"Phantomflex;c-17128100" wrote:
Considering the things that 13-year-olds today see, hear, and experience on a daily basis, TS4 is quite tame for a Teen rated game. The ESRB rates games as being suited for teens with the following criteria:
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.
It is indeed possible for a game to be rated Teen and still have elements of blood, nudity, and alcohol. Just check the ESRB website and search for games rated Teen within the past month.
As for whether I think the next game should be rated Mature, I welcome it. However, I doubt it would actually happen.
Let's be real, you don't need to bump up the rating. The problem with these kinds of discussions is that people seem to be misguided and put too much focus on blaming the ESRB, despite the fact that there are many other games with more adult material than The Sims yet still maintain the T rating. I don't work for the ESRB, but I don't think it's probable for the next Sims game to be rated M just because it contains content highly similar to the TS2. I'm also willing to believe that TS4 is bowdlerised as a way of playing it safe to avoid offending the more sensitive portion of the community rather than out of trying to secure a particular rating.
Just think about it; is the content in The Sims 1, 2 and 3 really worthy of an M rating on a modern standpoint? A rating that's associated with games like Grand Theft Auto and Battlefield?
