Can we get an AO rating?

[animalfather]

Can we get an AO rating?

Would be rad and pioneering. first AAA game that got an AO rating. show everything dicks pussy insertions beheadings drugs dogs all of it!
What so bad about it? Walmart wont carry it? F em. It would be cool if CB went this route. It would take major cojones ffor sure. but it would revolutionary.

 

[Calistarius]

Well... you know... I don't really think that is all that neccesary... I mean... by going "adult only", ie 18+, your still going to put it amongst a huge amount of games anyway... 1991 of them (as of today) in fact according to the PEGI rating system.

Looking at that list... Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 ara all PEGI 18 for example... interesting enough, Mass Effect Andromeda only got a PEGI 16. All the new Deus Ex games are PEGI 18... and so is all 3 Witcher games... all the Dragon Age games... Skyrim has an PEGI 18 as well (where as Oblivion only has a 16, and Morrowind has a 12)... etc.

So yeah... I am not quite sure that you really need to go that graphic (be it with sex and/or violance) to get an "Adult only" rating... since a huge amount of games already are in that catagory. XD

I don't really mind if they where to go that route, as you suggest... but I don't think it is necessary to try and "take it up a notch, or five" just to somehow make sure it excludes "none-adults"... because considering CDPR's Witcher games, they are already exluding "none-adults". XD

 

[felixsylvaris]

I think best aproach is just assume CP77 will get 18 rating no matter what, and play along.

Alcohol, card game, sex without underwear... it is easy to get 18.
I dream about times when killing other human being= rating 16.
Drugs are not really a hard topics, beheading happened in Witcher, probably blinding Phillippa was more graphic extreme,
If ESRB AO means erotic game, then no. I can live without it.
I am fine with devs focusing on something else than realistic erection or asking hairdresser to cut player pubic hair in stylish way.

I am strongly against beheading dogs, dogs are cute.

 

[lord_blex]

What so bad about it? Walmart wont carry it?

would a few more detailed sex scenes be worth the lost revenue? the reason for AO is usually sex, they rarely give it for violence. they would really have to concentrate on gore to get it.
but this is a non-issue, since besides walmart, sony and microsoft wouldn't sell the game either, and CDPR can't do that.

by going "adult only", ie 18+

I think best aproach is just assume CP77 will get 18 rating no matter what, and play along.

PEGI 18 and ESRB AO are not the same, even if they mean the same. an 18+ game in EU is completely normal, while pretty much all those games are rated M (17+) in the US. AO carries a stigma.

 

[felixsylvaris]

PEGI 18 and ESRB AO are not the same, even if they mean the same. an 18+ game in EU is completely normal, while pretty much all those games are rated M (17+) in the US. AO carries a stigma.

I see, so AO is not worth it.

 

[sv3672]

AO rating would mean loss of sales and possibly bad PR, so I think the game will have the same rating as Witcher 3, which in some ways was already slightly toned down compared to its prequel. But it went about as far as one could expect from a "mainstream" AAA title, and further than the competition from BioWare and Bethesda, in my opinion CP2077 will stay at about the same level when it comes to adult themes.

 

[LukaMrk]

AO rating would mean loss of sales and possibly bad PR, so I think the game will have the same rating as Witcher 3, which in some ways was already slightly toned down compared to its prequel. But it went about as far as one could expect from a "mainstream" AAA title, and further than the competition from BioWare and Bethesda, in my opinion CP2077 will stay at about the same level when it comes to adult themes.

I don't think that The Witcher 3 was toned down. I always considered it to be the most mature game CDPR created. One that dealt with heavier themes than its predecessors, and one that painted a more realistic picture of human condition.
Yes, sex scenes were not as graphical as inThe Witcher 2, but they carried more weight. They were about characters, and not about passing the time while Vernon comes to rescue. I saw it almost as a statement from CDPR, that they surpassed the need to attract players with sex (similarly to Game of Thrones). Now, I'm not saying that they should stop showing it, it's a natural part of life and I expect to see much more of it in Cyberpunk (it goes well with setting), but sex shouldn't be there just for the sake of it, it should serve the story in a certain way.

 

[sv3672]

I don't think that The Witcher 3 was toned down. I always considered it to be the most mature game CDPR created. One that dealt with heavier themes than its predecessors, and one that painted a more realistic picture of human condition.

Whether The Witcher 3 is more mature than the previous game in terms of the themes it deals with is debatable, but that was not the point anyway, rather that it was indeed toned down in the aspects that could affect the rating, which is the topic of this thread.

Yes, sex scenes were not as graphical as in The Witcher 2, but they carried more weight. They were about characters, and not about passing the time while Vernon comes to rescue. I saw it almost as a statement from CDPR, that they surpassed the need to attract players with sex (similarly to Game of Thrones).

Again, it is subjective if the sex scenes in Wild Hunt carry more weight, that obviously depends on factors like whether the player cares about the characters involved, so it is not the same for everyone. Also, as far as I can tell, sex was in fact used to attract players, I recall PR statements before release about the time spent on making the scenes, and some were also shown in trailers. It is another matter that the scenes were sometimes cheaply made (reusing the same animations, models, sounds, etc.) or unrealistic (e.g. actors in underwear), but it is not like they are not there.

 

[Sardukhar]

Whether The Witcher 3 is more mature than the previous game in terms of the themes it deals with is debatable, but that was not the point anyway, rather that it was indeed toned down in the aspects that could affect the rating, which is the topic of this thread.

No, it's not.

For one thing, this isn't the Witcher forums. The Witcher may serve as a good precedent, but we don't know what CDPR is going to do in terms of lessons learned for Cpunk.

For another thing, I'm not interested in this turning into the Witcher forums.

The topic is AO in Cyberpunk, which is not going likely to happen, by the way. CDPR likes to sell games to it's many fans - AO would exclude a lot of those fans, just to titillate a few. No.

Showing hardcore sex or violence isn't revolutionary in games. It would be really dumb in an RPG intended for a wide audience, however.

Lot of people shop at ( The Satan That Is) Walmart. I would like many of them to enjoy CDPR games, thank you.

 

[tropit9]

yes please! but probably not gonna happen'.

 

[WRFinger]

Definitely would prefer a mature game with adult themes over something that caters to a more juvenile audience. TW3 was well done in this regard, though I'd prefer a protagonist who had the ability to be more emotional than Geralt, I know the Trial of the Grasses stripped a lot of emotions from him.

 

[Gaidheal]

Actually, I have to disagree, even as I agree I would be perfectly happy with the kind of things that would get that kind of rating, at present.

First of all, realistic sexual intercourse (in all the meanings of that word) definitely makes a setting and story more realistic, and it's for this reason that I don't like to see games, novels, etc, where it is glaringly obvious by its absence. However, a game that has "realistic, fully nude, sex" as a selling point is actually appealing to a juvenile audience, and tends to attract that audience, along with the negative repercussions of it; something of a paradox. And, sadly, we live in period where the US perceptions of what is appropriate, and thus how ratings are applied, is very peculiary skewed - extreme violence may not even get a product rated as unsuitable for children, especially if it is "normal" violence, involving firearms, whereas sexual content of any kind, but especially content that steps outside of "wholesome, man with one woman" boundaries certainly will. CDPR, and thus CyberPunk 2077, has to deal with the reality of this situation and the fact that a huge market is the USA, UK and other nations that will rate in a similar manner.

On another note, I would prefer that the time spent crafting a fully detailed sex system be spent on other aspects of the game, such as variety of aesthetics, depth of writing, and so on, so long as sexual content is still treated in an appropriately adult manner. I am fine with a character being able to pick up a street prostitute and go to a back alley, for example, even if I don't get to play a minigame of doing the deed, because the ault aspect of this scenario is not "roleplaying banging a hooker" but rather the acknowledgement that in a dystopian metropolis, you can be sure there are sex workers on the streets, legal or not. Equally, I am happier with the ability to casually engage in "sex" (with a simple cutscene, fade to black, or whatever) with an NPC, than I would be with being forced to only interact sexually with specific crafted characters, even if they had super-detailed, high resolution, fully realized sex scenes for that. For me, that's because it's realistic and "adult" to acknowledge that in this world, my character might seek out casual, relatively "meaningless" sex, purely for entertainment and relief, whereas it's a little bit silly to me that my character would only have sex with some predetermined character, albeit in glorious, titilating detail. I feel that the latter belongs in a totally different genre of computer games, which I am quite happy to see exist, but which are not CyberPunk 2077.