GAMER LOUNGE 20XX (NO CASUALS!!)

[psychospacecow]

There's a couple issues when it comes to international ratings. First of all, most game rating boards are government owned and run which means that they have very powerful and strict abilities to regulate. You will not find drug references in German games, and for quite some time couldn't find blood in Australian games because of this. When it comes to things that occur in the states, this is something done by the company's discretion. They want to comply with the ESRB, but they're not strictly tied to it since it is a non governmental organization. Its much harder to sell a game that doesn't go through this process however as many stores refuse to stock non rated games, including Steam if my understanding is correct. A lot of games that would be considered pornographic do not go through this process because everyone knows where they'd land anyway, and you're not going to find it in Steam or Best Buy anyway.