To Developers on Maturity Level

I propose having adjustable maturity levels. Some games, like Assasin's Creed already have the option to remove blood. Why not include this into more games, and even better, also include a language filter, too. (Please don't bleep. That would get really
annoying really fast, and everybody still knows what they are saying. I knew when I was like 9, and I was a fairly sheltered child.) As for the language filter, all that would need to be toggled is "game chatter," the irrelevant things they say in reaction
to events, but leave relevant speech in a different category, such as where the player needs to proceed or whatnot. You could even make it so there are alternate cutscenes (this would not take long, because the nudity scenes in games are not normally very
long, so providing an alternate would not take too much development time. It could be as simple as having them kiss rather than have sex, or have them lie in bed together, but not naked, and just talking, like on old movies.) Then, advertise them by putting
that you have the toggle options next to the ESRB ratings in small print. This would expand the availability of awesome games to me, because often the coolest games are those that have the most mature content, but not because of the mature content. They tend
to be more lifelike, more like Xbox than Wii. I play CPU games more than anything, but the Wii comparison is the best I've got.

:)

 

To Developers on Maturity Level

THANK YOU. I am adult, I love to game, recently my son downloaded The Walking Dead Season One game for me to play (huge TWD fan) and there is SO MUCH CURSING in this game I stopped playing. It has ruined the game for me and I really like the game play where
I was in control of my outcome. Can Microsoft PLEASE find a way for those of us who like to game without all the crud???

 

To Developers on Maturity Level

I really like the idea of adding more mature content to games and having more expansive toggles available to control that content. I don't think it would be all that hard for a developer to tie into the Xbox/Xbox One's built-in parental control features
and automatically switch on/off content like that. As well as offering a menu toggle for those who simply wish to turn it on or off by themselves, such as when they are playing with children around (and would wish for more censorship) and playing at night
(when it might not be so bothersome), shouldn't be that difficult to implement.

I imagine the only issue comes from the extra expense to create multiple versions of the same content and the extra development time required to create and integrate that content in a pleasing way. There's already a pretty significant investment of resources
to create games in the first place, and this would add to the pile. But if designers/developers were to begin budgeting for these kinds of features...it shouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, either.

As a designer and developer I find it exciting to hear about feature requests like this. It gets the creative juices flowing on how I could offer content in an interesting way that makes even more mature games still accessible to larger markets of gamers.

On the other hand, I also struggle with the idea of censorship at the same time, though. If I'm really focused on crafting some sort of storytelling experience, that has characters doing more mature things and those actions or experiences are an integral
part of the story being told...I may not wish to have that experience censored in any way. Perhaps something is _supposed_ to be shocking, brutal, or disgusting in order to evoke an emotional response from gamers playing. In this sort of a project I wouldn't
really be all that interested in removing content or offering up alternate content to replace it.

Definitely food for thought. Thanks for bringing it up! =)

 

Nah. While some games have successfully added no gore, and profanity filters I think ultimately making this a part of development in mature games will make mature games suffer. Just like great films suffer with TV censorship, word-changes, cuts and bleeps.

I know you think it wouldn't take "too much" development time. But if a publisher sees dev time being eaten away making two versions of the same game, then the order from up on high will be to drop the mature version and to hit the wider market with T ratings.
Even if the creative vision for the game was initially a mature vision targeting a mature consumer.

So, no, IMO. You can't trust kids not to flip the switch to mature content or inform parents that there even is one. Having this feature would effect certification and complicate it yet more for parents. What would it be, M Rated with a possible T Rating?
Rated O for optional!

But mostly its the dev time and having it impact the creative vision for a game that relies on mature content to tell its story and deliver its experience. All the better games are mature games for mature audiences I agree. So let's not mess with that process
by catering to kids.

I want a button on my Blu-Ray remote for Hentai sex scenes in Disney cartoons... can we do that? {XD