The Artisan "Angels are singing in monasteries..." Moderator Oct 27, 2017 9,278 It's been about a week since GTA6's second trailer, and this interview with TC Carson always rings back to me because of one question that he answered about the violence in video games. The full interview is somewhere on Youtube and it was about promoting gow3. The interview itself was conducted by Shogungamer, which I think closed down. I've transcribed the question and answer below: DO YOU THINK THE DOUBLE STANDARD BETWEEN CINEMA & GAME RATINGS WILL EVER END? I think the problem...is that video games are always going to be perceived as children's items first. And, until, you know - I don't think that's ever gonna change, because they're for kids! You know, now, there are video games that are for mature audiences. There are older people playing games now. There are kids who grew up playing video games that are now in their 20s and you know, 30s that are still playing video games so they want something a little more...a little more R-rated. You know, and they should be able to have that. But, ultimately video games are marketed toward children so there's always gonna be a little bit more scrutiny. And they're really accessible to kids. I have a...I have a mixed thing about the violence in video games. I know that's strange coming from somebody playing *chuckles* one of the most violent characters in games. But um, like this game here [gow3], I would, I have nephews that are young that I, I won't let them play this game. It's too much for them! On the other hand, I have, you know, some godsons that older, you know, 18, 19, they love the game! So, I...I think the labels are important, I think the stores should enforce the labels, you know, and I think the parents should enforce the labels. Make sure you know what your kid is playing with. That's the biggest thing right there. Click to expand... Click to shrink... throughout my entire life that I've played video games, I'll admit I played a lot of M rated games before I was even a teenager. but I don't know if that was right, and I don't know if it'd be right if I allowed my future kids to do that too. if there are restrictions in place to stop children especially young children (say like, younger than 13) from watching R rated movies or MA rated television, shouldn't the restrictions for video games be as strong? the counter to this that I can think of is music. Carson has a point about how accessible video games are to kids, but the entertainment medium that's most accessible is music. Youtube is right there, and it won't censor music at all. anyone can go straight there and listening to anything they want. so restricting music for children is kind of a lost cause. what do you think?  Grapezard Member Nov 16, 2017 8,353 Should there be a better effort in restricting children from playing mature games? Click to expand... Click to shrink... From their parents, yeah. You can't really get more obvious than ESRB/equivalent ratings, and yet.   Vanguard Member Jan 15, 2025 556 I don't see the difference. It seems just as easy to set parental controls on a console as it is to do the same on a Netflix account. I found it easy to watch mature content as it was to play mature games as a kid. And once you get on the web you can see nearly whatever you want.   Madao Avalanche's One Winged Slayer Member Oct 26, 2017 5,623 Panama enforcing the game's rating is something that should have been one of the top priorities for decades and it never sticks. no idea what else you can do about it.  Mesoian ▲ Legend ▲ Member Oct 28, 2017 31,635 It has to be a household thing. Companies and governments shouldn't be restricting art because of who may or may not see it.   The Lord of Cereal #REFANTAZIO SWEEP Member Jan 9, 2020 12,190 I grew up playing a good amount of M-rated games just as I grew up watching a bunch of TV-14 and TV-MA shows and rated R movies. I think it's all about parenting styles and the maturity of the kids. My parents did restrict what I was allowed to watch, but mot by following the guidelines of the rating systems   Rellyrell28 Avenger Oct 25, 2017 33,346 It's still wild to me that Kyle from Living Single was OG Kratos   T0kenAussie Member Jan 15, 2020 5,978 Grapezard said: From their parents, yeah. You can't really get more obvious than ESRB/equivalent ratings, and yet. Click to expand... Click to shrink... This is true but games and movies mostly aim for an m15 maximum rating because they know the higher they go on the scale the lower they are making their potential audience. And tbh I'm fine with that, that's up to the artist and their funders as to what projects they want to make