(2007-11-13) Costikyan Game Violence Rating

Greg Costikyan on Computer Game Censorship for violence/etc. A work as harmless as Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, which contains mild sexual themes (far milder than, say, those in either the film or novelistic versions of Lolita) is barred from America, in the form intended by its creators, because major retailers won't carry AO-rated games. (I'm not sure that qualifies as Censorship.) Perhaps I should point out to our readers that MsWindows Vista "helpfully" does not permit play of AO, M - or unrated - games by anyone using a computer who does not have administrative permissions, or has been granted access to "adult" content by an administrator. Almost all of the games Play This Thing points to are "unrated" because small indie and shareware developers are unlikely to think it worthwhile to pay the ESRB's not-inconsiderable fees. (Given windows Monopoly, that's more of an issue for me.)