Blogs What Makes A Mature Game?

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2010/02/08/what-makes-a-mature-game/

 

[puberty]Boobies![/puberty]


If you want 'Mature' as in really maturity and mature people, you should play Ultima Online on a mature role-playing shard. The reason for this is that the other players are looking for the same thing.

 

crossword training, sodoku training, brain training, continence training

the only mature games that matter

 

One of the glyph puzzles in AC2 I did last night mentioned some opera lass having a game of hide the sausage (in not so many words). Took me by surprise - not something you expect the slurred speech of subject 16 to come out with.

 

one that doesnt patronise you every 30 seconds

 

Games like Dante's Inferno are at the top of the pyramid of shotty mature labeled games, and I don't mean the rating ether. If you were to look at the bottom of the pyramid, to me, you would find games like Fallout and Duke Nukem. Two successful franchises that are built on mature theme, and good game play. To me it is just developers trying to one up games that came before them that makes for games like Dante's Inferno where you have mediocre game-play, with mixed greens, a common story-line, and boobies. The game doesn't draw my interest.

 

I think we are going to get a a mature story/game in heavy rain, i cannot wait for this game and L.A. Noire.

 

I've been thinking about getting Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, as I know you have mentioned it before and said it was good. It's on steam, but does the community patch work on steam?

On topic: I'm just curious Joe, what did you think of The Witcher? That was pretty damn mature, it had loads swearing and sexual innuendo and at times I thought it went a little over the line. I mean I really don't think a game for adults needs all that for it to be considered mature.

 

It reminds of a video on youtube of a guy faping to his elven female character in Wow... [Irony]Does that make it mature?![/Irony]

 

A game is mature when it can handle it's content well. GTA has been known to be a bit over the top, but it manages to incorporate that in the world at least somewhat well, as did the Elderscolls series and Fallout.

There's also the fine line between a mature game, and one where it tries too hard to be mature.

 

Joe, have you been reading my mind? I was actually thinking about this for a good portion of the day yesterday. I'm starting to get sick of developers talking about how "mature" their game is, when they just tacked on nudity and swear words to a hollow shell of storyline. That approach reminds me of the 13 yr old kids trying to act they are mature by doing silly inappropriate things - really it just shows how far from being mature you really are.

So what if you are jaded and grumpy! It's about time someone else joined me, and hopefully more developers start to do the same.

 

Well don't know what the "community" patch really does, but with the last official patch, the game gave me no trouble.
And I really enjoyed it.

 

The patches should work with Steam fairly easily and the latest ones do more than just fix bugs, they also restore cut content and items.

http://www.patches-scrolls.de/vampire_bloodlines.php

I'd very much recommend Bloodlines to anyone, really. Some of the later battles are quite annoying and the sewer level in the middle of the game is downright terrible, but it's a very good game regardless. Newcomers would be best off avoiding the two most interesting clans, the Malkavian and Nosferatu, for a bit though. Ventrue and Gangrel are the best first clans to try.

The Witcher, I thought was a pretty mature game. Gameplay and story quibbles aside, I thought that the characters were pretty consistent throughout and the designers played some good tricks when it came to showing you the consequences of your actions. Early on you'd do something because immature just because the game seemed to encourage you, only to realise later it was setting you up for a fall.

That said, the nude playing cards were completely gratuitous.

 

You have to admit, they were a hilarious addition.

 

Most companies will use whatever tricks they can to appeal to their target market, it's always a matter of cutting through the bull to discover if, and what the product actually delivers.

The games industry appears especially fond of adopting, perverting and diluting genres and group classifications to suit its own ends. Witness 'RPG (elements)', 'RTS (style)', along with the 'Adult nature' you mentioned. Even if the definitions of various genres were cast in stone the industry would still find ways to wiggle a way to have a certain group classification appear on the box art or in media reviews.

This is where you Joe provide an invaluable service to your readership, you and the rest of the honest, thinking man's gaming review media. If a game fails to live up the hype, if a game plays only lip service to some proclaimed genre then you are our first line of defence. And with the possible exception of mentioning ME2 (excellent game overall) and RPG (I'll take a lot of convincing on this) in the same review I'd say you do a fine job.

It's interesting that you mention Bloodlines, it's also perhaps a little sad that I still remember the day I bought this game.

Experience dictates that most mainline products using the depiction of a seductive female as a major element of packaging art are poor products using titillation to sell. It's also of worth to note one of the devs expressed in an interview his dismay that the amount of 'material' used in the female costumes was inversely proportional to the protection the costume provided. At least in part the game was marketed on the very titillation you object to. Still, Bloodlines is an exception to the rules, the game offers much, much more of an adult experience than the superficial presentation suggests. Even if the art had featured the porn studio or the ******** around the side of Confession, it would miss the point; it is unapologetic in its portrayal of a dirty, seedy, manipulative world, even the humour is cynical.

Edit:
<sorry, I can't let this go>

ME2: Travel the vastness of the entire galaxy in this epic adventure, an adventure in which you chose to be good or bad

... and that could be straight from Bloodines radio

 

No discussion of mature games is complete without a mention of BMX XXX. No, that link is not safe for work. Or for the mature.

 

Yes very mature

For the wild Japanese style: Tsuki-posession, or Shukketsubo...and I'm not posting a link
Personally I find them mostly boring, but I'm no Japanese