- Moderator
- #826
It's the same checklist as film, except for whatever reason video games are checked more harshly and not the same when they should be. I think it is automatic in that on reviews (that cost the publisher money) they get accepted. It's the double standards that the board are accountable for though.
Not necessarily in response to the quote but just on the subject, here are the descriptions regarding drug use, sex and sexual violence under R18+, keep in mind that the guidelines are identical for both film and video games:
- "Realistic and explicit" depictions of violence is permitted, but violence that is "frequently gratuitous, cruel, exploitative and offensive to a reasonable adult" will not be permitted.
- Sexual violence is permitted only to the extent that they are "necessary to the narrative" and "not exploitative" or "not shown in detail".
- Sexual activity can be "realistically simulated", but depiction of "actual sexual activity is not permitted".
- Drug use can be shown but "not gratuitously detailed" and should also "not be promoted or encouraged". For computer games, drug use related to "incentives and rewards" is not permitted.
For every game that has been RC'd based on any of these points I can think of dozens of shows or movies that have pushed the boundaries further. Going by what the journalists have written about Kingdom Come: Deliverance's DLC, for example, where it is implied that a woman is going to be raped, how can that be determined it is not necessary to the narrative or not exploitative when it's a part of the story and you are supposed to actually prevent it? As it's implied it is also not shown in detail. Obviously "actual sexual activity" is actually pornography and we all know that any sex in film is just "realistically simulated". I'm not sure if they understand that video games aren't real, and are actually simulations. I'd like to use the example of the movie Irreversible again. It's a disgusting movie that very easily breaks the first two points, ticks off the third, but has been slapped with an R18+ label and you can waltz into JB tomorrow and grab it off the shelf. I don't even know why the point on drug use is there. It's not ok for drugs to enhance a character when the aim of so many of the games they're in is to kill other people? If Breaking Bad were a video game it wouldn't have seen the light of day here.
