What is considered as "gratuitous violence"?

[AC Question]

In the publishing guidelines of Google Play, what constitutes "gratuitous violence" exactly?

Hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to make a racing game where you can run over people to get extra points, would it be considered as "gratuitous violence"? What if I changed the people into zombies? Does the amount of blood and gore do any difference? What is the maximum amount of violence I can put in the game and still be allowed a spot on the Play store?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. As we are not affiliated with Google, we cannot give a concrete answer. However, I would think that even if you changed the people to zombies, like you said, it would still be considered violent.

Perhaps if you looked at what defines the video game ratings, that might help, as I think Google is going to follow those more closely in the near future.

 

[flicker0x7]

Are you using the old rating system or the new one? They recently rolled out a new system where you're asked a series of questions and get your rating at the end. Maybe it would give you a more detailed overview when you come to that question.

 

[Lethegames]

Gratuitous violence probably refers to violence for the sake of violence, no reason behind it. You are not a hero defending your village from raiders, nor anything like that.

 

[TypeOverride]

Important is if
a) you kill human-like things or not. (human-like or animal)
b) are there consequences when you kill someone or not (rewards or consequences)

if there is gore it doesnt matter. The points above is making the game 18+ anyway.
With gore and animals (question about reallife-animals or not) you can get a 16+ rating in some countries, but animals doesnt cut in so much.

When you are getting points by killing human-like things and you are getting rewards for this, your game is getting 18+ for sure. But it depends on the country what rating you are getting for the specific country.

You have to check out the new rating system.