(Game Submission) Expanded Ratings FAQ

The idea behind rating one’s site is to be able to convey that your audience is aimed towards a certain maturity group. This usually also conveys what sort of RP experience is already on the board and is considered to be merely extra information for those looking for a game to choose weather or not they might want to play.

Well you don’t have to go full-on ESRB, it’s merely the system we choose to use as it’s used to rate video games and it’s more efficient an diverse than the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating System (G – X/NC-17). What’s more it makes people feel a little more comfortable, In the MPAA’s system one might consider “R” and “X/NC-17” to be high taboo, whereas the “M” rating is still considered to be fairly mild in ESRB, though AO is considered to be super extreme and is not a suggested rating to be applied to any of the sites to be advertised on Play by Post Net.

We won’t be using or allowing ratings of certain types from the ESRB’s system to be used, nor will it be expected that your Play by Post game is actually reviewed by ESRB officials (this is probably an expensive and usually long process strictly reserved for commercially available Video Games), instead the rating is arbitrary and, as stated above, used to merely inform the populous of your intended audience and also what kind of material might be accepted.

The Ratings that will not be used are as follows:
EC –Early Childhood; young children can’t read nor are they interested in PBPs, your site is not going to be rated EC.
E –Everyone; Though we could use this, it’s still assumed that children under the age of Ten aren’t yet interested in much that the internet has to offer, much less Play by Post Role Playing Games.
AO - Adults Only; this is what amounts to the MPAA’s X/NC-17 Rating, reserved for things like pr0n and the like, not many actual games rated by ESRB have been rated AO, something like less than twenty games. If you consider your game to be AO this is not the place for you and if anyone tries to “cop” this rating you will be reprimanded promptly and without mercy.
RP – Rating Pending; while we could accept that the game has yet to find it’s ‘groove’ and you didn’t want to put down a rating, we prefer you use E10+ and then you can change it at a later date as your game develops.

The Ratings that will be used are as follows:
E10+ - Everyone 10+; children over the age of ten tend to get more and more interested in the internet and it’s plausible that you could get an audience that young, though in my experience, unlikely. E10+ states that the game is suitable for everyone, language filters will probably be on or a ‘no cuss’ rule is in affect on your boards, this is usually suitable for games that involve little to no actual violence, games that fit into the social type, usually found in the Anime and Furry genres. Your game also will not have any sexual reference, or at least very little beyond slight suggestion.
T– Teen; Your age group is slightly more mature, violence is more prevalent, in fact your board might be geared towards it, but not it’s not generally graphic. Language of an adult manner might be present occasionally but it likely isn’t gratuitous or prevalent. Sexual suggestion might be abundant, but never graphic.
M – Mature; your age group is of the most mature caliber, and your Role Players are probably quite seasoned. Adult Language (cussing) can be prevalent or even omnipresent, violence can be or often is extremely graphic and in rare occasions the sexual suggestion is slightly heightened –though boards geared towards outright smut will likely be deleted as they would be under AO and we don’t allow for AO.

Once again your site doesn’t need to meet the set parameters set for each rating all the time, nor do the rules of your board need to be set to meet them, but the rating would merely stem from what you have seen from the Role Playing taking place. Do you see lots of violence being depicted by people who are particularly gifted at making it graphic? Or do you see simple comedic violence or violence that’s not particularly detailed? Simple things to ask yourself; although this might seem a complicated thought process it merely takes a few minutes to decide.