Manhunt 2 gets an AO.

[schild]

Our government isn't. Yet. But you can bet they would have followed Europe's lead if this had hit the market at AO.

Look, if I can go to Fry's and buy scat porn and put it in my PS3 or PS2 and watch it, I sure as shit should not be stopped by Sony, Microsoft, Britain, Ireland, the ESRB, Wal-Mart, or some other bunch of pussies from buying Manhunt and liking it even less than the first title.

Edit: I bet at least one state bitches and moans after it hits the market at M.

[Margalis]

Selling an AO game to a 14-year-old isn't different to me from selling an M game to a 10 year old.

The problem we've had with NC-17 movies being essentially unshowable anywhere is that while most NC-17 films are trash, some are not. The rating is supposed to be a rating, not a value judgement. In the US NC-17 is synonymous with "evil movie."

If parents are going to mindlessly expose their kids to crap then we're fucked either way. The ratings system is predicated on the notion that parents will get involved. If parents aren't getting involved at all then ratings as a whole are useless.

[UnSub]

Instead, they folded like a house of cards in a weak breeze when they wouldn't be able to put the game on mass distribution channels. Rockstar like to play with controversy, but apparently can't handle it when they get their hand slapped for doing so. Poor babies.

Uh, Rockstar is in the business of selling games.  Making them is incidental.  They don't exist to test corporate boundaries of free speech, that too is incidental.

Guess they shouldn't have made a torture porn game then if they wanted to sell it to the mass market.

Making games is not incidential to selling games if you are also the production studio.

Look, I'd love it if more games came out with adult material in them, but it's very hard to talk about such things to non / casual gamers when the best examples of such current games are spree killer simulators or a pretend-we-iz-gangstas games.

[Murgos]

Instead, they folded like a house of cards in a weak breeze when they wouldn't be able to put the game on mass distribution channels. Rockstar like to play with controversy, but apparently can't handle it when they get their hand slapped for doing so. Poor babies.

Uh, Rockstar is in the business of selling games.  Making them is incidental.  They don't exist to test corporate boundaries of free speech, that too is incidental.

Guess they shouldn't have made a torture porn game then if they wanted to sell it to the mass market.

Making games is not incidential to selling games if you are also the production studio.

Did you notice that his point didn't have anything to do with the marketability of the game (and obviously Manhunt 2 is very marketable, btw) it had to do with their stomach for legal battles over nebulous 'rights'.

[CmdrSlack]

Our government isn't. Yet. But you can bet they would have followed Europe's lead if this had hit the market at AO.

Look, if I can go to Fry's and buy scat porn and put it in my PS3 or PS2 and watch it, I sure as shit should not be stopped by Sony, Microsoft, Britain, Ireland, the ESRB, Wal-Mart, or some other bunch of pussies from buying Manhunt and liking it even less than the first title.

Edit: I bet at least one state bitches and moans after it hits the market at M.

Had the game hit the market as an AO title, any government involvement would have been a bunch of bloviating for the camera. Nothing more. I think a good example is the failure of every game sale regulation statue to be tested in court so far. "Following Europe's lead" is all fine and dandy, but we have a bill of rights that thankfully includes protections for free speech.

Since you figured you'd hate Manhunt 2, I don't see why you're getting all salty over platform owners (not the government) refusing to allow the game on their systems. This isn't the beginning of the end for "adult" themed games, it's just one game that isn't getting released for console. Assuming that, based on this one thing, the government would have stepped in to utterly banninate the game is just tinfoil hattery. People would have said a bunch of shit (Hillary, Lieberman, etc.) and then nothing would have happened -- just like with Hot Coffee. And Judas Priest. And porn.

Like Gulp said, this is just the free market at work. The game isn't banned, even if that is the practical effect, it's just not available on the formats you'd like to see it on. Rockstar has decided to cry into its beer instead of release for PC, so you're just not going to see a game that you'd likely not have liked. Hell, it's not even anywhere near abhorrent (abhorable? heh) it's the industry regulating itself.

But hey, at least you can watch scat porn in Blu-Ray.

[Roac]

But hey, at least you can watch scat porn in Blu-Ray.

No he can't, porn went HD-DVD.  Maybe he's bitter.

[Sky]

Rockstar has decided to cry into its beer instead of release for PC

Y DEW U H8 FREEEDUMB R*

[HaemishM]

Rockstar needs to stop being whiny bitches. They aren't Larry Flynt, who at least had a goddamn point when he went to the Supreme Court. They are just a bunch of geek developers with a Rockstar mentality who think they can create anything they want and because of their past success, the Sony's and Nintendo's of the world should just bow down.

While I don't agree with Nintendo's stance that they won't allow an AO release on their system, it's their right to do so. The government MAKING them release Manhunt 2 at AO would be government intervention and it would be bad. And this is coming from a guy who fucking hates free market capitalism's exploitative nature.

The industry regulated itself in this case, keeping the government from interfering in the future. That is a GOOD FUCKING THING. Rockstar has been abusing the system for years, and it's about time they got dickslapped for it. I still want to play Manhunt 2 on the Wii, whether it's AO or M.

[cmlancas]

Meow, meow, we love Rockstar tears.

[Roac]

Meow, meow, we love Rockstar tears.

[Merusk]

That was the best South Park episode ever.

[schild]

Which episode was it?

[Margalis]

The one where Cartman killed Scott's parents and turned them into chili.

My final word on the whole Manhunt thing is that ratings exist so that parents can keep certain games out of the hands of kids. Manhunt was rated AO, the system works if the parents hold up their part of the bargain.

[UnSub]

Instead, they folded like a house of cards in a weak breeze when they wouldn't be able to put the game on mass distribution channels. Rockstar like to play with controversy, but apparently can't handle it when they get their hand slapped for doing so. Poor babies.

Uh, Rockstar is in the business of selling games.  Making them is incidental.  They don't exist to test corporate boundaries of free speech, that too is incidental.

Guess they shouldn't have made a torture porn game then if they wanted to sell it to the mass market.

Making games is not incidential to selling games if you are also the production studio.

Did you notice that his point didn't have anything to do with the marketability of the game (and obviously Manhunt 2 is very marketable, btw) it had to do with their stomach for legal battles over nebulous 'rights'.

Rockstar could have had a market, just one restricted by its classification status. They could have launched in the US with an AO rating and tested that marketability you say this game has. That would have required no battle over 'rights'.

Instead: they got their ball and went home.

As for government intervention: Rockstar can rework the game and bring Manhunt 2 out in a G version at this point. There are still groups who will want it pulled off the shelves.