Editorial 11/24/14- Mature Vs. Inappropriate
Lately, there has been a bit of a problem in media. In the world of film, 52% of all releases have been rated PG-13. and 27% have been rated R. There is some reasoning behind this: PG-13 films often sell 3 times more than films of lower ratings. And, to be honest, that's not what I mind. It's more about how those films often contain the unsuitable material simply so that they can earn their ratings. It's getting to that point where we have to ask ourselves "Is it really mature to be inappropriate?"
First, we may need to set a solid difference between the two. All of us with children or families know about inappropriate material. This is basically anything that isn't fit for the situation. In media, this often referred towards content violent or vulgar or sexual in nature, but I'd like to compare this to the idea of 'mature' for a moment. Mature material is also commonly seen as violent or vulgar and so on, but it's also tagged on relatively chaste topics in games and movies. While the previous term implies something out of context and abused, a mature topic is something that may or may not be for the kids, but it's taken with a great deal of respect.
For example, I'd like to compare the game franchises "Monster Hunter" and "Serious Sam". "Monster Hunter", rated T for Teen in the United States, is exactly what it says on the cover- you as the player are a hunter-gatherer in a fantasy environment. Monsters such as dragons, dinosaurs, and serpents are frequent terrors, and it's your job to hunt them, use what you hunt to build better weapons and armor, and go hunt larger monsters. As you can guess, the T- rating is for violence, but it has a different approach on it than most other video games offer. It's a long time before you get to hunt anything as glorious as a 30-foot electric sea serpent, and it doesn't take anything you kill lightly. In fact, the entire game is about knowing about the opponent, from its habits to its relationships with other animals in the habitat. And, even though it's more mature in that detail, there's also its fair share of humor to keep it from being boringly so. It's more of an honorable system of mutual respect, and it's very clever. I wish more games could talk about violence in this fashion.
On the other hand, most of the games out there happen to be more like "Serious Sam". This franchise started around the turn of the millennium, more of a parody of games in general. The plot here is little more than an excuse to shoot mindless hordes of zombie aliens with some of the slowest AI programmable into a game. Now, I'm not saying this type of game is bad- in fact, "Serious Sam" is probably some of the most fun I've ever had in a video game, and it counteracts the senseless shooting pretty well by throwing in massive hordes of hundreds of the guys at you. I only bring it up because that's the direction I've seen most video games go in- senseless violence with no real commentary on it.
As mentioned at the beginning, most film and games are trying to boost their rating with inappropriate content, most of which is just thrown in there without any real reason. Not only does it keep you from looking at it seriously, but I've also found it to bring down the quality of the product as a whole (I'm looking right at you, Transformers). To all of the film-makers who happen to be skimming the blog at this time, please don't fall into this trap. There must be some way to introduce it into your piece and keep it interesting than to make it entirely non sequitur. At least try to say something more about it than 'it's bad' or 'it's worth half of this project's budget.'
First, we may need to set a solid difference between the two. All of us with children or families know about inappropriate material. This is basically anything that isn't fit for the situation. In media, this often referred towards content violent or vulgar or sexual in nature, but I'd like to compare this to the idea of 'mature' for a moment. Mature material is also commonly seen as violent or vulgar and so on, but it's also tagged on relatively chaste topics in games and movies. While the previous term implies something out of context and abused, a mature topic is something that may or may not be for the kids, but it's taken with a great deal of respect.
For example, I'd like to compare the game franchises "Monster Hunter" and "Serious Sam". "Monster Hunter", rated T for Teen in the United States, is exactly what it says on the cover- you as the player are a hunter-gatherer in a fantasy environment. Monsters such as dragons, dinosaurs, and serpents are frequent terrors, and it's your job to hunt them, use what you hunt to build better weapons and armor, and go hunt larger monsters. As you can guess, the T- rating is for violence, but it has a different approach on it than most other video games offer. It's a long time before you get to hunt anything as glorious as a 30-foot electric sea serpent, and it doesn't take anything you kill lightly. In fact, the entire game is about knowing about the opponent, from its habits to its relationships with other animals in the habitat. And, even though it's more mature in that detail, there's also its fair share of humor to keep it from being boringly so. It's more of an honorable system of mutual respect, and it's very clever. I wish more games could talk about violence in this fashion.
On the other hand, most of the games out there happen to be more like "Serious Sam". This franchise started around the turn of the millennium, more of a parody of games in general. The plot here is little more than an excuse to shoot mindless hordes of zombie aliens with some of the slowest AI programmable into a game. Now, I'm not saying this type of game is bad- in fact, "Serious Sam" is probably some of the most fun I've ever had in a video game, and it counteracts the senseless shooting pretty well by throwing in massive hordes of hundreds of the guys at you. I only bring it up because that's the direction I've seen most video games go in- senseless violence with no real commentary on it.
As mentioned at the beginning, most film and games are trying to boost their rating with inappropriate content, most of which is just thrown in there without any real reason. Not only does it keep you from looking at it seriously, but I've also found it to bring down the quality of the product as a whole (I'm looking right at you, Transformers). To all of the film-makers who happen to be skimming the blog at this time, please don't fall into this trap. There must be some way to introduce it into your piece and keep it interesting than to make it entirely non sequitur. At least try to say something more about it than 'it's bad' or 'it's worth half of this project's budget.'
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