Well, the first part I'd imagine is a result primarily of differing social mores between most of Europe and North America. The latter of which tends to freak out a bit more over the depiction of a bare breast, for example. Plus, as far as I know PEGI and the ESRB are two separate entities charged with rating games based on their local social values. Most games at either end of the scale (suitable for everyone, only suitable for adults), will probably receive equivalent ratings from both organization, but the stuff in the middle will be more iffy.
And as far as the second part - I'd imagine the lower rating on the PEGI website was back from the original release of the game, where you were a hero fighting crime; but with CoV and later where you perpetrate the crimes, it warranted a higher age range. And the Website just never updated the rating on CoH to reflect the fact that it and CoV are now one and the same.
"My inner mind has become a reality-cracking overgod. He torments me! Help!"
Maybe the PEGi rating is trying to account for the online experience, which ESRB doesnt...
I don't suffer from altitis, I enjoy every minute of it.
Thank you Devs & Community people for a great game.
So sad to be ending ):
Actually after six and a half years, multiple different releases/expansions and all the different international organizations involved I think I would have been surprised if all the listed ratings for all these things would have been exactly the same at this point. *shrugs*
That's the basic fallacy of "relying" on these kinds of rating systems as 100% accurate.
At best I would consider them rough guidelines, not fixed in stone classifications.
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
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I recently looked up the ratings for CoX, out of personal interest, and it all seems a bit odd to me. As far as I can tell, it's rated T (13+) in the US. In Germany, it's been further downgraded to 12+. In the rest of Europe, it's PEGI 16, which is a pretty huge difference! (The PEGI 16 rating corresponds to "crime, violence, sex, drugs, and language of a level you can expect in real life".)
Just to further complicate things, all the splash screens for the EU versions of CoH, CoV and GR, all display the PEGI 16 icon, but the actual PEGI website lists CoH specifically as PEGI 12, and all the later issues at PEGI 16.
I'm curious about the somewhat inconsistent ratings.