I could be wrong, but I can't help but feel that throughout this whole Manhunt 2 fiasco people have missed the point. Personally, I don't see a problem with having an Adults-Only rating category for video games. I believe the ESRB when they declared that Manhunt 2 deserves this rating. Manhunt 2 is a game for adults, or those over 18. No big deal! So, the game received the correct rating. The problem is not the rating system, then.

The problem is that retailers, and console manufacturers refuse to allow adult games to be sold or published. If EB Games, Gamestop, Sony, Nintendo and other major companies involved in the video game industry in one way or another would embrace adult games, just as the film industry has embraced R-rated movies for so many years now, we would not have a problem.

AO-rated games could be sold through normal retailers, and anyone who looked under-age could be asked for ID just as Blockbuster does (or should do) when you rent or purchase an R-rated movie.

The real problem is that the majority of people don't understand video games. And, as we all know, people fear what they don't understand. Politicians and people in power are not gamers like you or I, however I'd bet money on the fact that every single one of them has watched an R-rated TV show or movie at some point, and enjoyed it. Adult-rated games are a relatively new form of entertainment, and so it may take non-gamers a long time to understand that they are no different to TV or movies.

Games are entertainment, pure and simple, and you can't censor entertainment to the detriment of the majority for fear that some nut-job may go out and commit a crime just because he saw it on TV, or in a game.