   How violent can a game be?
  In some of my past posts, I've mentioned that I wanted to make a fighting game that implements "realistic violence". I just wanted to know a couple things, before I get involved in working on any specific platform.  So basically, how violent can the content in a game be, before it's accepted by something like the Xbox Live Marketplace(Xbox Live Indie Games) via peer review (who makes this call btw?) or another distribution method, such as Steam for PC?  Can someone tell me if the latter is even possible, since I can't find any info on it.  Except for the brief mention of indie devs being able to put up games on their service, on Wikipedia. Also, do I have any other options, when it comes to getting my game distributed?  What about Playstation Network?  I don't even think a fighting game would fare well on pc, so I'm not really looking into that.Also when it comes to the ESRB, what makes a title they review have, "Intense Violence"?   
Quote:Original post by SwordmasterAlso when it comes to the ESRB, what makes a title they review have, "Intense Violence"?"Intense Violence" is what makes a title they review have "Intense Violence".Rate your game the same way they do, and pick up titles with a previous rating and compare your game to them. Use a sane judgment call, and ask other people's opinion.A game can be as violent as you want to make it, but if you go over the top then some people aren't going to buy it, and many companies aren't going to want to sell it.   ;Quote:So basically, how violent can the content in a game be, before it's [no longer] accepted by something like the Xbox Live Marketplace(Xbox Live Indie Games) via peer review (who makes this call btw?) or another distribution method, such as Steam for PC?I don't know about Live Marketplace, but for propper XBLA MS is very picky about what they put up there, and for Steam, if they find your game tasteless you'll just get a letter saying that they don't want "that kind of game" on their service (with no further explanation).Quote:The esrb website says:Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons and depictions of human injury and death;  Talroth, I was asking that question about intense violence, because I wanted to know how they would rate the content in my game, if a publisher ever decides to throw money at it (still reading Tom Sloper's lessons on the game biz, so I'm not sure if this is a possibility). But, I'm going to take a look at the  Mortal Kombat franchise as an example.  In Mortal Kombat 2, the ESRB gave different ratings to the Super Nintendo(1994 release) and Playstation 3(2007 release) ports.  I'm just guessing they substituted the old realistic violence rating with the intense violence one.  Am I right or wrong?  Since I don't see, realistic violence as one of the content descriptors, on the ratings guide webpage.And same thing goes with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the DS(2007 release) and Xbox360(2006 release).  Which I can't tell why they would label their content differently.Also the Game Boy Advance port of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, got a content label of, animated blood and violence.  While the PS2 version got, blood and gore and violence.  I'm not sure I understand how they are labeling things.  So therefore, I'm still not sure what constitutes as intense violence, to the ESRB anyways.Hodgman, so do you think if I ask over at these forums, (http://forums.xna.com) someone might know?  If not, who could I ask?   ;Quote:Original post by SwordmasterIn some of my past posts, I've mentioned that I wanted to make a fighting game that implements "realistic violence". Two notions: you're not the first and there's always a market.Realism is a two-edge sword, though - most people don't actually want realism in movies and games. All they have to do is look past the monitor and see realism. A game is a form of escape and IMO should be treated as such. Depends on you defintion on "realistic", though :)   