Culture

Is M The New NC-17?

Wagner James Au, former "embedded journalist" for Second Life, asks over at GigaGamez whether the Mature ESRB rating will become as untouchable as NC-17 as more restrictions are placed on their sale: The NC-17 was supposed to be the alternative, but in practice, many newspaper chains still hesitated to carry advertising for NC-17 films, while […]

Esrb_mWagner James Au, former "embedded journalist" for Second Life, asks over at GigaGamez whether the Mature ESRB rating will become as untouchable as NC-17 as more restrictions are placed on their sale:

The NC-17 was supposed to be the alternative, but in practice, many newspaper chains still hesitated to carry advertising for NC-17 films, while a few large theatrical chains refused to screen them. Which is why you almost never see an NC-17 film, and studios contractually obligate filmmakers to cut out any sex or violence which prevents the
MPAA from giving their movie an R rating.

Thoughts:

  1. Probably true, and exactly what is meant by the "chilling effect" -- if you put unnecessary restrictions on a certain rating, publishers will likely do anything they can to avoid that rating, including cutting down their content.
  2. I've never heard of GigaGamez before, but Au is doing some pretty interesting posts over there, such as this one about the PSP game based on 300.
  3. Do not Google Image Search the string "m mature" without SafeSearch turned on.

M Becoming the NC-17 of Games? [GigaGamez]