There are many whining voices on the forums, complaining about how it's unfair that they can't get as many Brewfest tokens as the Americans. I couldn't care less. Holiday events are stupid and if you are actually willing to do them you will survive the extra day of dailies, boohoo.I am curious, however, as to why this would be. Both quests seem innocent enough and it's usually the USA that are prude about alcohol (drinking age 21, seriously?) and not the EU. So what's going on here?
"The Brewfest quests ‘Pink Elekks On Parade’ and ‘Catch the Wild Wolpertinger!’ were removed to ensure that World of Warcraft contains content that complies with regional game rating requirements."- Vaneras
So it isn't Blizzard's fault, I even believe that. But how is it that we can slaughter and even torture animals and humans as well as drinking alcohol with positive effects, but not hunt pink elephants while drunk? Does that seem right to you?1 Let's have a look at a rating system, the European PEGI.
"PEGI 12
Videogames that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognisable animals, as well as videogames that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives."
and
"PEGI 16
This rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. More extreme bad language, the concept of the use of tobacco and drugs and the depiction of criminal activities can be content of games that are rated 16+."- PEGI
There are two possible arguments as to why the violence in World of Warcraft allows it to be rated 12+. One could either argue that WoW's violence is non-graphic or that the cartoony art-style doesn't qualify as "human-looking characters or recognisable animals." This is bullshit.
It can't be the spirit of the ratings to allow for active torture of both animals and humans but not for intoxication. WoW doesn't deserve a 12+ rating - no MMO should have one really - but it's surely not the references to alcohol that spoil the kids. Most kids see grown-ups (and not-so-grown-ups) buy and drink alcohol all the time. This is something they learn to deal with as something that you do when you are older. We have constant discussions on how violent video games spoil our youth, but suddenly it's worse to have a drink than to murder someone? Seriously?
The guys and girls responsible for these ratings should get together and look at just how stupid their concoction is - but how about Blizzard, are they really innocent in this?
Hardly. They clearly market their game to 12-15 year olds or they wouldn't want the 12+ rating in the first place. Yet they put in things like the Borean Tundra torture quest and funny booze. This is pure hypocrisy, they don't care about what they are doing to the kids at all, they only care about their precious profit. They put in violence (and booze) wherever they think they can have it without violating ratings. If then someone complains about a particular quest, they just remove it. Blizzard, if you want to make a game for 12 year olds then, dammit, have the decency to actually make it suitable for them. If you don't want those youngsters - a solution I would very much prefer - then get a proper fraking rating. Age of Conan sucked, but at least they had the guts to go with 18+.
1Bonus geek points if you know which TV-character's picture I meant to post next to this sentence.
Cheers at my guildie Melth for bringing me this story :)
