Ratings Do Matter Very Much and Here is Why

To the people that say ratings don’t matter then how about if Halo 5 was rated E for everyone??

Let me give an example. Let’s say every Thanksgiving you sit at the main table with the adults and you eat your food happily and have good interactions with everyone. Now if a stranger walked in on you, they would take you serious too and treat you like an adult.

Let’s say one day, the owner of the house decides to send you to eat at the kiddy table. At this table you have colorful plastic forks and spoons and altough you are eating the same food, something will feel off about it. Now if a stranger or a hot girl walked in, they wouldn’t take you serious if you were sat at the kiddy table. How would you feel if someone sent you there?

It gives an illusion that the game has less value because it looks like it is downgrading. It’s not like Destiny which has always been T for Teen.

That is quite a bit very good superficial comparison. Very focused on the “what will others think of me oh no” mentality, which is where I wouldn’t take you seriously. If I walked in on someone at the “kiddie table” I’d probably think he’s watching over them to make sure they’re fine, which is responsibility. By kiddie I think of 4-5 year olds due to my experience volunteering at this place with little kids, where I had to watch over them, sing and place things.

While I do agree, but the language has been PG-13. And violence is still SciFi. Rating does matter But even Fillion in ODST was more Mal insults and language than a lot of profanity. Johnson used but not often. Mostly its the AI Marines which may not be A lot of with 4 Spartans on a team.

Good thought, but don’t think people are saying it doesn’t matter in general, I think they are talking about sales and population more specifically. For games, I don’t see this analogy really working out. Games like Batman Arkam City are taken very seriously. And let’s not forget the biggest game of all time: League of Legends. These are both rated T and are very legitimate. If anything I think the T rating could help Halo advertise in more areas where an M game couldn’t be shown. For example, you see destiny advertised everywhere when GTA can’t really. Great thought either way!

Halo was only rated M by the ESRB. PEGI has always given it 16+ (Teen). Limbo, 3 Batman Arkham games, Mirrors Edge, Star Wars Battlefront series, Destiny, and many other games are great T rated games.

Halo was never really an M game. There’s no gore, almost no language, suggestive scenes, sexual content, or drug references in Halo. The only reason why Halo was M in the first place was because of the Flood, Cortana and Halo 4’s composer scene.

Compare Halo to Gears, GTA, Call of Duty or Dead Space. Does Halo seem like a game worth an M rating next to these games that push the M rating?

E they have to remove a lot. T they keep pretty much everything halos been doing. It’s not affecting GP so who cares what an outsider thinks. Btw sitting at the kiddies table would be E not T. A better comparison would be eating by yourself watching tv while the adults are eating at the table and kids at the kiddy table.:wink:

That’s just being selfish. Think of all the kids that aren’t allowed to play Mature games but are allowed to play Teen games. Giving Halo 5 a Teen rating will allow many more people to enjoy it. Halo was never really a Mature game to begin with, and I bet that 6 year olds could play it without being affected at all.

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> That’s being selfish. Think of all the kids that aren’t allowed to play Mature games but are allowed to play Teen games. Giving Halo 5 a Teen rating will allow many more people to enjoy it. Halo was never really a Mature game to begin with, and I bet that 6 year olds could play it without being affected at all.

…I don’t see large numbers of 6 year olds playing Halo as a positive outcome. Sorry.

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> > 2533274939958452;7:
> > That’s being selfish. Think of all the kids that aren’t allowed to play Mature games but are allowed to play Teen games. Giving Halo 5 a Teen rating will allow many more people to enjoy it. Halo was never really a Mature game to begin with, and I bet that 6 year olds could play it without being affected at all.
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> …I don’t see large numbers of 6 year olds playing Halo as a positive outcome. Sorry.

Ah ha, but now Halo will get more exposure in general, and maybe the dad might start playing or the older brother, etc. It will help I think. I had a friend that could not play M games until he is 18! I don’t think a 17 year old will hurt the population.

> 2533274913936758;8:
> > 2533274939958452;7:
> > That’s being selfish. Think of all the kids that aren’t allowed to play Mature games but are allowed to play Teen games. Giving Halo 5 a Teen rating will allow many more people to enjoy it. Halo was never really a Mature game to begin with, and I bet that 6 year olds could play it without being affected at all.
>
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> …I don’t see large numbers of 6 year olds playing Halo as a positive outcome. Sorry.

That’s not my point. I’m just saying that kids as young as 6 years old could play Halo, a “Mature” game, and not be affected at all. Other than playing online for a single day and then learning every single curse word in existence.

Your analogy is interesting for a lot of reasons, but ultimately it’s flawed.

An adult sitting at the kids table would come under scrutiny because it’s just such an absolutely silly concept.

A game being rated E or T however doesn’t automatically make it silly for adults to play.
Madden NFL for example is rated E yet I doubt anyone would care if they caught you playing it. Nothing silly about it.

Someone walking in on me playing Halo 5 would be more like them catching me watching the local news. It’s an activity perfectly appropriate for most ages.

The embarrassment thing here comes from the content of the game, not the rating.
Barney’s Adventures and Madden could both be rated E, yet they clearly have different demographics in mind.

> 2533274879837198;1:
> To the people that say ratings don’t matter then how about if Halo 5 was rated E for everyone??
> Let me give an example. Let’s say every Thanksgiving you sit at the main table with the adults and you eat your food happily and have good interactions with everyone. Now if a stranger walked in on you, they would take you serious too and treat you like an adult.
> Let’s say one day, the owner of the house decides to send you to eat at the kiddy table. At this table you have colorful plastic forks and spoons and altough you are eating the same food, something will feel off about it. Now if a stranger or a hot girl walked in, they wouldn’t take you serious if you were sat at the kiddy table. How would you feel if someone sent you there?
> It gives an illusion that the game has less value because it looks like it is downgrading. It’s not like Destiny which has always been T for Teen.

Pffff. A stranger I don’t know and a girl who won’t take me serious because I am at the kids table? How superficial is she? Perhaps I am taking care of the kids? What up tight people are these? Who cares, at least that means I don’t have to share my food. These comparisons are terrible by the way.

Also everyone loves Pixar movies and those are children animated films but can still be enjoyed by Adults because they are just made that well.

More on point.

Batman Arkham Series.
Republic Commando.
Alan Wake.

All Rated T and each one listed and being darker than the last. Halo does not really have nudity, harsh language or gore. Halo has always been extremely tame to the other M rated games, I don’t even thing the original trilogy warranted a M rating. If this were rated E then I would agree but then I don’t even know if can be rated E and be a War game at the same time, so halo would stop being halo. There is no difference from what I can tell for Halo 5 for getting a T rating. The game still has blood, mild Language, violence which all the previous game had. Gears of War going to a T rating you would actually have a point, Halo however is no worse for wear for a rating that does effect the game anyway.

I remember Geonosian gore splattering on my faceplate in Republic Commando. That was rated T.

> 2533274812652989;13:
> I remember Geonosian gore splattering on my faceplate in Republic Commando. That was rated T.

Good times. Still one of my favorite star wars games.

If the ratings matter for the reasons you claim (BTW: I believe you’re correct and they do matter for superficial reasons like this), then you can bet your bottom dollar that 343/MS are aware of it, and they chose the rating that figured to serve their upcoming game best in the sales department. You can bet that bottom dollar of yours on that, because MS/343 certainly aren’t about to decrease their sales just for a rating. If a Mature rated H5 figured to sell better, they’d have told someone to get their yoinks in the recording booth, swear for half an hour, put their best takes in the game, and slapped a big fat M on the front of the H5 case (and every single poster/ad).

That’s not what they did though, is it? No. So, unless you think Microsoft has suddenly lost their passion for making ridiculous amounts of paper presidents and digital dough, then I personally say you’re better off letting the money making machine that is MS worry about their green paper. They seem to know something about bringing it to them.

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> > 2533274939958452;7:
> > That’s being selfish. Think of all the kids that aren’t allowed to play Mature games but are allowed to play Teen games. Giving Halo 5 a Teen rating will allow many more people to enjoy it. Halo was never really a Mature game to begin with, and I bet that 6 year olds could play it without being affected at all.
>
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> …I don’t see large numbers of 6 year olds playing Halo as a positive outcome. Sorry.

FYI a lot of diehard Halo fans started by playing CE around that age.

No me, but I’ve heard the stories.

Guys, Microsoft and 343 did not choose the rating, videogames are rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an organization the gaming industry created to self-regulate itself.

After having a quick check of my games, (at least here in Australia) the games have had a rating of M (for violence and online interactivity) to MA 15+ (for pretty much the same as M). This maybe because unlike the ERSB, ratings here are government mandated, and after checking the H5 rating on ebgames (our local and only game store in the country, we had more but that is another story) it is listed as M for violence and online interactivity.

The only “Halo” game to have a rating other than M or MA 15+ is Halo Wars and it is PG.

edit: It should be known that games here are lumped in with movies and tv shows, because why create new department with up-to-date understandings when an archaic set of rules governed by senior citizens is better.

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> Guys, Microsoft and 343 did not choose the rating, videogames are rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an organization the gaming industry created to self-regulate itself.

Halsey, Microsoft and 343 choose what to put in their games! They are aware of how rating system works/how ratings are determined. Therefore, they are very much in control of the rating of their own game. Maybe they don’t have 100% control over the matter, but let’s not pretend that they don’t ultimately choose the ratings of their games. Also, they are informed what the rating of their games will be well before they launch, in case they want to make changes to keep their games in a particular rating class. So, I’m not really sure what you’re trying to argue here.

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> > 2533274812652989;17:
> > Guys, Microsoft and 343 did not choose the rating, videogames are rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an organization the gaming industry created to self-regulate itself.
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> Halsey, Microsoft and 343 choose what to put in their games! They are aware of how rating system works/how ratings are determined. Therefore, they are very much in control of the rating of their own game. Maybe they don’t have 100% control over the matter, but let’s not pretend they don’t ultimate choose the ratings of their games. Also, they are informed of the rating of their games, well before they launch, just in case they want to make changes. So, I’m not really sure what you’re trying to argue here.

You made it sound as if Microsoft and 343 personally made the decision to make it T. That is false.