Pokemon? 3 years and older? Right...

[Floris]

So, pretty much all of us Europeans have seen the 3+ on the box of a Pokémon game. The Americans have seen the E for Everyone. This means the game is completely child friendly. I don't think so:

In Red/Blue/Yellow, you have Lavender Town, death in town form. In there, people constantly talk about death, haunting ghosts and a Marowak is killed. Is that child friendly? I thought discussion of death was 10+? What about the ghosts, the white hand and the dead Marowak? That's messed up for a child's game!
Also, the place were you catch Mewtwo is entirely destroyed and everyone in there was brutally murdered(?)

In Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, Cyrus wants to destroy the universe, and 7 billion people with it. Are you kidding me? 7 billion people!

Black/White cover Animal abuse, liberation, manipulation and child abuse. I don't think those are child subjects...

And to top it off, in B2/W2, Ghetsis attempts to MURDER you by impaling you with giant ice spears. How does this even pass as E?

Please vote in the poll above if you agree or not.

 

[Thane]

You might be right, but you're also overreacting on certain points.

Children are smarter than you think, and can actually handle a variety of adult subjects if contextualized properly.

On a note of personal belief, I don't think you should shy away from broaching the subject of death with children. Are we just going to pretend it doesn't exist?

But then again, you might be right with the ghetsis murder attempt thing...

 

[Emrye]

You could make anything rated E back in the 90's. :sweat:

 

[smalllady]

Well, why don't we take a look at the general definition for an E rating from the ESRB website:

Content is generally suitable for all ages. May contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.

I'd say an E rating is pretty accurate. It sounds like you weren't aware of what exactly the criteria is for an E rating.

 

[Floris]

Well, why don't we take a look at the general definition for an E rating from the ESRB website:

Content is generally suitable for all ages. May contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.

I'd say an E rating is pretty accurate. It sounds like you weren't aware of what exactly the criteria is for an E rating.

Umm.. Mild Violence? Ghetsis attempts to murder you...

Also, the ghost things are often overlooked. Lots of children can be quite scared of that stuff (personal experience).

Another thing: A lot of Pokédex entries mainly focus on the creepy, sad, scary, violent and deadly aspects of the Pokémon, even I get creeped out by them!

 

[smalllady]

Umm.. Mild Violence? Ghetsis attempts to murder you...

Key word: attempts. So he has Kyurem point a bunch of icicles at the player character. Did anything actually happen? No, because N swoops in just in time to save the day.

Also, the ghost things are often overlooked. Lots of children can be quite scared of that stuff (personal experience).

Another thing: A lot of Pokédex entries mainly focus on the creepy, sad, scary, violent and deadly aspects of the Pokémon, even I get creeped out by them!

Yes, they are creepy. So what would your solution be? To pull the wool over every child's eyes and just act like there is no violence or death ever? The reason themes like death or violence are included in many video games is to raise awareness and to educate kids, so that they can learn to not fear these things.

 

[Shadows]

I think an E rating is pretty accurate for Pokemon.
You have to keep in mind that very few young kids actually pay attention to the storyline that much. Most that I know of skip over all the words and instead just try to make their Pokemon strong, and they don't care what they're battling.

 

[Winterdaze]

I think the ratings are fine the way they are. Older fans of Pokemon just tend to exaggerate the "darker" aspects of the series, for whatever reason.

 

[garrison-san]

In Red/Blue/Yellow, you have Lavender Town, death in town form. In there, people constantly talk about death, haunting ghosts and a Marowak is killed. Is that child friendly? I thought discussion of death was 10+?

I wasn't aware there was an age restriction as to when you're allowed to bring up the subject of death. Most Disney films tend to have at least one character die, and yet they pride themselves on providing family-friendly entertainment.

 

[Renegade]

@Floris; Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 Ratings:

Everyone

E - Comic Mischief / Mild Cartoon Violence

This, by the way, is FROM THE BOX


I believe that you are picking the VERY SMALL SCENES relating to death, ghosts and murder from the ENTIRE GAMES! By your logic, no children should be alowed to listen to scary stories, everyone under the age of ten should have to leave the room during any slightly violent tv shows are on. Every show, even charlie brown and spongebob should be banned or have a notice to parents that no children under the age of ten should watch it.

Does this seem okay? What you seem to be forgetting is that IT'S A CARTOON! It makes for a good storyline, it is enjoyable for most everyone who plays the games, and this is my final suggestion for you:

If you have a problem with the ratings of the games, why don't you just stop buying the games? Nobody else seems to have a problem with the ratings.

 

[Peachy]

The ratings are just fine as they are. And honestly, what kid doesn't button-mash their way through the story? I don't think kids sit there and read all of the text, which is 90% of all of your examples.

 

[Bikini Miltank]

Based on the criteria you set out, almost no games would qualify for an E rating.

I mean, "attempted murder"? What exactly do you think Bowser is trying to do to Mario with all those spikes, flamethrowers, enormous bullets and bottomless pits?

 

[Mielikki]

Maybe I just grew up on a very classical macabre fairy-tales, but this is okay with me and if I had children, I wouldn´t think otherwise.
(Remember brothers Grimm´s stories, with characters getting murdered, tortured and scared and it all in a fairy tale )

I think that children are not so stupid not to know it is only "story" and not real and can handle with it. At least I and all my friends could.

 

[MegaCharr]

I do kind of agree with you on that one...I think that the rating for Pokemon should be adjusted to E+10(10 years old and up) instead of E(for 7 to 9 year olds) rating because to the amount of violence that in the main Pokemon games even tho because of the battle system in the main series video games there, isn't that much of it but I do agree...

and for 3 to 5 year olds rating,you mean the Rated EC(early childhood)...Well,I have seen some 3 to 5 year olds get into Pokemon like me(I got started when I was 5 year's old) but I didnt start playing the Pokemon games untill I was 9

 

[coolcatkim22]

So basically, you want to wrap children up in bubble wrap and lock them up in a foam room.

 

[Faye Scarlet]

It's not as bad as you make it out to be. D: When I was 10 I barely noticed that there was a murder, all I saw was a scary ghost and I wanted to "kill" it. Playing FireRed again, when I was 15, I realized it then. The kids will notice it when they get older and think "OH GOD". But when they're carefree and young and just want to get on with the battle with the big bad Black/White Kyurem, they'll mash that A-button.

 

[Vanillish Twilight]

Nah, little kids are ignorant, they won't pay attention to the plot at all. Their ignorance will protect them from the violence...

Well, why don't we take a look at the general definition for an E rating from the ESRB website:

Content is generally suitable for all ages. May contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.

I'd say an E rating is pretty accurate. It sounds like you weren't aware of what exactly the criteria is for an E rating.

Umm.. Mild Violence? Ghetsis attempts to murder you...

Also, the ghost things are often overlooked. Lots of children can be quite scared of that stuff (personal experience).

Another thing: A lot of Pokédex entries mainly focus on the creepy, sad, scary, violent and deadly aspects of the Pokémon, even I get creeped out by them!

and they don't read Pokédex entries.

 

[Almonds]

*facepalm* I shouldn't have read this... now I'm spoilered with B2W2 details that would've been better kept a secret...


Anyways, I think they did a good job in including those themes because it actually shows that E-rated games aren't all sunshines and rainbows with smiley faces all over the place. I refuse to accept that Pokemon is a "child's game" but a "game for everyone". I know I voted the first option, but discard that. I voted wrong.

 

[Xenidal]

Ignoring the Black 2 / White 2 stuff (because I haven't played it yet), nearly all that stuff falls into one of 2 categories:
- implicit references - this is the stuff like Mewtwo killing all those people / Ghetsis abusing N which are somewhat implied but never actually stated
- fantasy violence - stuff like "destroy the world" which is so exaggerated that it's clearly not real

This stuff is generally considered suitable to a younger audience than explicit references and realistic violence would be... and none of it would warrant a "T" rating.

As for the death references... death is not a bad thing per se and ghosts / hauntings are not uncommon in fiction, even for little kids (and no one really considers that stuff to be overly disturbing).
The only part that I can sort of agree with is the dead Marowak because it was clear that Team Rocket killed it and probably tortured it as well. But the again, that just adds to the fact that Team Rocket is a villainous / evil / criminal organization. I think just one detail like that is fine considering it was a minor detail to enhance their character and the game did not revolve around it.

Edit - also, that white hand is nothing more than a joke. The player says he doesn't believe in ghosts so the girl says "then I guess that white hand on your shoulder isn't real". it may be creepy (if you think the hand is even real) but it's not a severed / rotting hand like in the creepypasta and there's nothing all that disturbing about it.

 

[Cosmic Gerbil]

Hmm, I can see both sides of the discussion. On one hand, it's not good to wrap kids up in cotton wool and protect them from everything scary/bad. On the other hand, I did think Black & White was pretty dark, much more so than the earlier Pokemon games.

I checked out the games ratings and saw E and E10 but I reckon that is too much of a gap. Here in England (for films) we have U (suitable for everyone) and PG (parental guidance...some scenes may be unsuitable for young children). I reckon there should be something like PG for video games, so that parents would be aware that a PG game could upset sensitive and/or very young kids.