AO?
Not familiar to the American ratings, what is AO?
Amazingly Overcool?

But the raters rate after what is possible, not what is encouraged.

A lot of the movies i watched as i kid, i look back at now and wonder how im not more screwed up than i am. Like the original Willy Wonka movie, there was some pretty sick stuff in there.

silly, seeing grahic ammounts of blood and gore will do nothing to a kid but if s/he see a naked person s/he might go on a rampage and murder everyone in their home town then sell their soul to satan as they beat orphans

AO is advlts Only, a rating that is reserved for games for whatever reason, an M rating is not enough. Most stores won't put AO rated games on display on their shelves, and I believe at least some of them won't sell the game at all. When Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was re-rated AO for locked out content, Rockstar actually re-released the game without said content to regain the M rating so sales would recover.

Cool, nothing I'd have a problem with then.
Some people think anyone under 18 can't handle neither fictional violence nor nudity.
Silly people, my life is great.

people who say they don`t want to see nudy bits, well in ancient times, nudity was no big deal, it shouldn`t be. Women were routnely topless even in colder climes, not to mention men. And right in front of the kids too. It was no big deal.

Look at all the mythology from Greek, Roman, cretan, Nordic, celtic and all the rest- most of them have nudity as standard. Just as people did not pretend about death then, they didn`t pretend about nakedness either. Games set in such periods should really allow basic nudity even more than violence.

Only Victorian prudishness has made everyone get really stuck up nowadays.

Since when is this thread about complaining about cultures people don't like?

it is?

your right next to the country that was manswers (TV show on Spike TV) top choice for being able to get into a threesome with two chicks.

You what? Explain please. Are you talking about Australia, that wouldnt be surprising...

What I don't get is Skyrim while it has some violence and decaps, doesn't show a shred of nudity really, you can't even strip your companion naked like you could in Oblivion, they just revert to their 'inventory invisible' armor! (Ummm I did so out of curiosity in Oblivion I am not perverted ) Yet Skyrim received a MA 15+ rating here in Australia.

In comparison, Witcher 2 which is ALOT more advlt orientated, there is alot of swearing, cursing, nudity and even six scenes, yet Witcher 2 received the EXACT same rating as Skyrim did, MA 15+ ? It doesn't really makes sense to me, but then again the game rating system never really did.... I remember our game classification board a year or so back Banning Aliens VS Predator because the Predators would rip out the soldiers spine with their skull still connected, but the embargo got overturned after the developers contested the decision.

Still doesn't make sense, Witcher 2 is a much more violent, sixual and advlt game! Guess it doesn't matter I am old enough to play both but still it makes you wonder!

Cultural thing. Violence hardly raises a blip on the radar in the US, yet even a hint of nipble will have the "won't somebody think of the children" brigade howling from the rafters.

Oh I dont know, maybe to keep children away from certain crap that they should not be exposed to at such an early age. Do I really have to explain it or do you just lack common sense.

It's not that simple. Just as [censored] is considered much worse than consensual six, violence committed for evil reasons is considered much worse than self defense (which is considered a very important right in the US) or for heroic reasons. Yes there's a lot of gray but there are a number of things to push it into one category or another. And yes even "good" six is considered less moral to depict than "good" violence. The exact reasons for some of these things cannot be discussed here, however, without delving into religion, which means such discussion is off limits on these forums. Still, I don't get why so many people complain about it. There are enough people in the US that disagree with the philosophy that there shouldn't be much of a reason to complain unless for the sake of complaining.

Oblivion wasn't M because of the mods, it was because they overlooked how graphic the zombies are (as well as the unfortunate fate of Mr. Lucien Lachance).

Also, Skyrim got a 17 rating. I'm pretty sure 17-year-olds don't suddenly mature a huge amount in one year. The existence of the 18+ rating is a joke, really.

skyrim is 18 in norway

haha don't you know female nipbles are going to corrupt the youth of the world? /sarcasm in america its rated 17+ which is pretty much the max rating. 18+ is porm, either sixual or toture porm.

Also some games have had nudity, god of war and mass effect (remember the butt cheek that scared fox so much?) and still had a 17+.

It's rated 18+ here in Hungary and in most of it's neighbourhood countries as well. After running into sixual slavery, blatant necrophilism and having finishing moves where I slit the throat or thrust my swords lung-deep into enemies' chest I'm not that suprised. I think these things make the game feel a lot more real and dark though, which is perfect for a fantasy-middle-age setting with dragons, civil war, hatred and racism running rampant. But I must say that there should be more of this dark and morbid content because right now Skyrim is a confused child of "kiddie action game" and "mature rpg game", not sure about which path should it go down.

In Oblivion the concept of the "Imperial Unity" falling apart and Mankar Camoran talking about breathing the stale air of the soon to be demolished Tamriel was more comical than anything. People muted the voice acting or console killed Camoran just to get rid of his so-called "blah blah speech". Everything was cheerful, bright coloured (save from the Oblivion dominion) and people talked about the impending doom as if it was a Saturday night program they faced every other week or so. Even Dark Elves behaved like middle class British gentlemen most of the time, failing to mention how much they hate everyone besides their own kind and conviniently forgetting that "back in Morrowind" there was nothing but blight, corprus, Dagoth Ur, slavery and cliff racers until the Nerevarin Reborn saved their asses.

On my retail box it says 18+.. Probably because there are too many arrows in the knee going on

Not all of us are American and not all of us have a problem with nudity. heck, some of our popular papers still have topless women on page 3. I do understand that the US do seem to have a strange over-moralistic problem with nudity, though it is ironic since they are secretly the porm capital of the world. Nudity isn`t porm by the way.

Whatever your views on war is not really important, but nudity should never be seen as worse than killing someone - for whatever reason.

In regard to the various ratings around the world, how it rates is purely based on what 'someone' who assesses it thinks as to how it fits on the censorship rating. Internationally, there is a real issue with imbalanced ratings laws in relation to video games, and at least where I come from we have seen releases, then had them withdrawn for sale because the government is not bound by the 'guidelines' of its own assessment body...and that's because 'video' of the digital variety, or computer programs, don't fit into the existing limitations of the media laws, which only deal in paper, video tape, and other older established entertainment or other media.

Sorry Rant over...

Skyrim is pretty close to paving the way in conceptualised advlt video gaming...it deals with some pretty lurid human emotions, although it covers it in a narrative well...but it truly is sick subject matter. Just think of how some of the scenes you have seen or come across would make a sicko doco or cop show.,,but the game is available very broadly. In regard to the decapitations, it's a bit more realistic than F3's splatter show, but it still isn't shocking. It's muted, and I personally would prefer longer cut-scenes of my kills, and a bit more mature a storyline.

If Beth are prepared to push the envelope, they are quite able to introduce a truly narrative advlt focused game in the future...and that will be the biggest marketting ploy since going on Steam (at least for PC's...Consoles are still seen as young gamers gear).

+1
so what you have 18+ and then someone bought game for you and you play.

Here in Belgium it is rated 18+. But who cares about age ratings? They are indeed (as someone mentioned earlier) a joke.

Some people would beg to differ. And those people have the right to have their views on the subject without having their culture being criticized by outsiders for whom it has no bearing on.

Edit: I'm sorry, but I'm tired of people using age rating threads as an excuse to bash other nations' cultures. You have your culture, we have our culture. Please don't try to press your culture's views on ours, and we won't do it to you. Well, at least I won't.

If mods affected ratings all Bethesda's games would be rated "to be burned on sight"