Criticism
Many video game reviewers and consumers saw the introduction of the Videogame Rating Council as a sign that Sega of America was no longer going to censor the content of video games sold for a Sega home console. While Sega had tolerated blood and graphic violence in video games pre-V.R.C., nudity, profanity, and homosexuality had remained prohibited themes and were often removed before an original computer game or a role-playing game was released for the English speaking Sega market.
In addition, Sega of America never released brochures to the public or explained the qualifications for a game getting a particular rating and thus there seemed to be inconsistencies. For example, the Sega CD editions of two computer games; Rise of the Dragon and Snatcher both got the MA-17 label and it was assumed that it was because of the violence, profanity, and sexual innuendos that existed, but Sega never explained. Another example, would be the fact that the Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat was given a MA-13 label, while the Sega CD version of the game was given a MA-17 label, with the only major content difference between the two games was that you needed to enter in a secret code in order for all the blood and graphic violence to be seen in the Sega Genesis edition. In the Sega CD edition the player had to enter in a secret code which would actually tone down the blood and graphic violence.
The game Castlevania: Bloodlines was rated GA despite scenes of blood and gore (zombies being cut in half, or having their upper torsos burst into bloody messes, and Harpies that can be decapitated with the wounds gushing blood), not to mention the dripping blood in the intro sequence of the game.
The game Mega Man: The Wily Wars was rated MA-13 despite there being no blood or graphic violence.
Further complicating the situation was that games sold for the Sega home console systems were still being censored. Despite the MA-17 label, both Rise of the Dragon and Snatcher had some of the mature images edited. Even Sega of America did not seem to be taking its own rating system seriously as it radically altered Streets of Rage 3 before it was sold outside of Japan, including the removal of a playable homosexual character. One game Corpse Killer received a MA-17 for "Zombie and Voodoo themes" though there was very little blood in the game.
Read more about this topic: Videogame Rating Council
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“I hold with the old-fashioned criticism that Browning is not really a poet, that he has all the gifts but the one needful and the pearls without the string; rather one should say raw nuggets and rough diamonds.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“Parents sometimes feel that if they don’t criticize their child, their child will never learn. Criticism doesn’t make people want to change; it makes them defensive.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)
“A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige through being mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)