I believe as some others do, that the game should get its Rating updated as its current rating does not entirely reflect the current game, furthermore, the old game trailers should be replaced with gameplay from the current version, as the old game trailers are a far cry from what it is currently.
While the game has changed since launch, that doesn’t instantly mean that the ESRB/PEGI ratings need to be changed as well.
Currently, GZ has ESRB Teen and PEGI 12 ratings, which actually do match the game. Changing the rating one level up, ESRB Mature 17+ and PEGI 16, narrows down the audience for the game.
Here’s what each of these ratings stand for:
ESRB
Teen
Content is generally suitable for ages 13 and up. May contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling and/or infrequent use of strong language.
Mature 17+
Content is generally suitable for ages 17 and up. May contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
source: Ratings Guides, Categories, Content Descriptors | ESRB Ratings
PEGI
PEGI 12
Video games that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy characters or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters would fall in this age category. Sexual innuendo or sexual posturing can be present, while any bad language in this category must be mild.
PEGI 16
This rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. The use of bad language in games with a PEGI 16 rating can be more extreme, while the use of tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs can also be present.
I’d wager that with the vast number of corpses, blood and battlegrounds that now litter Ōstertörn, GZ strays closer to “depiction of violence … reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life” of the PEGI 16 than the original 12 rating back when there was little to no bodies / evidence of violence.
Plus it now features bars and clubs on Himfjäll straying towards the “use of tobacco, alcohol etc.”
I firmly believe it’s ‘outgrown’ the original 12 rating.
While “non-realistic violence towards human-like characters” may still apply to the robots, I think the violence depicted in the environment strays beyond this.
Yeah, I would say that GZ isn’t as child-friendly as it was during launch.
Well I wouldn’t say that’s minimal blood
yeah i think we can rule that one out
btw I would assume that depiction of multiple war crimes and is indeed breaches of the Geneva Convention
I’ve found breaches to the 1st and 4th Geneva convention
Article 17 of the 1st Geneva convention is a good read
It can be found here
Perhaps it’s strawberry jam. Lots of… Strawberry jam.
Eh, I tried
Are you guys really worried about the ESRB/PEGI ?
Come on… don´t tell me 12 years old don´t watch all sort of stuff.
Many of them even play GTA which is 18+
If it´s about your kids, just block it, don´t let them play it but eventually they will break free, it´s inevitable.
It´s not a few dead bodies that will make them forever broken or in need of a therapist.
PS: The only need to change the trailer is to prevent people that dislike base building and crafting to be fooled by it, nothing else.
Generation Zero 2: Cooking Boogaloo
If it would stray closer to the real life, you’d be seeing bullet holes in the corpses, limbs blown off, guts everywhere and the like, all part of PEGI 16.
Bars/clubs themselves doesn’t indicate the use of age restricted substances. These are just establishments and for all we know, they could serve only non-alcoholic drinks, while smoking in them is forbidden.
What we have in GZ, are dressed mannequins, covered spatially with red liquid. And if it were real blood, it would be dark brown by now, since blood changes color as it dries and time passes. It doesn’t sustain it’s bright red coloring for long.
It could be red diesel, or any other red dyed liquid that keeps it’s bright coloring for a long time.
You are forgetting one crucial element: there are no-one alive to carry and bury the dead.
Also, it’s not like where you can strap the red cross on you and when meeting a machine, telling it: “Don’t shoot, i’m burying the dead, according to the Geneva Convention.”. Look what machine does if you try that.