Do you think it's childish to refuse to play M-rated games?

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Hey, I'm in my 30's, and I still enjoy playing Minecraft, Pokémon, Fire Emblem, and Legend of Zelda.

It seems like, nowadays, they want to pepper the dialogue with excessive F-bombs just to make them more "mature" *cough* As if! *ahem*, but I think they're doing this just to be pretentious.

I tend to get annoyed by mature content in videogames. I don't mind violence so much, but I don't like it when it's deliberately OTT and clearly designed to appeal to some 15 year old boy's masturbatory fantasy and then labeled 'mature'. That's not what mature means. Even when I was 15 and games like Carmageddon and Duke Nukem 3D were coming out I found it a turn-off. Although Duke 3D was a good game, just the humour and sexism I found embarrassing.

I got really annoyed by the Witcher 3 when the opening cutscenes were about him having sex with his wife or whatever, I don't remember exactly. I think she was sat in the bath or something. It was like the game was desperately trying to convince me it was a 'grown-up' story but it just sounded like adolescent soft porn to me. It didn't add anything to the game.

If it's genuinely mature like the handling of sex and violence in a game like Immortality for instance I don't mind.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way. Duke's "personality" was a big part of why I liked Doom a lot more as an 11-15 year old.

I really want to see a mature version of Mario. But I'm also worried it might become the Nintendo Velma...

I'd worry they'd end up with something no more mature, just edgier.

Idk if Shadow 2005 was considered good or bad but it would probably be like that.

I've heard that game get dunked on for trying too hard to be edgy, so I think you're right.

Never played it though. I don't actually play a lot of games.

If it does happen I would like it to focus on Waluigi, because kids like Bowser. But all Mario characters are like MLP characters compared to other games...

I think you're on to something with that and it might explain why it would be hard to set a more mature themed game or show in the Mario universe.

What would motivate it? If the entire universe is too buddy-buddy, there's nothing to really drive serious drama, meaning both the conflict and the emotional depth it reveals will come off feeling forced.

Ultimately sex and violence aren't just in more mature-themed entertainment for the sake of it (at least not always), often they're incorporated because they're strong motivators and have a heavy emotional impact. Adults understand why those things impact other adults the way they do, so it's easy to fallback on using them as what is driving the drama.

That doesn't mean they make a show or game mature though. Awkwardly incorporating sex or violence into an immature story just results in a darker, edgier immature story.

This means the opposite should be able to exist too (mature story, not focused on sex or violence), but perhaps those stories tend to be boring to too many people. A mundane slice of life might be emotionally heavy and still boring AF because it offers zero escapism.

I mentioned in another topic that Bowser really isn't that evil. He is a great parent, and sometimes something like this will happen:

https://tenor.com/view/super-mario-bows ... if-9236635

Nah. I'm 35 and I can count the number of M-rated games I can play on one hand. (Persona 5, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla). I really don't much care for violence and super gritty games.

Persona 5 is M-rated more because of its content (the first story in particular is super disturbing). The two AC games I gave into because I love history and when Odyssey was announced I just had to get it because Ancient Greece is so interesting to me. I turned off blood, and did okay, just thought of it like a Zelda game in the end. lol

Beyond that, I don't play M-rated games. And Persona 5 being my first, I played in my late 20s.

I think just flat out saying no to M is probably some form of "childish" or other adjective. I'm sure there's always an exception to the rule. But yeah I totally dislike most games involving shooting or horror, probably PTSD related tho. I never understood horror as a genre, I don't need horror media, I just need to step outside.

But yeah I think you should probably be more specific than just saying "M" even if 99% of the games you would never want to play.

I think can see your angle, basically it's the over-simplified reason, rather than just saying one doesn't play games with certain content?

I've played M rated games since I was 3, and it's not the violence that makes it fun, it's just being a well made fun game. It also gives a sense of tension and urge to survive because you don't want to see the consequences of failure (or maybe you do) which I think makes a more exciting experience.

Most violence doesn't bother me, though occasionally a scene might make me wince. Just don't tell your friends the real reason, they'll think you aren't manly. But for whatever reason you don't like them, you don't have to play them.

Assassins Creed Odyssey is great, I am still in the process of playing though that game but I like it so much I bought a pack with all the DLC for it, so now it will take even longer to complete since that has been added, but I was liking the game so much I did want to add a bit more to it. After I get through odyssey. I do want to check out assassins creed Valhalla(and apparently they are coming out with a sort of European witch theme assasians creed which I am also interested in). But also did you play as Kassandra or Alexios? or do playthroughs of both I have been playing as Kassandra leaning towards what I think the 'good' choices are. But also I thought of doing an alexios playthrough where I make what I think the bad choices are.

But yeah i don't mind mature rated games, but if a game released with an E rating looks fun I may try it out, but does tend to be a lot of games I like are at least rated 14 and up. But yeah some M rated games do not seem interesting if its just a bunch of gross stuff...but if it still has a good story that is what I am interested in.