Keeping your message consistent
By Thusian 9 Comments
As gamers we all know the pain of main stream media confusing our hobby as "for children". Problem is greed has lead publishers to add to that confusion. Case in point Halo. This is an M rated game, and whenever congressional hearings talk about kids playing murder simulators we point to the rating and say well they should not have it at all. Parents should be reading the ratings, sure but what about Microsoft mixing its own messaging.
You say "Dude its a toy its only judged by whether or not the kid will choke", not so. Bioshock manages to keep consistent in its message to the audience.
See the constancy? The Rosie toy has a 17 and up sticker. No room for assumption completely aligned with the game. If game makers and publishers need to keep the message consent as 2K has done. Don't give the impression that games are for kids and maybe people won't assume it as much. At the very least we won't give ammunition to those who make that assumption.