[Diablo 4] Mature or Adults Only rating

Yeah with the ESRB the thing about the AO rating is that if you didn’t get it because of real money gambling, then according to their site the only thing at that point is “prolonged scenes of intense violence or graphic sexual content”.

Which for the record for people: DOOM in 2016 was rated M. If you want the AO rating based on violence, you have to go harder than that.

Not that I don’t love my gratuitous violence, but at that point it does get pretty immature.

Basically no different from PEGI 18 rating.

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Unfortunately, in the recent years Blizzard have been kinda like Disney a bit in that regard.

One could only hope Diablo to be an exception.

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Not quite. They measure it on a different scale.

For example violence and guns may yield stricter rating in PEGI than ESRB, while it is the reverse with suggestive sexual themes. (I may have mixed the two, too lazy to Google)

That’s why games are sometimes PEGI 18 and ESRB 16 at the same time sometimes - and vice versa.

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Not the point I was making. AO rating requires a person to prove he/she is 18 or above to buy that product. PEGI 18 rating is no different in that regard, a person must prove that he/she is 18 or above to buy that product.

Regardless of what features yield AO or PEGI 18 rating, both ratings are equal from a legal point of view. Not allowed to be sold to a minor in any circumstance.

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I don’t think that any Diablo game was ever Adults Only (AO) rating. Mature, yes and that is what it looks like D4 will be. How much blood and guts, bodies, etc… will be needed is not known because I do not know how much is needed to get Mature rating without crossing the line into AO which would be bad imo.

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Blood and guts by themselves usually do not constitute AO rating - merely M.
AO is either about explicit sexuality, gratuitous cruelty or manslaughter or very heavy/controversial/trigger themes

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Diablo is PEGI 16, and a game like Doom is PEGI 18… But they are both ESRB M-rated.

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Despite D3 being MA, it felt like it was designed for a pretty young audience. Language was fairly clean, gameplay wasn’t very punishing, the world was extremely linear, plenty of epic-fantasy undertones, difficulty had a low entry-point, and any sexual references were extremely implicit. All tale-tell signs that their target audience was pretty young (13+?).

Blizzard wanted its cake and to eat it too.

My take is that blizzard designed the game for kids, but then just slapped the MA rating on it to help it appeal to adults. The game ultimately suffers when designing it to maximize appeal!.

AO would be fine; However, I don’t think AO is necessary; MA should be sufficient as long as blizzard stops trying to cast as wide a net as possible. The atmosphere should be horrific, the enemies formidable, and the game should end with sanctuary being momentarily saved at the cost of the heroes losing their souls. The game should show that sanctuary doesn’t care about morality and decency anymore due to the terrors that have been running rampant for so long. Betrayal and distrust should prevail. Gambling, robbing, and plundering should be common place. Pleasures of the flesh should be in high demand.

To help blizzard paint the proper atmosphere in sanctuary’s universe, here are 5 NPC arc types i recommend introducing: the weak, the survivors, the possessed, the naive, and the few.

  1. The Weak
    The weak are at the mercy of the monstrosities of the night, without means to escape the horrors. They huddle around others of similar status so when the demons come, they can use their peers as distractions. The demon attacks are feared, but they also sustain the weak for it allows for scavenging of the remains (possessions and otherwise) of those less fortunate.

  2. The Survivors
    The survivors prey on the weak to help them survive. They rob, steal, cheat, and plunder. Since there are no bastions of safety, they are always in a state of flux traveling to less demon infested regions, and since they never stay in the same place there is no reason to establish a repour.
    We may see glimpses of these characters humanity, but it is always brief. They are survivors first; being humane is secondary.

  3. The Few
    The few are the brave and strong who have maintained a portion of their decency and are either lucky or dead. They stand against the demons, but those in the most demon infested regions are inevitably overrun. The few have become accustomed to death. Those around them never last long. While the strength of the few is formidable, it is insufficient to protect those around them; As a result an indifference to their fellow mankind dominates their persona because those that lean upon their strength invariably can’t be saved.

  4. The Possessed
    Some fates are worse than death. The possessed are those who have been swallowed by the abyss, but somehow emerged physically unscathed. Haunted by demons, they are perpetually tormented by the creatures of the night. They add to the chaos of the world as they are unpredictable. imbued with dark powers, the possessed can have surprising combat capabilities. However, the possessed turn malicious and masochistic at the worst possible moments sending them and their companions down the darkest paths towards the most conniving demon lords.

  5. The Naive
    The naive always originate from the least demon infested regions of sanctuary. They are the last of the decent populous in sanctuary. Despite horrors that are rising up around them, they somehow manage to find a glint of light. Their positive outlook sends them and those around them to early graves. With rare exceptions, the naive quickly are educated by becoming members of the other groups.

Execution and consistency are important. I feel like in D3, leah was a “possessed” npc type. However, despite being the daughter of diablo there was no psychological evidence of this. To make being half demon more believable, she should have been more evil, contorted, twisted, disturbed, conflicted, warped, or masochistic. She should have qualities of a demon other than random bursts of power, which seemed like something out of an x-men comicbook.

With Leah, I get that they were going for a “twist” at the end; but it for me it fell flat. Partly because I skipped the cutscene AND the cinematic to keep up with my party. Additionally, I never established an emotional connection to leah. She was always this annoying girl who would follow me for what seemed like random bursts throughout the game. Blizzard was trying to force an emotional connection with an NPC in an ARPG.

In online games the only character that players form emotional connections with is their PLAYABLE character. If blizzard wanted us to form emotional connections with NPCs, then they need to focus more on the RPG elements of the ARPG. If they don’t, then just keep the story to a minimum and save yourself from further embarrassment.

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Don’t forget flaming pentagrams in d2

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As I understand it, Europe is a bit harsher on violent content while North America is harsher on sexual content which is why you get these splits sometimes.

Though it’s worth reiterating: Getting a AO rating does not mean the game would not be cartoonish.

Anybody who had a problem with D3’s cartoonish visuals that wants D4 to be AO because of that should look at the AO games on Steam sometime.

It’s basically 95% cartoon waifu bait.

ok. i didn’t know about steam’s AO games…

It’s somewhat of a recent development.

It’s also more or less exactly what I expected it would be: Mostly just “adult anime”(The forums wont let me use the real word =P).

Basically the thing that gets you an AO rating is the actual content of the game and not the aesthetic it uses, and for North America with the ESRB we’re a lot more squeamish about sex than we are violence for whatever stupid reason.

So it’s almost always sex that gets you the AO rating, not violence. It’s why DOOM is still only M despite the violence being a fair bit more gratuitous than even Diablo 1 or 2.

That said I do agree that Diablo 4 should not have D3’s cartoony aesthetic.

in this case, let’s hope D4 has an M rating… and a PEGI 18… Diablo to be like Doom

I think PEGI 16 is fine, keeping in mind that Diablo 2 was also given that rating.

Especially if they’re trying to get back to the idea that we’re not super powered gods. DOOM’s style works for that game because you ARE a super powered one man army and it makes sense that your attacks are brutal and merciless.

Diablo 1 and 2 were big on dark and demonic themes but they were never really anything near that level of brutal violence.

They should focus on reviving the old atmosphere, especially Diablo 1, not on trying to mimic DOOM’s style.

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I actually cares for NPCs in D3, flawed as it was. And I liked Leah and yeah I was hit by her fate, so not everyone is the type to skip dialogues and cutscenes. There is quite a lot of people who get attached to NPCs regardless of genre. I would actually like to see some journals in D4, that mention cancelled plotlines for companions and Shen. Maybe a chance at saving Leah’s soul.

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It’s the same for all AO games.

AO games have sexual themes, drugs, etc. That’s what separates the AO titles from the rest of them.

Further, as far as I’m aware, none of the current consoles have a single AO title. Since it’s almost a given at this point that Blizzard is making games for consoles as well, it’s very, very doubtful that they will consider including anything that could get the game an AO rating.

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i always agreed on this topic;
-the key fact that a crewmember posted is, that the average playerbase in D3 is 32 years old;

-and adult acts were the first sin…so give it some sugar. :kissing_closed_eyes: :yum:

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I always thought the first one was stealing fruit…?

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Yeah, just look at the D4 trailer.
Blood gushing out of people? - Cool.
Naked Queen of the Succubi? - Give her a flat man’s chest, we can’t have boobs in a game trailer, no way.

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