ESRB: Iran not 'joining' ratings group

I highly doubt they'll be more open then Austraila. In fact I can pretty much guarantee if you're caught with anything less then an A for Allah rating over there, you can say goodbye to your hand. And that's not me trying to be funny. A very good friend of mine fled that country and that's pretty much the run of the mill over there. Not a blanket statement in any way, but it is certainly how their goverment is run.

In before our redneck Joystiq brethren try to bring terrorism/racism into this.


Also, how do ratings only "apply" to certain countries? Does apply = are things that people pay attention to? We've found that ratings only "apply" to a handful parents here. Furthermore, what's stopping Iranians from caring about ESRB ratings? I didn't get this memo.

Oh noes?

I always wondered why Australia has been so harsh on videogame content, I understand the cultural sensitivity towards violence in Germany and Japan.

Maybe it's just one of those things.

Iran will not seem to care unless they themselves establish the ratings...And with what not going on in the Middle East...I think everyone else over has bigger matters than Video Games.

Iranian ESRB comments in their listings:
"This game not good. No zionist pigs are captured and Israel is not destroyed, but great cartoonish plattforming for children."

Curious to know how big the gaming market in Iran is anyways. Do they play Western FPS games?

If they want game ratings they have to rebuild the World Trade Center >:(

I am one of the Persian People

All of Your Comments Are Wrong, We Paly all of Games.
FPS is The Most Popular Mode in Iran. The Price of Games in Iran IS Only 5$ !! We Are Not Arab & all Persian People Hates Arabian People, 40% of Iranian Have Both of PS3 & X360. We HAve 7000 Years Civilization & regulations of Our Great ( Cyrus The Great ) IS in the UN,

Hey People!calm down "Please read this"
all of these are wrong!We are big fans of Video Games!
Most of us have PC,PS3&X360(most of us have X360 not PS3)
besides, iranians are so pro in most of online games esp. WarcraftIII , Counter Strike , (Star Craft is not popular here), C&C Generals(ZH) , and COD4 but most of us play it Lan cause of the internet speed.
The bad thing is that we use Copy games they're cheep but we can't play them online(it have an exeption we play the original WOW)
And about the government I must say that more than 90% of us don't admit our government we are not that religious that you think most of us want a change in the Government but I don't think it would be possible soon.
And as the another one said , we have a glorious history.

so don't judge without educations.

thanks for your time

hey guys,
please cut this crap.
I don't give comments about other cultures and will not allow anyone else to talk trash about mine,
we're living in Iran,
I am living in Iran,
it's not malaysia or makka to be harsh about peoples beliefs,
I am a game reviewer myself, I'm writing topics about music and movies in my own internet site.
and there's no one to atop me from what I'm doing. cause I'm not doing something wrong and government knows that.
to make this brighter, I lived my life with video games.
be sure that nearly 20 million PS2 consoles has been sold in Iran!
it's not the gamers, it's the parents and the government you see.
the government unfortunately doesn't understand most of the things, and this is the way of the world :
"No one is in the right place"
and it's not restricted to Iran. some said about australia, and there are so many countries with worse government appeal,
but thanx to piracy,
government can't stop us from playing what we play!

@Haggard

True...But games never have a direct message spitting out at you and I do not think there are alot of people concerned with dissecting a game and starting a revolution from it. There are already alot of individuals who feel unsteady view of the government but I think the Islamic Fundamentalist behind the curtain would be burning books right now and not the Arabs and Americans facing off in COD4.

@lego91994

"or situation that involves guns or terrorist organizations"...If I have not been watching TV and knowing that the Middle East is not a pleasant place to stroll threw and that much of the attention and effect the US and everyone else is making for each other. Then you must have some secret news source where everyone relays ground information to. There might not be alot fighting but that does not mean any side is not carrying a gun in hand preparing for whatever happens. Nor does it mean that any country does not have some form of terrorist or radical militant group.

Some of you guys seem to make to want games to take a precedence over reality...

Sora, It's true games in Iran are like $2-5 but they are pretty much all bootlegs. I'm persian and my cousins live in Iran. Iran has very strict rules but surprisingly there are many gamers there that play games such as counterstrike. But nobody buys the games at full price because anti game piracy isn't enforced at all. In Iran some people have iPhones but not many have 360's and ps3's due to region locking and It's not available in Iran. Most people still play ps2 games or PC games

if i lived in iran the last thing on my mind would be video games

and another thing, you think wrong about the condition of iran there is no terrorism or war in iran, people carry guns in iran?!it was so funny to

I'm a Game Reviewer from iran, in our country PS3 is Popular than the X360 but many of Iranian gamer Play Western Games ( Like Gears of War 2, Little Big Planet ) . the most Popular Company in iran is Ubisoft & The most popular game is WOW !! But anti game piracy isn't enforced. our generation is Arian & we speak farsi ( not arabic ) You Must know we are not arab & all of Persian people hates arabian people, all of your news about iran are wrong because there is no War in iran & We are not terrorist ! you must know about 90% of iranian people wants too change the governments.

Isn't it time for Iran to get bombed?

I didn't realise Joystiq had a large Iranian readership =] I also think it would probably be better for Iran to implement their own ratings system so it can be better applied to all of them, instead of piggybacking someone elses, but still any voluntary rating system is good news; stop spreading the "evil videogames" rumours.

It's been done,
It's called ESRA!
I sure hoped that they use more creativity!
but this is it..
Iran's own game rating,