The Electronic Software Rating Board, the ESRB, rated Destructive Creations’ Hatred AO, which stands for Adults Only. It received this rating back in January of 2015 but no one knew why… until today.

There was a lot of controversy over why Hatred was rated Adults Only and why there was no proper inclusion of the game’s descriptors on the ESRB’s website if it really was rated AO. Well, the ESRB’s page was updated to finally include Hatred, following the game’s release but it still didn’t explain why the game was rated AO. A rating, I might add, that resulted in the game being banned from being streamed on Twitch.tv.

Some people argued it was because of the game’s theme of going on a shooting spree, while others said it was because of pressure from the controversy drummed up over the media bias that the game has been receiving since its announcement late last year.

After reaching out to the ESRB a few times I did receive a response. According to ESRB communications manager Michelle Pagano, the game was rated AO based on the context of the violence and themes, with Pagano stating…

“Based on the content depicted in Hatred and the overall context of the game, ESRB assigned an AO (Adults Only) rating with content descriptors that include Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, and Strong Language.

 

“Our rating system is designed to ensure that products are evaluated as objectively, reliably and consistently as possible.”

There have been lots of debates about the actual issues of Hatred being rated AO. Some feel as if the game is way too tame in its violence to be labeled as Adults Only, a rating usually reserved for pornographic titles or games with extremely gory violence like Manhunt 2, which included mutilation and dismemberment.

While the content of Hatred’s violence is an interesting subject of debate, the original Postal – and mind you, not the more satirical and tongue-in-cheek Postal 2 – was a straightforward game about a guy snapping and going on a killing spree. It was identical to Hatred insofar that the main character was the antagonist and was killing innocent people and law enforcement personnel with a wide variety of weapons. You could even wound people and execute them as they begged for their life. Here’s one of the final stages in the game… and here’s the description of it, as taken from the Wikipedia page…

“The game ends with the Postal Dude attempting to massacre an elementary school, but failing due to having a mental breakdown and ending up getting captured by the government and incarcerated in an asylum.“

Postal 1 – Single Player – 17. The Elementary School + Game Ending Film

“10/23/97 The hive has been cleansed. The source of the corruption has been corked, laid in a body bag and dragged to the outskirts of existence…” Game Ending Film – Pictures of the captured Postal dude: Door: https://img651.imageshack.us/img651/5423/fdoor.png Corridor: https://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1950/corridor.png Cell: https://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7546/jacketbg.png Torture: https://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8241/torture2w.png

Postal is rated M for Mature on the ESRB.

Based on the vague descriptions of why Hatred landed the Adults Only rating, it almost seems as if context isn’t the only thing that determine a game’s rating but perhaps graphics play a part in it as well?

What’s even more interesting is that Hatred was rated AO before the game was even properly completed. It begs the question of how much did the ESRB play the game or how informed were they about Hatred to rate the game back in January of 2015 before it was finished? The game didn’t officially release until June 1st, 2015.

Tycho from the Penny Arcade made an acute comment about the Hatred controversy, writing in a post that…

“A big part of the problem on the developer side is that they didn’t flatter games media. What a developer is supposed to do is to give their violence ironic cover, or agree to pretend that it’s a deconstruction of violence, or make the player wear a surreal animal mask, anything to “elevate” the piece so that the press can rub their faces on it like a cat. Barring these, you’d better fucking know one of them.”

Right, because the reality is that Spec Ops: The Line was also Hatred but with a military motif in Dubai. In Call of Duty they get around the issue of “murder simulator” by calling anyone with a gun a “bad guy”. Battlefield gets around the problem in the same way. GTA doesn’t really get around that problem but the added elements of “satire” even when you’re torturing a man to near death allowed Rockstar to escape the AO rating, which fits in with Tycho’s “ironic cover”.

Hotline Miami also manages to escape the same label under the context of a “surreal animal mask”… literally (except for in Australia). And Mortal Kombat X? Well, it doesn’t matter how uncomfortable some of those Fatalities make you, the one below takes place in a fantasy world… so the context makes it a-okay to avoid the AO rating.

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