Rated "M" for Money: Difference between revisions

** In fact, [[Rockstar]], GTA's publishing stable, have built an entire brand on this class of games, with titles ranging from the relatively-tame ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'' (which still attracted controversy, due to the [[Media Watchdog]]s [[Did Not Do the Research|not doing the research]]) to the not-at-all-tame ''[[Manhunt]]'' getting [[Media Watchdog]]s and [[Moral Guardians]] alike all riled up. The better ones (the aforementioned ''Manhunt'' and the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series) tend to be the brainchildren of Rockstar North ([[based in [[Scotland]]), formerly DMA Design. The more blatantly exploitative ones are contracted out to Rockstar's other studios, for example ''Manhunt 2'' .

** The original ''GTA'' was advertised in UK gaming magazines using its 18 certificate - a rarity at the time - as a unique selling point. Now that 18-rated games are as common as 18-rated films and the BBFC theoretically uses the same guidelines to rate the two media, a game being rated 18 draws little or no comment.

** This was in part because the ''Doom'' level editor was extremely simple to use, allowing news anchors to suggest with a straight face that ''Doom'' players—including Eric Harris, one of the [[Columbine]] gunmen—were making levels of their schools, homes, local gathering spots, etc. to practice for possible massacres. Harris' levels, by the way, were '''''[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/doom.asp NOT]''''' virtual versions of his high school to shoot up, but that didn't stop "journalists" from claiming that they were.

* Midway's ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', especially in its original arcade form, was infamous for being the first worthwhile fighting game to prominently feature blood (and [[High-Pressure Blood|lots of it]]) in addition to all manner of death, dismemberment, and general gruesomeness. Parent's groups complained, puritan advocates wagged fingers disapprovingly, many angry letters were written to various editors, and the game was banned from many arcades and shopping malls and was at length significantly altered (blood changed to "sweat", fatality moves removed or altered) in its first home releases for various consoles—notably, the Super Nintendo version, which flopped due to Nintendo's censorship.