How did this game get USK 12 Rating?

[cloinmaster]

I mean it has quite a lot of swear jar content

[Genuine]

Hella Knows

[Vinyard]

Not to mention all the drug and sex references... But I can tell you why. Simply use a toon shader in your game and don't show any violence on your coverart/screenshots. Bacause that´s all the USK is looking at. Imagine how much money it would cost to actually test a game before you rate it. That would be a financial disaster.

[Avalanche]

Originally posted by Vinyard:

Not to mention all the drug and sex references... But I can tell you why. Simply use a toon shader in your game and don't show any violence on your coverart/screenshots. Bacause that´s all the USK is looking at. Imagine how much money it would cost to actually test a game before you rate it. That would be a financial disaster.

Not to mention the references to the whole gay thing, i don't really care about it, if someone likes someone and its returned, i say go for it, but alot of parents can be quite narrow-minded when it comes to things like that.

[Vinyard]

Originally posted by Lithari:

Not to mention the references to the whole gay thing, i don't really care about it, if someone likes someone and its returned, i say go for it, but alot of parents can be quite narrow-minded when it comes to things like that.

True, true. Though I don't think that the sexual orientation of game charackters should affect the USK rating. If so, this would be really, really sad and Mass Effect would have never been released because of all the gay romance stuff. ^^

[mcc]

Originally posted by scuf scuf:

I mean it has quite a lot of swear jar content

So far only episode1 got the USK-12 rating.
I don't expect the other episodes 2 get a higher rating though.
There is no real violence in episode1.
AFAICT there is exactly 1 scene about some kind of self defence & 1 other scene about helping 2 defend 1 or 2 ppl against a bully.
Most importantly the game does never force the player 2 pick up a fight.but it offers several options 2 solve conflicts.
Drug reference was already in LIS - So why should this game get a higher rating?

Also don't forgat that times have changed in Germany when it comes 2 video game ratings.
Shadow Warrior 1 & 2, DOOM,& KillingFlloor 2 got the USK-18 rating without cuts.

[Palatine Katinka]

Originally posted by Vinyard:

If so, this would be really, really sad and Mass Effect would have never been released because of all the gay romance stuff. ^^

Did you know... Mass Effect originally had Kaiden and Ashley romanceable by both male and female Shepard? The options were cut before release with femShep/Liara romance only remaining because of the technicality of Liara being asari. With a save file modifier it's possible to switch between male and female and romance Kaiden/Ashley then switch just before the end to see their same-sex sex scenes. The audio and animation is still there, all they did was disable the chat prompts that lead to it!

Things have come a long way in the past decade. Now instead of removing romance options they patched extras into Andromeda so the 'Romance 3 characters' achievement could be earned with just male/male (female/female and male/female already had at least 3 options).

[Vinyard]

Originally posted by mcc:

Also don't forgat that times have changed in Germany when it comes 2 video game ratings.
Shadow Warrior 1 & 2, DOOM,& KillingFlloor 2 got the USK-18 rating without cuts.

And on the other hand you can't buy games like Dying Light or Dead Rising in germany even though these are a lot less brutal than DOOM or Shadow Warrior. And games like The Last of Us or DMC had to be censored to either get a rating at all or don't get an 18+ rating.
Considering these random ratings the guys over at USK are either rolling dice or asking their wallets for advice. ^^
At least they seem to have a lot of scope when it comes to rating. If they would have to stick to a ridgid rule-set, LiS would have been 16+, because that's what games usually get for showing drug references.
But it doesn't matter anyway because most likely they won't change their mind now that the game has a 12+ rating.

Originally posted by Palatine Katinka:

Did you know... Mass Effect originally had Kaiden and Ashley romanceable by both male and female Shepard? The options were cut before release with femShep/Liara romance only remaining because of the technicality of Liara being asari.

That is correct. But this was merely a marketing decision and has no relation to the games rating what so ever. They were just concerned about the US sales because of all the homophobic parents there. "My son ain't no playing games that will turn him into a gay ♥♥♥♥♥" something like that.

[CZBGR Icepick]

Well, ESRB rating is M, 17+. Not that I care about ratings policies. Parents should play first, then decide.

[january]

The original Life is Strange was also rated USK 12, and that has far more "mature" content than the first episode of Before the Storm.

[mcc]

Originally posted by Vinyard:

Originally posted by mcc:

Also don't forgat that times have changed in Germany when it comes 2 video game ratings.
Shadow Warrior 1 & 2, DOOM,& KillingFlloor 2 got the USK-18 rating without cuts.

And on the other hand you can't buy games like Dying Light or Dead Rising in germany even though these are a lot less brutal than DOOM or Shadow Warrior. And games like The Last of Us or DMC had to be censored to either get a rating at all or don't get an 18+ rating.
Considering these random ratings the guys over at USK are either rolling dice or asking their wallets for advice. ^^
At least they seem to have a lot of scope when it comes to rating. If they would have to stick to a ridgid rule-set, LiS would have been 16+, because that's what games usually get for showing drug references.
But it doesn't matter anyway because most likely they won't change their mind now that the game has a 12+ rating.

DL was released b4 Shadow Warrior & DOOM-era changes of the USK rating-board & DL is much more violent than the other 2 games.

AFAIK the changes in mind of the USK started with MK10.
It was shown 2 the USK 4 another time AFTER the release & got the USK-18 rating.
It included the infamous kill-cam-tech which u can also find in the SniperElite-games.
The kill-cam feature was then also re-added 2 SniperElite1.

DeadRising4 got the USK-18 rating without cuts.
Last Of US was censored in all of Europe - not only Germany & only the MP is censored.

In Germany things r different when it comes 2 drug reference.
Most of the games & movies which show mild drug references (cannabis) r USK-12 & FSK-12.

Only movies & games which show excessive use of (mild) drugs r rated USK-16 & FSK-16.
(Example: Friday, How High, Half Baked, Requiem 4 A Dream)

Funny:
Cheech & Chong movies were rated again by FSK.
Most of the movies got the FSK-16 rating then but the 1st Cheech & Chong movie was rated FSK-12^^

[cloinmaster]

Oh, I somehow remembered LIS had USK 18 Rating, so I wondered why bts is 12 only. But since both games have the same rating, I guess it makes sense

[Vinyard]

I did some googling and i think i might have found the answer your initial question.

Back in 2011 the USK released this document[www.usk.de] as a reaction to massive critique against their rating policy since 2006. At that time the USK was so unpopular that EA-Manager Gerhard Florin even demanded to shut down the USK completely during a speech at GamesCon 2009.

So maybe they started to rate games less and less strictly in order to avoid problems with the game industry and their customers?! (Just my theory though...)

[Dana.]

The institutions who rate these games simply aren't as conservative as they used to be in the past. Nothing in the game is "too harsh" for teenagers.

[mcc]

Originally posted by Dana.:

The institutions who rate these games simply aren't as conservative as they used to be in the past. Nothing in the game is "too harsh" for teenagers.

Yep, times have changed.

[CZBGR Icepick]

Originally posted by Dana.:

The institutions who rate these games simply aren't as conservative as they used to be in the past. Nothing in the game is "too harsh" for teenagers.

Also, coincidentally, the game is about teenagers with teenage characters, so, with the subjects involved and the language, I would say they would be able to readjust the standards they had.

And yes, times have changed. But some things don't change.