Looking Past the
“M”
By Cody
“Micajah” Bye
July 9, 2007 - The
individuals that read the information located here at Ten Ton Hammer
are typically adults. They read the intellectually stimulating material
that the Ten Ton Hammer Network staff provides, and in turn respond
with equally energetic and well-spoken comments. By reading through the
forums, you’ll find many more thought provoking posts than
you might on, let’s say, the WoW official message boards.
With that in mind, I would like to present you with my editorial on
“Looking Past the ‘M’”, which
takes a hard look at why we – as adults – should
ignore the letter “M” that’s going to be
undoubtedly branded on the front of the
style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan box..
alt="Erling-Conan-12" title="Erling-Conan-12"
name="photo_j" border="0" height="120" width="150">
Age of Conan will feature realitically violent scenes.
style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures,
which is being developed by Funcom, has always been caught in the
stigma of the “M”, or, in other words,
href="http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp">the
mature rating that the developers have been striving for from
the beginning of their development cycle. Staying true to Robert E.
Howard’s Conan lore has always been at the forefront
of Funcom’s mind, which means risqué
situations, foul language, and a just a smidgen of gory violence. Thus,
the developers at Funcom
pushed hard to reach the boundaries of the “M”
rating, doing as much as the ESRB would let them get away with. In our
interview with Jorgen at GDC, he even made mention that they would
alter the game to be as explicit as possible to fit the limitations of
whatever geographic area that they happen to be in.
Since the mature rating – or the mention of mature
gameplay – was hit upon so early and often in the initial
development of the game, it seems like many individuals have gotten
caught up in the fact that the game is going to be rated
“M”. Instead of looking at
style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan as a
game with a refreshingly new combat system, the potential for
tremendous PvP, or a title with a tremendous license backing it, all
gamers talk about is how much violence will be in the game. Everyone
seems to be caught up in this “whirlwind of blood”,
as if that feature along will make or break the game.
Whenever I talk to my *adult* friends about
style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan,
they’ll smile and nod as I rant and rave about the game, yet
when I finish they simple say, “I don’t know, the
game just doesn’t look like my cup of tea. I’m not
into the whole massacring the village and raping the women sort of
thing.” Each time I hear that response, I’m taken a
bit aback.
alt="Erling-Conan-7" title="Erling-Conan-7"
name="photo_j" border="0" height="120" width="150">
Some people are turning away from Conan...not because
its a bad game but because they can't see past the violence.
“Why do you think the games all about violence and
adult content?” I ask. “There’s so much
more that you’re not seeing, like the amazing quest system or
the advanced AI programming they’ve implemented into the
game! Are you seriously going to get caught up in the outer
façade and not look at the quality of game
underneath?”
And in many cases, it seems to be that way. Although this
latest batch of previews didn’t harp on the
“visceral nature” or “scantily clad
women”
href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/801/801128p2.html">as much
, many of the previews did go into
href="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=167160">large
diatribes about the fatality system and how every so often
you’ll kill an opponent with a
href="http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3160751">vicious
fatality-type move. Even Jeff Woleslagle was
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/8793">guilty of
overtly discussing the “rotting corpses”
and “scantily clad women” in his preview, but he
made up for it with this comment concerning the games artwork:
“One aspect of Age of Conan that I feel gets lost in
the ecstatic descriptions of gore and maiming is raw beauty of the
setting, character models, and animations. The palette is earthy and
expertly chosen, and the art direction is neither strictly
photo-realistic or caricatured, setting the tone squarely on dystopian
and dangerous, yet strangely familiar and non-jarring enough that long
periods of playtime wouldn't become visually wearisome.”
If you look throughout the ‘net, there are
href="http://www.ogaming.com/data/3657%7Eageofconan.php">numerous
examples of
href="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=146522">reporters
discussing the overt violence and gore in Age of Conan.
It’s littered all across the Internet. I’ve even
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/7669">written about
the impact mature MMOGs will have on the video game industry
. And this inherent violence will probably cause some gamers to think
twice before purchasing Age of Conan.
However, the pending mature rating has very little to do with
the game itself. It is true that having a mature rating will allow the
developers to include more gore, flesh, and language than is acceptable
in games rated “Teen”, but how will this affect the
way the actual game is played?
alt="Erling-Conan-19" title="Erling-Conan-19"
name="photo_j" border="0" height="120" width="150">
Is Age of Conan worse than any network TV show with a
TV-14 rating?
In reality, if you look past the blood and the gore and the
variety of new gameplay systems, Age of Conan is merely a unique
venture into the fantasy MMORPG marketplace. Yes, they have a strong
license in Conan. Yes, they have done right in staying close to the
material presented in the Robert E. Howard stories. But is what you see
on screen that much different than what exists in standard MMOGs today?
When you log into the World of Warcraft, you know that you’re
going to be killing monsters, beasts, and even humanoids. There may not
be a lot of blood, but you know what you’re doing.
It’s not “defeating” monsters.
It’s killing them.
Or even in modern media? When you turn on your TV at night,
what shows are spattered across the airwaves? On any given evening, you
might find CSI,
href="http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/violencestudy/exsummary.asp">Law
& Order, or any other low enforcement show
on your local television stations. All of these shows often feature
sex, violence, and desiccated corpses, but you’ll almost
never see them with a rating over TV14. Yet when it comes to violence
and sex in Age of Conan, people turn squeamish.
Violence aside, I believe Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
should receive appropriate amounts of attention when it is released to
the public. If you’re an adult gamer, I urge you to look past
the violence and sex to see what sort of gameplay Age of Conan actually
promises. You may find that your initial assumption about the game was
wrong.
Do you agree with Cody?
Disagree? Let us know by
emailing us or dropping
by the forums!
Ten Ton Hammer is your
source for editorials
about the MMOG industry!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Age of Conan: Unchained Game Page.
