had it running for about twenty minutes, and I put my hand in the space over the console and it practically felt like an oven. Hotter than the Wii gets, for sure; and I'm pretty sure it's hotter than the PS3 as well, although I'd have to do a comparison to be sure. It definitely gets hotter faster.
As for games...lmao, I'm pissed at Gamestop. I went there to buy Dead Rising (and ended up walking out with that and DMC3, because for some odd reason I can't walk into a game store and buy any form of game without also walking out with a game for some form of PlayStation. but I digress). I got them both used, they were cheaper, all was well...until I got home and tried to play Dead Rising. Case says Dead Rising. Tag says Dead Rising. Case has Dead Rising manual inside. Case does NOT have Dead Rising disc inside. Case has Dead or Alive 4 disc inside. So, I played DOA4 for a bit and I'm taking it back tomorrow. XD
I also downloaded Doom from the XBox Live Arcade. XD Man, I love that game. Brings back memories, rofl.
Okay, so. Based on my admittedly so far limited experience with all three consoles, here's what I think:
Graphics: Haven't played enough different games to tell. DOA4 on the 360 looks better than NFS Carbon on the PS3 (on my SDTV), but since DOA4 is an exclusive and NFS Carbon is multi-plat, that's not really a fair comparison. Wii comes in last place, obviously. It's slightly better than PS2 era consoles, but not by much.
Online: 360 by a landslide. The PS3 just doesn't have enough features/content to make it worthwhile yet, although at least you can get everything for free. And the Wii...doesn't even really HAVE online. Although, it would be nice to have a web browser in the 360 like in the other two. As far as the prices for downloadable content goes...honestly, I think the Wii's prices are just about right. The 360's content is overpriced, and the PS3's is underpriced (not that I'm complaining, mind you).
Features: In general, the PS3. For features that I'll actually use, the 360. The only extra features on the PS3 I have that much of a use for are music streaming, which I can't get to work, and Web browsing. It's nice to have the Blu-ray player when my parents want to hook it up to their HDTV, but eh. The 360 has music streaming (that works!), can play said music during games, lets you chat on MSN...and it's all integrated very smoothly.
Reliability: Well, I think we all know who the loser is here. With that said, none of mine have given me any trouble so far. I'll probably update my blog with whining when they do. =D
Controller: PS3. Only because I love the PlayStation controller. Always have, always will. The 360 controller is just an odd fusion of a PS2 and a Gamecube controller. And the Wii controller, while nifty, is basically just a gimmick that gets old fast and can often get in the way of traditional game design.
Basic Design: PS3, definitely. It's gorgeous. I love big sexy black things. =D XD
Games: This is just personal preference, really. So, let's break it down for me--the exclusive games I want for each console, that I can think of off the top of my head. PS3 games: FF13 (definitely), FF13 Versus (definitely), Heavenly Sword (probably). Potentially Kingdom Hearts 3 (definitely). 360 games: Dead Rising (definitely), Blue Dragon (definitely), Lost Oddyssey (probably). Wii games: Super Smash Brothers Brawl (possibly), Super Mario Galaxy (maaaybe), RE4 Wii (definitely), RE: Umbrella Chronicles (definitely), Manhunt 2 (maybe). So, the victor? Actually...it's about a three-way tie. Which is why I have all three. =D They all have at least two games that are a must-have for me, and enough potential titles to justify the purchase--although the Wii's potential titles are iffier than the other two.
Backwards Compatability: Tie between the PS3 and the Wii. The Wii's backwards compatability is very thorough; when you put in a Gamecube game, it basically becomes a Gamecube (coughbecauseitisonecough). You can't use the Wii controller, can't go back to the Wii menu, nothin'. It doesn't have BC further back than that, though. And while you can download older games from the Virtual Console, there's not that great of a selection, and you can't guarantee the games you want to play will ever come. The PS3, on the other hand--while it doesn't magically transform into a PS2, it can play all PS2 games AND PS1 games with no problem. (Unless you're unlucky enough to live in Europe. In which case, as the PS3 Elite joke ad says, #$#$@# you! =P XD)
Price: Well, not price, really. It's obvious that the Wii is the winner as far as price goes. But as far as how much you're really getting out of your money...I can't say yet whether to vote for the 360 or the PS3 for this one. I need more experience with the 360 first. With that said, it's definitely not the Wii. The Wii may be the cheapest, but you also get what you pay for.
Overall Winner: THEY'RE ALL THREE AWESOME. =D My least favorite right now is the Wii, however. It's great for playing with friends and family, really fun at first, great as a secondary console or for party games. But for a primary console, standing on its own merits, it just wouldn't work too well. I got tired of it pretty quickly, and I've found that a lot of people who consider themselves gamers (or "hardcore" gamers) do.
Oh yes, and my soap opera of the consoles continues. XD When I unpackaged my 360, I was telling it, "Welcome to the family, buddy. Just...stay with me. DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT!!" Then I turned around to face my PS2, PS3, and Wii...and I swear I could feel them glaring at me. The hatred was almost visible. XD Maybe I should go make sure my consoles haven't killed each other... o_O
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