My young teenage daughter has asked to play the witcher 3, what is a 18. At the time when she asked, i was like thats awesome game and started to explain some of the back ground story before i checked it was an 18. Trying to remeber some of the reasons for it being a 18.
how young is young?
I am glad games have age ratings on, it allows parents to be more clued in and take control.... however personally i would only use as a guide....
at 14/15 i would have no problem my child playing a game like the witcher, its offline and narrative based. i mean, kids that age watch game of thrones for instance...infact maybe that is a good yardstick, would you let her watch GOT? if yes then the witcher is no worse, if no then, maybe give it a swerve. (GOT is actually more graphic than witcher, mainly because it looks more real, but the over all concepts are similar)
@OspreyO there is absolutely a point to age ratings....... and not sticking to the religiously does not mean you totally ignore them. Parenting is about takign responsibility yourself a lot of the time and making your own calls imo.... the age rating is a guide and one which i support fully. It also passed the responsibility from the games makers to the parents which is a good thing as well.
i must admit i would rather more fine grained limits myself as well, with an X rated level over and above 18.
for instance i would have no problem a teenager playing a game like witcher with a proper narrative but with some adult themes and even some nudity, but for me i would not want the same child playing a game where pornography or gratuitous violence was the primary hook in the game..... but that is my line in the sand, others have different ones and that is ok.