@DrYnot @Mellowcow @tduhon07 Look whether the inflation argument is right or not I really don't care. The point was that we as gamers are being ripped off. I can't side with DrYnot more on this. After seeing companies like CD Projekt Red releasing in what in my eye was the best franchise of the generation on top of that DRM free, it makes Bethesda's argument invalid. I'm sorry, but we are both gamers and consumers really need to vote with our wallets on this one. All we have to do is not purchase day 1 DLC. It's one thing if it's a patch with extra content released for free, but 10 DOLLARS!!!!?? I'm sorry, but you people have your heads shoved up your ass if you think that is a fair deal for something that's on disc that should have been in the game in itself. Or better yet how about none of the time should have been spent with something like day 1 DLC and efforts should be put to improve the main game.
Feinstein lost my vote, she lost my vote when she voted on SOPA, and now she lost my vote again for this. This is one of the few times I feel very conservative on a subject. Government should not interfere with the creative individuals in a nation. It's the equivalent to censorship in my eye, and a waste of my tax money.
@blackace Microsoft can't even manage their current franchises and development studios. When they acquired Rareware back in 2002, that company started going in such stupid directions with some of their games. This is especially the case now where they now do only kinect titles and stopped giving a crap about their old IPs. What makes it worse is that these old IP's are always under rights disputes between Microsoft and Nintendo and whenever Microsoft wins they never end up putting their old games up or making new games with the IPs, they just let them go to waste. While Microsoft owning SEGA back in the early 2000's would have benefited them, odds are they would just end up mismanaging everything today and put SEGA in development of Kinect titles, and we wouldn't have ended up having the awesome classic games that Sega has shown respect for when re releasing them on modern consoles. Especially heritage collection which were the best re releases of classic games I have ever seen in the modern day.
Regardless of what SEGA is now, and what they are doing to Stormrise, at least whatever IPs they still have or have acquired recently from other publishers like THQ are being put to use. So no Microsoft owning SEGA would be the worst thing to happen to any SEGA fan.
As much as I HATE THESE GAMES WITH ALL MY HEART!!!!! I know a lot of people who would want to play these games on PS3. I don't understand why Square isn't doing this considering this would sell huge in America.
Ok this is a time where I can officially say that Democrats have gone a little far. First to point out the idea that the shooter was using a spreadsheet to track past killers as a means to describe it as a work of a gamer is just absurd. Aren't there instances in sports where someone can track the spread sheets of the amount of homeruns in baseball or touchdowns in football that a certain player achieved and couldn't it be your goal to beat those? The same could go for murdering children. To link both of those things to video games is absurd considering that both of them relate to the idea of record breaking in general and not trying to beat a score in a video game. Record breaking could go towards anything and isn't necessarly related to video games.
It is amazing that we have to have our government dictate what is too violent for us as a culture, and to waste precious time in congress to address something as pointless as this when there are bigger issues the nation needs to face which in my opinion should be tax reform. It's sad to see this as a bi partisan issue somewhat considering that there are republicans and democrats alike trying to control the video game market and attempting to change the conduct because THEY feel it's necessary. I've said a lot about this controversy in a few articles before, but all I have to say here is that I hope that someday video games as a medium will get the respect it deserves and hopefully won't turn into what the film and TV industry has become, which is a wasteland of crap that gets overseen by suits in power. Sadly that day is coming with EA still being in power. Hopefully congress will leave the video game industry as it is right now alone by that time.
Soooo why aren't the real people getting this prestigious award that are working their asses off making the games that this guy is over ruling? That's all I have to say.
@Derpalon @ItsFizz That is where the internet comes in and why I feel it may be the best thing to happen to video games in a long time. Now you practically don't even need to worry about ratings anymore considering you can just independently market and sell your game without the worry of getting an AO and to not have retailers sell your game. I would probably still be against the ESRB, but I wouldn't be as militant about it if retailers would just carry AO rated games so developers wouldn't have to worry about putting interactive sex or nudity in their games to get shelve space.
@Derpalon @ScottlinDLR Yeah I see the point of the ESRB as a guideline, it just never seems to be instructed that way and a lot of parents that do follow it seem to take it too seriously to the point where it's a law.
I couldn't agree more with you on when it comes to Halo and Grand Theft Auto (depending on which GTA however considering 4 and San Andreas seem to be anti crime or anti drug in their messages). However, I did grow up with Grand Theft Auto Vice City and Halo 1 on PC when I was in 6th grade and at the time I was interested in the cutscenes and story to know better that it was just a game. So really in my eye I feel as if as long as you are realizing that what you are playing is fiction and your parents emphasize this before you play a game, then honestly any kid at that age could start playing M rated games in my eye if that context is put in place.
I feel like the government does have the right idea here, but it's educating the parents in the wrong way. I don't understand why every country out there is so supportive of the idea of something that is essentially obsolete at this point. The ratings system is a joke if you ask me. Why do I say that? Well it's because a ratings system is subjective to the culture we live in and everything that is rated is rated by one group of people that dictates what THEY believe is wrong for our kids.
For example when looking at the comparisons between Europe and America, each ratings system rates different things based on the culture. America will rate a game like the uncut version of Fahrenheit an A rating for that one interactive sex scene, while Europe will rate that same game a 16+ because their culture is more of a pro sex culture than America is. In America, they will rate a game like Gears of War an M rating, while Europe may just out right ban a game for it's violence. Everything becomes subjective when a ratings system becomes the way we will judge everything.
I feel like what we should do is not rely so much on a ratings system, but parents should actually look at game play walkthroughs on the internet to see if a game is bad or not for their kids. To me that is the best way to judge a game to see if it's appropriate or not. I've seen parents that will prevent their kids from Playing Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword because it was rated an E10 for gods sake. To me that game is so innocent that any kid should be able to play it, and to me that parent was being too lazy to actually look into what the game actually was. I'm sure that if she saw the actual game play of that game, she probably would have reconsidered that decision.
All in all, I'm not trying to judge what parents should and shouldn't buy for their kids, that's their decision. However, I feel like the ratings system is a very lazy and outdated means of judging a game considering we now have the internet to look at how we view games.
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