It's the age of do-it-yourself game ratings

Increasingly, video games give players the ability to fine-tune their experience in a way that TV shows and movies still can't.

In games such as "Gears of War," players can turn on filters that remove the mature language found in the game's dialogue and the blood and gore that fills the game. You're still shooting the game's monstrous Locust and Lambent. But the sprays of blood and the ability to blast an enemy into bloody chunks of meat is removed.

The result is a much-tamer depiction of violence against fictional creatures. So does the game deserve a second, filters-on rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB)?

"Ultimately, we feel our rating should reflect the most extreme content possible, regardless of whether filters can eliminate or diminish some of that content," said ESRB spokesman Eliot Mizrachi. "Having a secondary 'filters on' rating would not only be potentially confusing for parents that are unaware of those settings, but may not provide those parents assurance in terms of avoiding their child's exposure to certain content since these filters aren't usually lockable and can typically be switched off by the player."

Mature filters have been around in "Gears of War" since the first game hit the Xbox 360 in 2006, but initially there was some debate over whether to include the option.

Some in its developer's studio worried that including the filters would mean they were no longer staying true to their "creative vision," said Rod Fergusson, Epic Games' director of production. Ultimately, he said, they decided that wasn't the case and that including them had some benefits.

"Yes, in our minds the game is a better experience without filtering, but it's still a great game with filtering turned on," he said. "And, at the end of the day, if these types of filters mean that a larger number of players get to experience our game, then it is certainly worth the effort."

That first "Gears of War" had only a single option for "extreme content." Turning it on cut down on the game's gore and mature language. In "Gears of War 2," the developers decided to break that into two filters.

"It seems a number of people are OK with chainsawing monsters from the underground but would prefer not to hear swearing while doing it," Fergusson said.

In "Gears of War 3," the two filters returned. While the gore filter hasn't really changed since the original game, Fergusson says the language filters have.

"In 'Gears 1,' we called it 'Extreme Content' because we really only filtered out the harshest of words," he said. "In 'Gears 2' and now 'Gears 3,' we've increased the number of words we filter to make it more acceptable to a broader audience."

Giving players the ability to experience the game the way they want to isn't quite as simple as bleeping out a few words. Because the filters can be turned on or off, the process is more complex.

Silence isn't a substitute

Even the static sound players hear when a word is filtered was debated.

"Initially, we tried the traditional bleep but it seemed to do more harm than good," he said. "Instead of the filter hiding the mature language, the bleep would give it more attention. In fact, in some cases you would replace the bleeped word in your mind with a word much stronger than what was actually written."

The team's audio director, Mike Larson, suggested trying to blend it more, by either using blanks or simply playing radio static, so it felt more like it was part of the world, he said. So now when you run into filtered foul language in the game it sounds like a radio is on the fritz and you hear static.

To decide what words to filter the team starts with a list based on current TV standards for acceptable language. The team then goes through all of the possible bad language and discusses whether each word needs to be filtered.

"We can't simply remove it because in video games the blood is not only a visual effect, it's also an essential feedback mechanism to tell the player whether they're being successful or not," Fergusson said. "Beyond removing the appearance of blood, the gore filter will also prevent bodies from breaking apart or into chunks."

That means if you try to pull the arm off a Locust in "Gears of War 3" and the filter is on, you'll punch the creature in the face instead. If you try to chainsaw or shoot an enemy up close with a shotgun, they will die, but they won't be blown to bloody bits.

While "Gears of War" isn't the only video game series that allows players to filter out mature language, gore or both, it's still not seen in a lot of mature games.

"We, at Epic, feel that these filtering options are worth the effort to give the customer the experience he or she wants," Fergusson said.

That includes the people working at Epic, too.