US And Europe Video Game Rating System, Are They So Different?

Nowhere is the cultural difference more evident between US and Europe then in the field of entertainment. Typically US shys away from obvious descriptions of sexuality while having a tolerance level for violence in entertainment. While in Europe it is just the opposite, the ban hammer is dropped on violence and sensuality flows freely. This article depicts these differences in the rating system with the US and Europe with the rating given to the Xbox 360 game Mass Effect.

The latest example of this division is seen in two ratings of the forthcoming xbox 360 role-playing game Mass Effect. In the US, the Entertainment software Ratings Board or ESRB gave the game a M for Mature rating for "Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, [and] violence" this means no one under 17 should buy or rent the game without parent approval.

While the British Board of Film Classification BBFC known in the news for its recently banned manhunt 2 explained that American reason for the M rating comes from a single sequence depicting a risque encounter.

"The single sex scene is brief and un-detailed, although there is breast nudity in one version of the scene,". "The sex scene is triggered by the player making a series of choices about becoming more than friends with a colleague. If playing as a male character the scene can take place between him and a human woman or a humanoid female alien. If playing as a female character the scene can take place between her and a male human or a female humanoid alien."

The mention of extraterrestrial bisexuals raises the eyes of an outer space version of the "hot coffee" scandal from Grand Theft Auto: san Andreas two years ago which by providing a code in the game you unlock a mini sex game. However, any controversy will likely be waved by the fact that the BBFC gave Mass Effect a "12" rating basically saying it is okay for preteens to be able to play the game unsupervised.

Mass Effect isn't the first BioWare game to involve bisexual characters. The PC and xbox title Jade Empire had several non-graphic cross-gender love subplots,"including one storyline which leads to an implied three-way liaison between a male hero and two non-player characters, Silk Fox and Dawn star". Depending on the choice of being a male or female character can also "lead to some same-sex crushes in the star Wars: Knights of the old Republic games".

The Europe and US rating comparison is interesting to me because Europe easily bans games such as manhunt 2 for its violence but will slap a soft rating on games with strong sexual content in them such as Mass Effect. You decide is this just?

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DVD-ROM Replication

The rom in dvd-rom stands for read-only memory. It means that, while the manufacturers of the discs encode them with data, a consumer can only access, not change, the data stored within. The ability to ship computer programs and other data on discs that left the earlier floppy disks far behind has truly revolutionized the computer industry. Now, bulk replication of dvd-ROMs is possible, which helps in the quick and inexpensive transfer of large amounts of information.

A dvd-ROM can hold a minimum of 4.7GB, sufficient for a full-length movie. Its specification supports disks with capacities of from 4.7GB to 17GB and access rates of 600 KBps to 1.3 MBps. A special characteristic of the dvd-rom drives is that they are backward-compatible with CD-ROMs. This implies that dvd-rom players can play old CD-ROMs, CD-I disks, and video CDs, as well as new dvd-ROMs. New versions of dvd players can also read CD-R disks. dvd-ROMs use MPEG-2 to compress video data.

Replication, mastering included, involves pressing discs in production lines that spit out a new disc every few seconds. Replication equipment, costing millions of dollars, comprises a variety of machines that are used to create a glass master and metal stamping masters, stamp substrates in hydraulic molds, apply reflective layers, bond substrates together, print labels, and insert discs in packages. Most replication plants test some discs before mass duplication. Unlike dvd-rom mastering, dvd-video mastering may include one more step for CSS encryption, Macrovision, and regionalization.

One can develop dvd-ROMs with multimedia software tools like Macromedia Director, Quark mTropolis, and C++. dvd-ROMs that utilize dvd-Video's MPEG-2 video and multi-channel Dolby Digital or MPEG-2 audio need audio/video encoding.

Replicated dvd products might be supplied to the customer in bulk packets of 100, or finished and inserted into jewel cases with the paper parts. If you yourself do the insertion and source your own printing, the cost for dvd replication can be lower.

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