A mature rating on a game has very little bearing as to whether I'll like the game or not. But I can say that a game that is rated mature at least won't be full of flowers and bunnies, which is a plus for me. Since I'm an adult, ratings mean nothing to me, but I can understand their necessity for parents who want to shield their kids from questionable content.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with an occasional naked boob or butt showing up in a game, even for kids. I actually see it as more offensive to show women dressed slutty and over-endowed, like most Japanese games portray females. I also see nothing wrong with mild violence as far as kids are concerned, except when it comes to over-the-top gore. Yes, blatant pron and gore should be kept away from kids as they can be traumatic or have detrimental effects on their mental growth and ideals, but you can't shield kids from real-life occurrences forever, and if you over-protect them from such things, they won't be prepared for real-life when they come of age. I don't know where they pulled the age of 17 from in terms of maturity, but I think a kid of 16 should be mature enough to handle most of the things most religions and government zealots get all worked up over. It's a delicate balance that, in America anyway (don't know about other countries), is all out of whack.
But on the flip-side, I am entirely sick and tired of cutesy/flower-and-bunny/fluffy-foo-foo little kiddie games and would like some games that are a little more serious with the content than what we've been getting. They don't have to have tons of violence or cartoon nudity to be good, just not so sickeningly cutesy with the super-deformed characters and talking animals and whatnot. There needs to be some balance. You know, I always thought the Japanese held "balance" in high regard.....guess not.
