Stop overusing 18 as an age

[Zippity]

Typically it's because there is this hard coded believe in many peoples minds that the younger the characters are, the sexier they are... Which is mostly a lot of hog wash... But it's how the media in general keeps portraying women and men, in advertisements, movies, and TV shows... So people begin to generalize, only knowing what they've been exposed to when it comes to entertainment... It's a world wide and systemic issue... And yet in reality people fall in love, have sex, and so on, at all sorts of age ranges... Add to that, most countries have strict federal, state, and local laws regarding the age requirement for fictional content containing or involving sex and sexual behavior... In the U.S. there may be state laws with lower numbers then 18 for things like consent in real life, but it's almost always a different requirement for digital wares and fictional entertainment...

In the United Kingdom any fictional artwork that includes sexual content or the exposure to sexual content has a requirement that all the people/characters/models must visually appear to be aged 18 or higher, otherwise it is a violation of the law... In the U.S. it is not as cut and dry, but legally the story and characters involved in or witnessed to sexual content in fictional works must be aged 18 or higher... Documentaries and works of non-fiction have slightly different laws and statutes on what is allowed or not allowed... Other countries have different variations of laws, some far more strict and some slightly less strict... But you also have to think about International Law and Treaty Law...

And as all games and visual novels in this market are technically fictional, and most developers want to ensure they are not violating any major markets local, state, regional, federal, and international laws, it's just better to comply through warnings in the beginning (just like most porn sites) and ensure they don't violate those laws in their visuals and story telling... Not only for their own protection, but for the protection of the fans playing/reading their works... Obviously sites like this one have their own sets of rules, but it's better to be safe then sorry...

Some people may feel the visual appearance of what constitutes a certain age is subjective, but most countries do not work in shades of gray... They usually opt on the side of caution, with a more black and white determination if it complies or not...

I personally would prefer developers run the gambit of varying age ranges for their characters, not just 18 or MILF age, which seems to be the two primary age ranges... But go with all the stuff in between as well, or even a bit higher on occasion... I wish more developers were looking to throw a wide net, rather then just casting a few lines... But it is what it is, for now...

Zip

 

[M Schum]

I think people here are missing the obvious, that being the depiction of a under age character can fall into ********** if its sexualized.

That created a issue of "overusing" because sure, you can make a game about people in their 20-30's and that is not entire uncommon either, the problem is if you want to write about relationships as someone in that age already have a social circle as someone that is younger is forming his social circle and also one thing is having it set in high school and another in collage, there are different group dynamics involved.

I dont think its "overused", its common on Japanese games because often they are set during their late high school years as they entering adulthood and people that play then know its BS (and sometimes lampshaded) because they are 16-17 but still since thats legally enforced they are 18, in western games that is not really being that common but, personal opinion here, this because western games tend to make their characters into glamorous playboy pornstars that are in their early-mid 20's.

 

[Hadley]

All Devs should just allow Players to customize the Age of Characters. Problem solved.

 

[gamersglory]

You are only subject to the laws of the place *you* are located, of course, you still have to consider that whatever content you produce must be hosted somewhere and the laws of that place also enter into consideration by association. Like Patreon is subject to US laws, so any content hosted there will have the same rules, and they may refuse your stuff if it's against their law. On the creator side, if they make loli and set their game in a place where that's allowed, they will still get in trouble if their local laws are against it.

As a developer, you are subject to the laws anywhere your game is available and if your home country has an extradition agreement in place with one that charges you with something then you have very few options. Also using Patreon and subscribestar you are subject to US law same if you publish on steam

 

[Zippity]

I think people here are missing the obvious, that being the depiction of a under age character can fall into ********** if its sexualized.

That created a issue of "overusing" because sure, you can make a game about people in their 20-30's and that is not entire uncommon either, the problem is if you want to write about relationships as someone in that age already have a social circle as someone that is younger is forming his social circle and also one thing is having it set in high school and another in collage, there are different group dynamics involved.

I dont think its "overused", its common on Japanese games because often they are set during their late high school years as they entering adulthood and people that play then know its BS (and sometimes lampshaded) because they are 16-17 but still since thats legally enforced they are 18, in western games that is not really being that common but, personal opinion here, this because western games tend to make their characters into glamorous playboy pornstars that are in their early-mid 20's.

The over use of younger looking characters in Japanese Visual Novels and so forth came about more as a Japanese cultural thing... Had nothing to do with western culture... It's not always viewed by Japanese within Japan, in the same manner as the rest of the worlds cultures view their use... It's sort of an unfair comparison just because that particular culture uses young characters in so many things, not just erotic content...

Western cultures are more influenced by the entertainment and media industry as a whole, beyond Japanese culture influence... Always bombarded with concepts designed to sell items and make profits over showing what is actually true...

We really didn't even see much of Japanese Entertainment culture influencing the western cultures much (beyond technology based items) till the advent of stuff like Pokemon Cards, Dragon Ball Z, Power Rangers, and other forms of Japanese styled entertainment as it began to become popular, and it sort of just blew up from there into what we see today... Prior to those particular influences, it was kind of only watched and looked for, by the nerd culture or underground sectors of western society's entertainment sectors... Japanimation began to slowly creep into our living rooms and lives before that, but it still was not what you would call pop-culture... Most Japanimation was only viewable in places like Table Top Gaming Conventions in the video viewing rooms, or at the local Table Top Gaming store on VHS stuck in a dusty corner of the store, or from a poor quality bootleg copy someone had (i.e. shows like Robotech and Voltron or later with shows like Bao/Vampire Hunter D/Akira/etc)... Prior to that, all we had were things like old Godzilla movies, and a small number of other low budget imported Japanese Monster Movies, being shown late at night or on shows like Elvira Mistress of the Dark... Yet even then, it wasn't a pop-culture item... Mostly relegated to a small sect of western entertainment seekers...

Zip