ESRB decisions/ratings you disagree with?

The ESRB's intent is all well and good, and for the most part I usually agree with their ratings. But occassionally I look at a rating or a content description and get a little confused as to why they decided to put that. For example:

In the original 4 .Hack games, the content description for all 4 games included "Mature Sexual Themes." I found this really odd as I have never come across anything under the sort in any of the games. The topic of sex never comes up. There is one instance though in the first game where you save a female player and she says "I don't have anything to give you. I suppose I could give you myself." Kite says "WHAT!?" and she says "No I mean I could join your party." But to me, that seems like it would fall under "suggestive themes." How odd...

Super smash brothers brawl has a T rating. I don't own this game but I've played it a few times. There's mild violence but no blood or anything. I think it could have skimmed by with an E10 rating. It only contains crude humor and cartoon violence. Is there something else I'm missing here?

Also Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2. This one's a toss up. At times when the game is being all cute and cheesy I think "this could have skimmed by with a T." Then other things come along and I think "Ok maaaaybe this game might not be okay for a 13 year old." If there was a rating between T and M, Neptunia would be that.

Same with Persona 3 and 4. Perhaps an M rating is a little too much. Yet maybe a T rating is too light considering the strip club dungeon and its boss, Kanji's dungeon, and some of the social link events. Again, if there was a rating between T and M, Persona would be that.

Also, maybe if it wasn't for the swearing and skimpy outfits, some of the Disgaea games, as well as Phantom Brave, could have skimmed by with a E10 rating.

So PeeGee, What ESRB decisions/ratings do you disagree with? I know sometimes they will also censor cover art, was there an instance where you disagreed with such censorship? If the ESRB introduced a rating between Teen and Mature, what games do you think would fall under this rating?

This isn't meant to be an ESRB bashing thread, just a "Huh? what made them do that?" thread. Also I know some of you live outside of America so feel free to talk about the PEGI, CERO, ACB etc.

In Halo games when they put "Blood and Gore". I understand the blood, but the only gore I've seen was in Halo 3 after killing flood, and you can see dismembered legs.

In Resident Evil for the Gamecube(and Wii), they never mentioned in the rating that there's swearing in the game.

For Shadows of the Damned, there's no mention of mature or crude humour in the rating, but yet there's all kinds of genital humour.

I think it's a joke that the Halo games get an M rating.

Most of them. They're simply irrelavant in this day and age.

I think it's a joke that the Halo games get an M rating.

Vari3ty

Same with Call of Duty.

[QUOTE="Vari3ty"]

I think it's a joke that the Halo games get an M rating.

GamerZem

Same with Call of Duty.

Meh, I think COD deserves it.

[QUOTE="GamerZem"]

[QUOTE="Vari3ty"]

I think it's a joke that the Halo games get an M rating.

Vari3ty

Same with Call of Duty.

Meh, I think COD deserves it.

The rating sure doesn't stop the 12-15 year old kids from picking it up.

Super smash brothers brawl has a T rating. I don't own this game but I've played it a few times. There's mild violence but no blood or anything. I think it could have skimmed by with an E10 rating. It only contains crude humor and cartoon violence. Is there something else I'm missing here?

Lucky_Krystal

It is interesting enough that the CERO rating for Brawl is "A" even with the violence.

[QUOTE="Lucky_Krystal"]

Super smash brothers brawl has a T rating. I don't own this game but I've played it a few times. There's mild violence but no blood or anything. I think it could have skimmed by with an E10 rating. It only contains crude humor and cartoon violence. Is there something else I'm missing here?

thom_maytees

It is interesting enough that the CERO rating for Brawl is "A" even with the violence.

Yeah, but I've seen other E and E10 games with about as much violence as Brawl. Also, didn't the first one get an E rating?

None actually, but WHAT annoys the HECK out of me if the censoring that is going on in germany even for 18+ rated games.

For example the first CoD BO you couldn't shoot away zombie parts which gave extra points in the german version what made leveling up in the Zombie Mode even harder to near impossible as far as I heard of it and it seems they're going to do the same here with BO II.

Also what I could freak out about is because of this the video game companies started slapping an idiotic "100 % Uncut" Stciker on every second game, which is a ridicolous joke and a big F*** you into the face of the german players because it just means these games have passed german surveillance institues without being cut , not to mention what has all been edited and cut out so they can pass those tests at all.

I'm all for protecting the youth from too violent or heavy sexual content, but doing that with 18+ games is a freaking joke in my opinion.

And the institute mostly know for it is the BPJM, Bundesprüfstelle für Jugendgefährdende Medien ( translated it's something like Government Testing Bureau for youth endangering media), and that's the biggest joke about it, they have "for the youth" in their name but still even care for adults >_>

Also, maybe I should mention Dead Island is COMPLETELY forbidden in germany due to them (and COMPLETELY fine and allowed in Austria, or neighbour, as many other games there are which are cut or on the index here). And what I've seen about the game on YouTube videos and such it SO isn't justified. Problem here also is, video games are STILL considered "Kids Toys" most of the time around here and it yet has to strike them that some are indeed meant for adulst only like books or movies.

Well okay, that was what I've got to say about it.

None actually, but WHAT annoys the HECK out of me if the censoring that is going on in germany even for 18+ rated games.

For example the first CoD BO you couldn't shoot away zombie parts which gave extra points in the german version what made leveling up in the Zombie Mode even harder to near impossible as far as I heard of it and it seems they're going to do the same here with BO II.

Also what I could freak out about is because of this the video game companies started slapping an idiotic "100 % Uncut" Stciker on every second game, which is a ridicolous joke and a big F*** you into the face of the german players because it just means these games have passed german surveillance institues without being cut , not to mention what has all been edited and cut out so they can pass those tests at all.

I'm all for protecting the youth from too violent or heavy sexual content, but doing that with 18+ games is a freaking joke in my opinion.

And the institute mostly know for it is the BPJM, Bundesprüfstelle für Jugendgefährdende Medien ( translated it's something like Government Testing Bureau for youth endangering media), and that's the biggest joke about it, they have "for the youth" in their name but still even care for adults >_>

Also, maybe I should mention Dead Island is COMPLETELY forbidden in germany due to them (and COMPLETELY fine and allowed in Austria, or neighbour, as many other games there are which are cut or on the index here). And what I've seen about the game on YouTube videos and such it SO isn't justified. Problem here also is, video games are STILL considered "Kids Toys" most of the time around here and it yet has to strike them that some are indeed meant for adulst only like books or movies.

Well okay, that was what I've got to say about it.

Justforvisit

Good. Goooood. Let it all out.

I think it's a joke that the Halo games get an M rating.

Vari3ty