Videogames/Violence

I love to play videogames. I especially love those that have a storyline (I cannot play MMOs). Some of the videogames I enjoy include GTA. Whenever Rockstar (the company that makes GTA) makes a new videogame, it always seems to have troubles with the ratings board. For instance Manhunt 2 was originally given an Adult Rating (A) because of the excessive violence within the videogame. This virtually kills a videogame because many stores will refuse to carry it because of the rating. This also happened to GTA: San Andreas because of the Hot Coffee Mod that allowed players to watch one of the main characters fornicate with random women.

What I find annoying is that although we already have a Mature (M) rating that restricts games to 17 and older, we still have this higher rating. Why do we need this A rating? At the age of 17, an idvidual should be able to decide whether they are old enough to paly these videogames. Why should people be restricted from playing a certain videogame, just because a ratings board believes there is too much violence. How much is too much. That is the problems with ratings boards. Can you really decide that correctly everytime? Is there a mathematical equation to decide these classsifications? Do these ratings boards change with the times. Are A rated games going to become M rated within 10 years?

Funny enough this discussion can also be used for movies as well. Both Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange received an X rating when originally released but were given an R rating in later years.