Mature isn’t the highest rating a game can get though. Return of the King is an odd comparison - those were PG-13 films. It has a lot of violence but how it is presented and against whom is rather important. I was very squeamish at the time, and had no issues watching LotR trilogy. I found original Star Wars trilogy more violent then LotR.
It is a curious limitation though - it has so much “mature” content I find it difficult to believe Larian would worry about the game being inappropriate for young audience. There specifically created a limitation, though, so there must be a reason for it.
Right. ROTK was PG-13 with decapitated heads and ghosts with eyeballs hanging out of their faces. Not exactly kid friendly material. BG3 is Mature which is the equivalent of rated R.
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Context matters though. Fantasy violence against straight up evil, fantasy monsters with barely visible black blood will be treated differently then realistic potrayal of human getting murdered, especially by a protagonist. The same logic is most likely apploed in BG3 to goblin children, though to my taste Goblins in BG3 are far too sentient to count as monsters.
From what I can find at least in USA the danger could be that the game would get AO rating, which is higher then M. Description wise, it really doesn't make much sense to me: M is rated as 17+ and AO as 18+ - so theoretically barely a difference. However, that must quite not be so, as even Rockstar avoided getting AO slapped on its GTA release - a studio and series that thrives on controversy and "mature content". Curiously I hear there are no children in GTA either. If Rockstar isn't willing to cross that line, then I am not surprised Larian doesn't either. I don't think that it is a limitation that will be dicovered by too many players, and might save up Larian headache in a long run.
Now. That said. I'm a parent. When my kids were younger, I wouldn't let them play games or watch me play games with content like BG3's.
Yeah, not a parent but agree. Game makes me cringe at times.
