THE RATING SYSTEM EXPLAINED! By Roland Lowery ---------------------------- Okay, by now I'm sure you've noticed that some of the ratings under the stories on my page have now turned into links. Where do this links go, you ask? Well, to an expanded explination of why I gave that story that rating. It works thusly. Each rating is split up into four categories. Profanity, Violence, Sex/Nudity, and Drugs/Alcohol. Each of these are rated on a scale of 0 to 10, 10 being worst. For example, here's a sample list for the stages of Violence. 0 - No violence. Everything is happy cuddly. 1 - Might be some violence, but it's hardly worth mentioning, and it probably happens "off-screen" anyway. Someone probably pinched someone else or something. 2 - Something scary happens. Your little sibling might get mildly scared, but you've seen worse on Sesame Street. 3 - A few scrapes and bruises, maybe a hair pulling fight, but still nothing major. 4 - Fist fight! Fist fight! 5 - Ever read Goosebumps? About as graphically violent as that. 6 - There may be a gun fight or two, something like that. 7 - Eek! Someone just got hurt! A broken arm, I think. And they got shot in the foot, too. Bummer. 8 - Oof. More than one person got hurt this time. Think of a brawl with knives and stuff. 9 - Guns blazing, shrapnel flying, stuff blowing up . . . your typical action/adventure flick. 10 - An ultra-death anime on steroids. People get killed, stuff explodes for no reason, mass destruction, zombies roam Mobius and eat peoples' brains . . . y'know, the regular. This is not a static list, of course. For example, if there IS a gun fight (and there will be where SWATbots are involved, I'm sure) but it's not too bad, I'll probably still give it a 2 or 3 or something. Maybe even a 1 if it's the only such scene in the entire story. 0 is the ONLY rating that has a definite meaning attached to it, as in there is NO Profanity, Violence, or what not in the story whatsoever. Now, below each rating there will be a small kinda bar graph made out of I's. Yah, I'm cheap and don't want to take the time to get actual bar graphs, okay? ;] Anyway, each I is one point on the rating scale. This is just to help people who don't want to bother with look at the numbers . . . just get a quick glance to get the idea and move on to the story. Below THAT is the description of Profanity, Violence, or whatnot. For example, if Sonic says "damn", kicks a SWATbot's head off, takes off his shoes, and then takes an asprin, I would put a 1 on each rating category, then under the bar graph write stuff like "Sonic says a mild curse word", "A SWATbot loses its head", "Sonic removes his shoes", and "Over the counter drugs are taken in a perscribed manner". Finally, underneath the entire thing will once again be the overall rating, whatever it was. Overall ratings are as follows. G - General Audiences. Anyone who can read can read these. PG - Parental Guidance. Might have a little bad stuff in it, but nothing you wouldn't see on free network TV. PG-13 - Parental Guidance, suitable for persons over the age of 13. If yer under 13, you can probably read it, but it ain't really reccomended for you kiddies. R - Restricted. Yup, this is the one with profuse profanity, explicit sex/nudity, graphic violence, open use of drugs/alcohol and/or any other really nasty stuff. Generally restricted to those over the age of 18. X - Hah! As if. This is the REALLY disgusting stuff . . . rated R on steroids. If'n you think that I'm going to posting ANY of THIS stuff on my webpage, you're out of your gourd. So, a basic rating will look like this: ---------------------------------- Some Story Profanity: (2) II Mild cursing by Robotnik. Violence: (5) IIIII Sonic destroys a squad of SWATbots, Bunnie's roboticized arm is destroyed and has to be replaced, Robotnik tosses Snively around. Sex/Nudity: (0) 0 None. Drugs/Alcohol: (3) III Nack smokes two cigarrettes, Sally takes some headache medicine. Overall Rating: PG ---------------------------------- Please remember that these ratings are my own opinion and do not relect the opinion of the authors of the stories. If you ARE an author of one of the stories on my page and you disagree with the rating I gave your story (or stories), then e-mail me at the address below so we can talk it over. Thank you for your time and patience. Roland Lowery