GameInformer

The medium of video games as we know it is evolving and expanding all the time, and I believe that this generation is one of the most significant steps in that developers now have the tools to immerse the gamer into the game more than ever.

That being said, I think developers are changing with games.  Things can be eerily realistic now, and with said realism comes the desire to immerse the gamer in an experience greater than that in our own bland, boring lives.  Thus, games where you're fighting your way through post-apocalyptic D.C., surviving underwater cities littered with moral choices, and shooting hundreds of innocent civilians just to attempt to bring a terrorist to justice.

The video game medium is one of the most powerful ones ever when done correctly, and developers realize that in order to be powerful, you must not be jumping on mushrooms anymore (I'm not saying that isn't fun, it's just outdated), but you have to really give the gamer something unique and something they care about a lot more, thus your wealth of M rated games.

P.S. Most developers are still in their infancy, but others are definitely in or going through adolescence in this process of video game evolution.

I agree alot of good games are rated M. But, there are a lot of good T rated games too.

I think the biggest problem is that there is such a wide spectrum of games with blood/gore/whatever else in them, that even though a game is far less mature than another it is still put under the Mature label. For example, Halo and Gears of War. Though Halo has a very small amount of blood and gore in it, and Gears of War is full of exploding heads and people getting chopped in two, there is no differentiation among the two games on the ESRB label on the case, or really anywhere. It is a little better now since on their website ESRB is required to put short summaries of why the game is rated the way it is, but most people don't even know about this.

The ratings are usually exagerated anyway i always play M games but like COD4 had violence nd that was it, a cuple of curse words here and there but everyone heres them in school and from friends anyway its not a big deal and its annoying having my mom buy games for me

I have no clue how the ESRB do their ratings. Halo seriously gets an M? WTF?

@CapCash9: I don't think that a game just being M and having adult content really makes it good...And yeah I have noticed that almost every good game recently has been M lol

Green12324:

I believe that the ratings system is a bit too strict. A game like Halo 1 could have easily (and more suitably) been rated T. When compared to games such as Grand Theft Auto, Gears of War, etc, Halo 1 is very tame. The entire Halo series could even be rated T, if the standards on violence were slightly lowered.

I agree, as some M games (GTA, Saints Row) deserve to be M, a whole bunch of games could easily became in the T category.

MW1 did not have much bad language, in fact, it has the same cuss words as Uncharted 1 & 2. They both say sh*t, but no f-bombs. Halo 1 could really have been T+, if they make that lol.

Fable 2 is another game that shouldn't have been given an M rating. I think if they had just cut out the sexual content this would have been rated T.

Blood/Gore really dont bother me its just the language I have a problem with.

i dont think that ESRB is getting stricter, big game companies know what type of games sell. They are directly targeting the "hardcore gamer" A.K.A. the college student who doesn't need his parents permission to get a game. The sad part is that if it is not rated M than most of the gaming community writes it off as a little kid game. if you want less rated M games buy a Wii. it will suit you better.  

I think it rest on what your definition of "good" is Because I was looking at the sales charts for the year of 2009 and 7 out of the top 10 games were rated below M, haven't looked at the side by side comparison of sales to reviews yet...but if good as in make money is good than M does not topple all going to do a blog on this in the future just got the sales data now need to get the metacritic score because GI wouldn't release that information to me...oh well

well I don't know i think it just depends on what kind of game you like a lot of people still like that sort of game i mean i do every now and then, but i would have to say my favorite game out is mass effect 2..... the game is more like a movie than a game it's just epic

I definitely understand what you're getting at. I think it's just that video game developers put all their best technology, writing, etc. into M games because most gamers out there are adults. Also, I think that the ESRB is way too strict. I mean, Halo 3, in my opinion, fits everything you would normally find in a T game. Recently I started playing M-rated games, and I think that the guns and blood aren't what make them good -- and parents need to realize that.

Yes the rating system is flawed. Four curse words and sexual innuendo: M! However it is needed because parents don't always know what games are age appropriate and for some parents four curse words are enough for them to not want their child to have the game

Your best bet if you want your parents to buy a game for you, if you fall under that category of being a child, show them the demo or ask if you can play it at the store. Just go that extra mile, because I think most parents would let Halo 3 slide if they saw the gameplay.