Manhunt 2 just got rated AO by the ESRB (U.S), and banned for sale by the BBFC (UK). The tubes that make the internets work, normally filled with pron and stolen merchandise, have backed up and become clogged by the flurry of discussion over two things:
First and foremost, did Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 deserve an AO rating from the ESRB, and a ban for sale in the UK. .Like any good fiction writer, I'd like you to suspend your belief for a moment - let's say it did. After all, the BBFC, being a film body that therefore has to rate every porn and snuff film that crosses the border, spends the great majority of its time watching and rating content that really does deserve adult rating. One might even argue that if anyone's going to be a half-decent judge, it's probably the BBFC - after all, unlike the ESRB in the US, their remit doesn't begin-and-end at games, they cover film, and therefore have more material on which to judge the nuances of acceptability and create uniformity in attitude; the ESRB only covers software. It's important to also note that in Britain there is an equivalent to the AO rating that the BBFC could have used, Restricted 18+ - they chose instead to ban it outright, a rarity for the modern BBFC Ultimately, my real point isn't about whether or not Manhunt deserves AO - my point is about the subject of AO. Even if it didn't cross the line, it's clear that Rockstar intends to straddle it.
Second, and the real question to ask yourself: should Sony and Nintendo publish an AO-rated game at all?. Sony and Nintendo say no, grassroots is equivocal, and the astroturf has been a solid yes. Ultimately, however, it is the answer to this question that makes the argument over the first question so important to everyone; an AO rating, in the eyes of some, therefore amounts to "censorship". In the case of the BBFC in the UK, the game was indeed outright censored, the decision was not left up to Sony and Nintendo. As the BBFC took the decision away from Sony and Nintendo, though, let's leave the BBFC's ban out - whether or not the BBFC ought to ban the game is a problem for the UK and the UK population. Whether or not adult titles ought to be published by Sony and Nintendo is ultimately an entirely different question, and the answer has a material impact on the way games, in the future, will attempt to push the envelope of acceptability.
So what are the implications of a world where AO titles are published? And what might it mean outside of the United States? In Japan, where nudity and sex in anime are utterly commonplace, games can often get away with much more adult content than you would see in anywhere in the West and would be considered porn in the United States; yet Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 3 was banned for sale to minors in Japan. That same game only got an M rating (suitable for 17+) in the U.S. The U.S. seems to have a nearly (up until now, at least) bottomless stomach for violence, but considers sex taboo; Japan inverts the entire situation. Europe kind-of walks the middle line between the two, with some regions of Europe being more tilted towards Japan's mentality (Germany, for example, where the violence in games often results in bans, but where darstellungen are known, by name, within the general populace).
In addition to fundamental differences in social norms with regard to where the line on "adult" content is drawn, each region - Japan, Europe, the U.S. - have markedly different viewpoints on freedom of speech and how that freedom interacts with the rights of society. In the UK, there is no codified 'bill of rights' - you have no freedom enshrined in a constitution to pin an interpretation on, merely historical precedents and the European Commission's Court of Human Rights. Further astray from U.S. shores, the line blurs again. A defense of "free speech" gets you exactly nowhere as a games publisher with a global reach; those words mean completely different things depending on where you are, and the power of those words is notably weaker off American soil (for better or worse).
So, what falls into "AO" in other media? Content of a sexual nature. Rape. Snuff video and torture. Again, I ask you not to as whether Manhunt deserved that rating - let's assume it did.
Where, exactly, is the place for AO/R18 content in mainstream gaming? Sony and Nintendo draw the line at AO/R18, insisting that AO content will not be published. The line, ultimately, is at AO not because of violence, but because of sex and porn. If I made a sex-with-girls simulator, should Sony allow that to be sold? Given that each Rockstar game finds a way to push closer to the thin red line between M and AO, shouldn't we have expected it to be crossed sooner or later?
The real reason the line is drawn at AO because the moment you have the above scenario, you have a problem. If Manhunt 2 is ok to sell in its current form at AO, what happens when you add rape? Where do you begin to draw the line?
The line is drawn at publishing AO games. I’m not at all convinced it’s a bad thing that it’s drawn there - everything I've mentioned above points at the reason: We don’t ever want to see video games being sold in backrooms of seedy sex parlors - that isn’t the way gaming becomes mass market, it’s the way gaming loses the mass market.
For the sake of gaming, and its continued progression into mainstream consciousness, it’s important to all of us to remember that we are not yet mainstream. We’ve all got a long way to go before we’ve got everyone comfortable playing games. Once gaming is ubiquitous, maybe then it won’t be so damaging - but while the gaming market is still the young, small thing that it is (relative to the global population) it’s somewhat fatal to go down that road.
And gaming, and the continued growth of gaming, is too important to us gamers (not to mention the devs and the hardware folk) to leave open as an option. The people who most want gaming to go mainstream aren’t Sony and Microsoft, they’re you and I - the people who want more people to play with, play against, and to share our experiences alongside.
For that to happen, it needs to be safe to buy, sell, and share in the light of day. “Edgy” content isn’t an issue, adult issues aren’t an issue; but it can’t ever become a back-alley, seedy affair, or it’s all over for a generation and we can go back to struggling to find a mate to play co-op with.
That’s my opinion in a nutshell - and it’s one of the reasons I feel it’s so important not to get embroiled in a war over the Manhunt issue as a community - we have to care about more than the fate of one ultra-violent game. If we have to choose our battles, is this the battle worth choosing?
Once upon a time, Clockwork Orange was banned in the UK, too - times changed, and it’s now seen as a masterpiece. Perhaps someday someone will say that about Manhunt 2; however, it's infinitely more likely they’ll say it’s pretty crude and has more in common with snuff films than with Kubrick. If, as Rockstar says, Manhunt 2 is a work of art, then like Clockwork Orange, someday we'll all come to see that. If, however, Rockstar is just finding new ways to stir controversy, well... You reap what you sow.
Comments (3)
There's another side to the story too -- many large US shop chains on which the games publishers rely so heavily will not stock AO only games, Wallmart being the most obvious one. Seeing as games live or die on the basis of their placing in the larger shops, it doesn't make economic sense to release games when only a minority of places will stock it.
Posted by Matt Godbolt | June 25, 2007 7:47 PM
Posted on June 25, 2007 19:47
You put this together very nicely and your points were well made. I however have failed to agree with you on this issue even after I found your points to have good intent and some validity if not at least in that purpose alone. The whole selling point of this blog becomes irrelevant upon the realization that it would be no different than to tell someone that computers would become obsolete if anyone played porno movies on them, or porno games for that matter. All electronic gaming has been made possible by the existence of computers. They have both existed around the same amount of time. There are so many sexually oriented things computers are being used for, and there are sex games that have been around for a long time already. The computer seems to keep selling...
Posted by Wormcult | August 1, 2007 10:10 AM
Posted on August 1, 2007 10:10
While I believe the three major console players have the right to conduct their business as they please, I believe censoring the AO rating does a disservice to gamers and parents.
Without AO, we have games on the market that clearly are for adults only, but yet can be marketed and sold to children.
Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, and Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 all include content that parents should know about. Unfortunately, the M rating is basically a PG-13 rating to parents. They have no real 'restricted rating" like AO to fall back on and say "okay I had better investigate this game further."
Halo and Halo 2 have the M rating even though neither game uses blood, decapitation, limb loss, or profanity. I think the ESRB shouldn't be rating it M, but I can also see the point of view that any game that uses violence as its key driver should be at least an M.
Losing the AO rating as a meaningful rating merely means publishers will split hairs to get games down to the M rating. That means parents have no way to discren what I consider a science fantasy game like Halo from a gorefest like Gears of War, a sexed-up game like DOAX2, and a game that encourages you to pick up mulitple girlfriends and sleep with them all like GTA:SA.
As a side note, GTA:SA should have been permanently given its AO rating after the developers secretly hid the 'Hot Coffee' code to reveal later. Don't believe their crap about it being accidental. Art assets getting accidentally thrown in is one thing, this was working code that wasn't commented out. B.S. It was a complete lie and it hurt the ESRB's ability to function.
Unfortunately, the ESRB is already in the same position as the MPAA, and its one of servitude. The ESRB will always be mercilessly hounded to let a game be rated M so they will let games like Manhunt 2 slide after minor changes.
As an adult, I would still be free to purchase AO games. After all, I know they have adult content. Walmart will sell you Eyes Wide Shut but they won't sell you an AO rated game. Heh, it's backwards-thinking all the way around.
Posted by CGomez | September 11, 2007 4:26 PM
Posted on September 11, 2007 16:26