'Mature' RPGs

[sheek]

What is a mature RPG?

Does it mean no elves? "shades of gray"? 'dark' humor/cynicism? Drugs and gore? Realistic /"complex" characters? Romantic relationships w npc's?

Would mature (your definition done right) be a selling point done for you? Or do you not care?

The Witcher vs Ultima 'virtues' trilogy (4-6) vs Planescape vs MotB: which is better and why?

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

As I understand it a mature game provides cards of nekkid girls/ hawt lesbian alein sex/ elven buttsecks or something similar. Can't say I care much for it.

 

[sheek]

That is the industry definition. Many codexers seem to have their own.

Maybe mature means using only earth tone texture palettes?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It must include rape.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

I guess at this point in fourth dimension we could classify mature game as a game which deals with themes other games don't deal with

 

[racofer]

Must have beheading. Usually the most brutal ones involve a close-up and a dull kitchen knife. Must also have a good camera, because then you can see a lot of detail like the layers of tissues surrounding the neck, the veins, arteries, nerves and trachea and the squishing blood that obviously accompanies the procedure. The knife also plays an important role. Military knifes usually have a very sharp edge, so it penetrates easily even if the knife is not so sharp, and due to the size of the blade it cuts through the whole neck in a single pass, only requiring some effort at the upper spine since bone is a little harder to cut.

The dull kitchen knife however, is an entire different history. Because it's a kitchen knife, the blade is small, the edge is usually rounded and if it's dull, well, it's dull. However when beheading someone, it's much more complicated than usual. It doesn't slice the skin, you have to apply enough pressure so that it ruptures, much like when you rip a piece of clothing with your hands. After that, the executioner have to keep ripping the tissues in small steps because the blade is small, so there's a lot of gushing blood due to shattering of the arteries. The spine provides a challenge as well. Usually the knife wielder has to mount on top of the knife with his whole weight to cut through, and a bone shattering sound is usually heard.

So until ar pee geez have something like that, they're not mature.

 

[JarlFrank]

Mature = a setting that makes sense (I don't mind elves and dwarves, but I do mind "The Elven Kingdom where every single elf has the same beliefs/culture/political ideals"), characters with interesting personalities and real motivations instead of just "I'll destroy/save the world because I'm evil/good!", no clear good-evil moralities, generally just a setting and story that has some thought behind it instead of just being another typical "YOU ARE CHOSAN ONE" tripe.

Also, gameplay that is challenging and design that doesn't insult my intelligence (like Oblivion's level scaling and compass).

Generally, a game that has been designed for a mature audience instead of teenagers. As in, a game that requires a bit of thought to properly appreciate. A game that has carefully crafted a good story and setting instead of throwing cool shit at you all the time.

 

[DriacKin]

To me, a mature story is one where the characters' motivations/thoughts or the plot's intricacies are not immediately obvious. Instead, the audience must examine the story's subtleties to fully appreciate it.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

So all jRPGs are mature?

 

[racofer]

To me, a mature story is one where the character's motivations/thoughts or the plot's intricacies are not immediately obvious. Instead, the audience must examine the story's subtleties to fully appreciate it.

So in a way Bethesda's RPGs are mature to our eyes, since we can see behind the facade of their shitty plots and find the real motivation for their existence: draining money from the sheeple.

 

[DriacKin]

To me, a mature story is one where the character's motivations/thoughts or the plot's intricacies are not immediately obvious. Instead, the audience must examine the story's subtleties to fully appreciate it.

So in a way Bethesda's RPGs are mature to our eyes, since we can see behind the facade of their shitty plots and find the real motivation for their existence: draining money from the sheeple.

There is nothing mature about Beth's RPGs by themselves. Instead, the entire story of the creation of games like Olbivion is a mature story.

 

[Shannow]

Mature = a setting that makes sense (I don't mind elves and dwarves, but I do mind "The Elven Kingdom where every single elf has the same beliefs/culture/political ideals"), characters with interesting personalities and real motivations instead of just "I'll destroy/save the world because I'm evil/good!", no clear good-evil moralities, generally just a setting and story that has some thought behind it instead of just being another typical "YOU ARE CHOSAN ONE" tripe.

Also, gameplay that is challenging and design that doesn't insult my intelligence (like Oblivion's level scaling and compass).

Generally, a game that has been designed for a mature audience instead of teenagers. As in, a game that requires a bit of thought to properly appreciate. A game that has carefully crafted a good story and setting instead of throwing cool shit at you all the time.

...and lacks everything the industry seems to define as mature: over-the-top violence and blood, Bioware-level "romances", sex-scenes, choices/plots that only gratify 15-year-olds self-conscious insecurities and so on.

The far more interesting question is how much impact "mature" has on the quality of a game. At the moment it just seems to be an excuse to cater to the most base amusements violence and sex (that we previously tried to shield our children from; yes, I just watched Spartacus ). And even if the industry were to provide actual mature content instead of violence and sex in black, grey, red and brown tones that doesn't mean that the media would become better. It might just become boring.

"Mature" done right:
Probably just Fallout. Which just goes to show that I personally like some immaturity in my games (Fallout not being far up on my favourites list).

 

[Hory]

I'd say that a true mature game would be one which would only find enjoyment among adults. Sex isn't much of a mature element anymore. Can't imagine that an adult with his head on his shoulders would enjoy the lame ME2 sex cutscenes too much, but they're probably pretty interesting for kids ("Ooh, SHE'S ALMOST NAKED!!"). Mature games deal with topics which kids find boring or can't fully grasp, with the subtleties of human nature and morality. Fallout isn't particularly mature either as I could enjoy it as a teen. Torment is more mature by virtue of its philosophical elements, but not by that much. I think that are almost no mature games out there. Interactive Fiction has some works but IF are not exactly "games" in the first place (linear stories + one solution puzzles seems to have little to do with "gameplay").

 

[DriacKin]

Sex isn't much of a mature element anymore.

I disagree. A story about sex can be mature as long as it makes interesting comments about the nature of sex, or how different people view/respond to sex...
What isn't mature is crap like Mass Effect where the sex scenes are nothing more than shitty porn footage.

 

[sheek]

I wouldn't diss teenage boys too much. Haven't role-playing games always been targetted/played by the more geeky teenage boys or older people with a geeky teenage boy's side to them?

I mean how many of you were mature adults when you started playing RPGs? There are a lot of posters here barely into their 20s who claim to have appreciated Fallout and Planescape. JarlFrank (who writes lesbian elf porn in his spare time) for example, or Wyrmlord though he enjoys more tactical dungeon-crawlers and puzzles than story.

 

[MetalCraze]

A mature RPG is a RPG which doesn't try to appeal to kids - no "epic" plots, no idiotic depictions of sex (especially like collecting sex cards or while characters have sex they do it dressed) and excessive gore just for the sake of them being there, no filler writing about nothing that pretends to be oh so important (hi DA) and finally and most importantly - such RPG must have a complex gameplay not made for pre-school kids.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Yes, but the teenage boys of today have much shittier taste, that's the problem. Badly animated sex scenes become the focus of the fucking game*

And yes, I realize that's what every generation says about the next one

*For the masochists, go to DA nexus and see the top 50 mods. 2/3 are about sex and the remaining are about cosmetic changes. I jewst kant play teh game if the charcrtes dun lok kyut

 

[sheek]

Yes, but the teenage boys of today have much shittier taste, that's the problem. Badly animated sex scenes become the focus of the fucking game*

And yes, I realize that's what every generation says about the next one

*For the masochists, go to DA nexus and see the top 50 mods. 2/3 are about sex and the remaining are about cosmetic changes. I jewst kant play teh game if the charcrtes dun lok kyut

And how many of them are not teenagers but just retarded adults?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Good point.

Jesus, it was bad enough when people grinned when they saw scantily clad women on the covers, now they just wonder which character will they fuck in their next playthough

 

[MetalCraze]

More like teenager is not an age but a state of mind

 

[sheek]

Were the Wizardries, Gold Boxes and Ultimas designed for mature adults?

 

[Raghar]

I'd say that a true mature game would be one which would only find enjoyment among adults. Sex isn't much of a mature element anymore. Can't imagine that an adult with his head on his shoulders would enjoy the lame ME2 sex cutscenes too much, but they're probably pretty interesting for kids

What sex cutscenes? If they have a sexual live, they are hiding it from theirs captain fairly efficiently.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Were the Wizardries, Gold Boxes and Ultimas designed for mature adults?

While I wouldn't say that, I think they CAN be played by an adult without constant "what the fuck am I doing" thoughts. Like some older Disney movies.

 

[MetalCraze]

Were the Wizardries, Gold Boxes and Ultimas designed for mature adults?

The gameplay in them certainly requires more than twitching da buttan.
But yeah they most certainly were - focus on complex gameplay instead of making a game friendly for penis mods.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

You speak weird stuff for someone who watches anime.