in america, most theatres won’t play an unrated movie, or most people won’t see it. the MPAA in america has a lot of control over the audience, a movie that pushes just above R too NC-17 in america usually won’t be seen by the public, and it kills the movie.

Likewise, G and PG movies might not be seen by regular audiences, usually PG-13 is the way to go if you want your movie seen. Then again, some times the R rated becomes like a feature of the movie. M. Night Shyamalans forgettable “The Happening” was advertised as his “first R-rated movie.” oooh, mesmerizing…

In any case, I think our work is an exception in many ways. So nobody needs to change any rules or customs for us. I was talking more from the standpoint of consumer than producer.

I don’t know what kind of legal things you guys need to go through with The Path. (I’ve noticed that there isn’t any sort of rating from places like the ESRB or PEGI or any other rating board for any Tale of Tales game. So I don’t know if you guys need to have one or not.)

If you don’t…Then maybe you could just do a label.

I actually don’t think your examples are that absurd, Ben. And I don’t think we should let political correctness stand in the way of what’s practical in this case. In my experience, humans are not as different from each other as we are supposed to assume.

Honestly, i think the only issue with the age range system (this game is for 30-45 year olds, 3-10 year olds, etc.) is that age is not the only thing that a game’s target audience could include. What if games said Girls 5-12? Or Men 32-36 who’ve experienced a divorce? Or married Men 28-30 who’re are married, experienced a visectomy, and are also fired from their jobs for making rude comments to co-workers? I suppose that’s a little absurd, but what about questions about audience that rely on that? And what about child prodigies or the mentally handicapped? I know they are outliers, but isn’t maturity incredibly subjective?

I think the point is, really, is that the industry is developing *bad* games for 12 to 16 year olds rather than *good* games for that audience. For example Pixar makes some great films appealing to a (younger) group of people. But there’s a load of crap films for that age group out there, too.

It’s not really such a bad idea. Lego says 2-99 or whatever. Maybe a game SHOULD say the same. 12-16 or whatever. But I think as we go on, fewer and fewer games with be for “age” groups.

As it is now, in games, it seems that age rating is just part of the marketing, with “darker, more mature” being a selling point these days. My cynical self sees game developers creating games for 12 to 16 year olds but aiming for an age rating of 16plus because that appeals to this age group. So we end up with a bunch of games labeled “mature” that are actually intended for children. As a person who is in fact mature, and not in his late teens or early twenties, I take offense when subjected to such a game. But if I had known the game was not intended for grown-ups, I wouldn’t have bothered and would still have a positive attitude towards the game developer in question and the industry in general.

I don’t think the comparison with movies is straightforward because (mainstream) movies tend to always appeal to a wider audience than games do. Many games are so outrageously juvenile but often still get an rating of 16plus or 18plus just because there’s violence in it. I know it’s to protect the young. But who will protect the old?

In my opinion i’m not sure (now, i’m going on how we do it in america, i’m not sure if it’s the same/different worldwide) the ESRB is the organization that should be responsible for it.

Maybe perhaps it should be the job of reviewers, or someone could take the reigns of that and suppose what the target audience would be. I feel though that it should be a third party thing (if done at all).

At the moment, I think the age ratings are simply to reference the “apropriateness” of a title and not necasarily the intended audience. I think i’ve seen the occasional board game with an age ranking like that, but only a handful.

But again, i wonder, how well it would work. for example, the movie ratatoullie by pixar i thought was excellent (close to a masterpiece) and suitable for all ages. However i find it in the kiddie section at stores all the time. I’m almost find the age ranking systems themselves condescending.