AdventureQuest 3D has officially been rated T by the ESRB. Which means 13+ and is most similar to the PG13 movie rating (Avengers, Batman vs Superman, etc). This is pretty exciting! It is a good sign that this version of the game is aging up. All of our previous games were rated either E for everyone or E10+ (DragonBall Z-ish). So what now?
#$#@! %#%&*$ !#$ @#$^@ ^$^$@@ @$%#$#^$ #^&#+@!!# !@%$#^* !@$^ #$+#@! %#%&*$ !#$ @#$^@ ^$^$@@ @$%#$#^$ *^&$$$#@!!# !@%$#^* !@$^ #$#+^^$$4@*^$ #^&#@!!# !@+%$#^* !@$^ #$#@! %+#%&*$ !#$ @#$^@ ^$^$@@ @$%#$#^$ -+^&#@!!# !@%$#^* !@$^ ! %#%&*$ !#$ @+#$^@ ^$^$@@ @$%#$.
...any questions? :D
If you know me in real life, then the reason Artix Entertainment games have a strict no blood, gore, bad words, obscene material, illegal substance references and so forth is pretty obvious. It is because of my personal moral and ethical code of honor. As a life long martial artist, I have never drank, smoked, nor done drugs. Yet, I really stories with conflict/violence heavy themes.... and a healthy amount of dark atmosphere and humor too. So it makes a lot of sense that the original AdventureQuest and subsequent games were following these rules long before we applied for our first rating. I remember the first time I heard someone ask, "Why do you make kids games?" and I did a touble-take and replied, "I do not make kid games... it just happens that the games I make are suitable for everyone to play."
That being said... keep in mind at the beginning of AdventureQuest Worlds (ESRB Everyone 10+) the game opens with the villain having his black soul ripped out of his chest and crushed in the hand of his foe while his Daughter watches on from a flying castle that is crashing into the ground. >_> (We had a little wiggle room to be awesome on the web.)
AdventureQuest 3D now has the freedom that most major TV shows and Blockbuster movies have.... the same equivilant rating as Marvel's Avengers movies. The T rating gives us the ability to have stories and themes (if we choose) that touch on more mature subjects including murder, drugs & alcohol, revenge, mild sexuality, and more. I can see a clear path on how we can maintain our integrity, and improve the seriousness and relatability of our stories. But do keep in mind, needlessly throwing in swear words or references does not improve the quality of a game. In fact, most of the most famous games in the world have NONE of the above. That being said-- we are definitely ready to start telling some much more mature tales in our storylines. Really looking forward to it.
Yergen has already itemized the lower level regions on the dev server. So today I am working with Zhoom on AdventureQuest 3D's re-balanced power curve. Right now, with the proper stats, you can barely kill a monster 1 on 1. If a monster is even just one level higher than you, you start taking penalties when trying to hit it... and it gets bonuses on critical hitting on you. Because the two of these things combined does not allow you to handle packs of monsters, we are gong to make a single "normal" monster considerably easier to defeat, and also give a 2 level "grace range" where you do not get penalties. Once this change is complete, a level 2 player will have a MUCH more reasonable time battling a level 3 monster. Cross your fingers for us.
Oh.. the teeth + sword fighting story? Check back tomorrow, and I will tell you the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth :D
Undead Legion Ruler
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