The other day I was asked about why the recommended / minimum age levels for our game reviews tend to be even numbers. It’s an excellent question with a somewhat complex answer that deserved a bit more attention than what could be addressed in a simple email. So I’ve decided to answer that and a few other questions I’ve gotten recently. 1. Why do your age recommendations tend to be even numbers? The recommended ages tend to boil down into distinct, easy to understand ages. Mostly this is because of my experience working with preteens and teens. I noticed that the differences in maturity between the average 14 year old (usually in 8th grade) and 16 year old (usually in 10th grade) was significant. For example, while know about violence and love action heroes, they usually didn’t understand the gravity of violence or the significance of war throughout history. 16 year olds, having had a few more years to learn about history, civics, and other similar subjects, did have a better understanding of violence. I have had to modify my age reviews for specific games. Sometimes I feel that a game doesn’t fit well into any one age range. For example, Saints Row definitely required a higher maturity level than games I had previously given a recommended age of 18, but wasn’t nearly as bad as Duke Nukem Forever (still the only 21 I have ever given). So for that game and other similar titles, I’ve included an 18+ rating. There may be other games where I have similar issues, so occasionally a game might get an odd age recommendation. However, most of the games are fairly easy to place. As I have mentioned in the past, keep in mind that my age recommendations are just that. I want to give parents an age recommendation based on my experience with games, but in the end I encourage you to check out the content and make your own decision. You know your children far better than I do, so you’ll know if they’re mature enough to handle any particular game. 2. Hey, that game was made in [insert year here]! Why aren’t you reviewing something newer? Again, this is a complex question with a complex answer. Usually I try to review games that are no older than a year or two. Occasionally, however, I will make an exception. Sometimes it’s a game that I’ve been holding onto but haven’t gotten to in a while or just picked up on sale recently. These games are almost always worth playing at least once, so I like to add these reviews to give a bit of variety. Newer isn’t always better. Most of the time, if you look past the graphics, there’s still a great game. On rare occasions, I’ll post a game knowing that few people are going to play it. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is one of those games. Its age makes it unlikely that anyone is going to pick it up and try it out for the first time, since there are already newer GTA games coming out. Still, I have two reasons why I post games like San Andreas. First, San Andreas was the center of severe controversy that significantly impacted video games and the gaming industry. In case you don’t remember, San Andreas was the game that had the infamous “Hot Coffee Mod”. The details of this mod can be found in the “Mods” section of the review, but basically someone discovered that players could access deleted content of the game using a simple tweak. This content added a sex minigame into the game. Regardless of the true nature of the content, this made huge waves among parents who were convinced that video game developers were trying to tear the carefully woven fabric of society. This resulted in significant changes to the development of games everywhere and resulted in a far more tame Grand Theft Auto series. Second, it provides an excellent contextual understanding of the entire series. Any parent looking into current or future Grand Theft Auto titles can use the information from San Andreas to create an understanding of what future titles will look and play like. While San Andreas may be the high mark of mature content for the series, it wouldn’t be unfair to expect GTA 5 to include high levels of violence, sexuality, and anti-law. 3. You do realize that M means 17 and up, right?
I’m still not sure if the person who asked this was trolling of if it was a legitimate question. Still, to avoid any confusion, I’ll treat it like he was being serious. Yes, I am completely aware that the ESRB rating of M means that they approve of it for anyone 17 or older. Still, that’s not really the point. I give games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 a recommended age rating of 18 because I believe that the amount of violence in the game should prevent most people under the age of 18 from playing the game. There are plenty of people, parents included, who would disagree and that’s completely fine. As I mentioned before, these are simply my recommendations. As I have mentioned in other Comments and in other sections on this site, the ESRB rating system is severely flawed. There are plenty of games that I have rated well below what the ESRB recommends and many games that I have rated much higher. I still have no idea how games like Duke Nukem Forever and Black Ops make it through with the same rating as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The reviews I write are meant to go beyond what the ESRB does. They’re more than just a letter-based symbol and a few lines on the back of a box. They’re supposed to be as reasonably close to the complete picture as possible. They’re a compilation of everything that a hardcore gamer will see so that people, specifically parents, can make their own judgment about the appropriateness of the game.
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The Legendary Carmine
Andrew Clayton (a.k.a. The Legendary Carmine) is SSG's Executive Editor. He toils at the stone to make sure this site brings its readers valuable content on a daily basis. Like what we do? Want to see more? Donate to the site using the button below!
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