No, BB didn’t start selling beer. I got carded for buying Spellforce 2 because it’s M Rated.
That’s right, Best Buy has started carding people for buying M Rated (or above) games. I hadn’t heard about this policy anywhere and was pretty amused when I was asked to show my ID. I didn’t even realize Spellforce 2 was M rated. So I asked the girl there and she said all Best Buy stores have implemented this policy and that if you’re a minor or don’t have ID, you will be unable to purchase the game. Also she mentioned that they will bring up the rating even if the person is old enough to buy the game if the have kids with them or they guess they might be buying it for kids.
Wow. Didn’t EB get a mess of crap for trying to do this? Aren’t there laws being passed that are taking all kinds of abuse because they are against free speech laws or something?
I didn’t see any mention of this on Best Buys website or anywhere else online. I wonder how long this procedure has been in place…
But, am I upset by this? Nope. I think it’s high time it’s happening. Why? Because parents are useless. Yes, the parents should be the people responsible here, they should pay attention to what their kids are buying, they shouldn’t allow them to play things they aren’t old enough to play without checking it out themselves first. But do they? No. That’s pretty evident.
So retail stores, all of them, should step up. They should card and they should mention it if someone is buying an M-Rated game for a young kid. Why not? It doesn’t hurt anything.
Well, except for this. Game makers try to fit into specific rating slots, just like movie peeps do now. So often they add or remove features/gore/blood/etc to make sure they fit into the category they want to appeal to. Is that a horrible thing? I dont’ know. It does change the original vision, but I would suggest when creating your game you should be aware of your audience. You should be creating a game with your audience in mind. Including the rating they will be able to play it at.
So as I said above, I wish all stores that sold video games did this. I wish that more places asked their peoples to take note of the rating and talk with the buyer about it. They don’t need to be forceful or anything else, just ask the buyer if they know about the rating and what it means. Education can only be a good thing.
What Would Matt Do: Be sure to carry my ID on me when I buy the scary games!