Of course, they'll have opportunities to play it at friends' houses.
"I like the ratings. The "M" rating convinced my wife Halo 2 is not appropriate for our kids."
Actually, that's another problem with the ratings - they don't distinguish very well.
Halo 2 is rated "M" because you kill a bunch of aliens who are trying to destroy the universe and because one type of enemy looks extremely grotesque.
GTA, in contrast, has you killing numerous innocents and police officers, while also including massive sexual content that is absent in Halo 2.
Now, I'm not saying that Halo shouldn't be rated "M" for its violence, but GTA should certainly be rated as worse than Halo (maybe a gaming version of NC-17).
Ratings just don't seem to care about sex - just about violence - and don't seem to distinguish between defensive violence and violence against innocents. Really, I think they should have separate ratings for sex and violence.
Another case of this would be comparing R-rated war movies like Black Hawk Down to the many steamy PG-13 movies out there - which of these movies do you think is worse?
Halo and Halo2 are the ONLY M-rated games I let my kids play. I disagree with the M-rating for those two games. Sure, there's a lot of gunfire and explosions, but that's the fun of the game. Then there's a little bit of neon blue/green alien blood when you kill a baddie. Kind of cartoonish, so OK. If a human gets killed, there's a little spray of red on the ground or wall. Not bad.
I'm VERY selective about what TV shows and movies my kids watch and very selective about the games they play. Halo and Halo2 passed the test and my 9-year-old daughter and her 10-year-old brother finished Halo2 in about 3 days. I watched them do most of it. Besides the limited blood and a little bit of PG-rated language, the game was just fine.
If it was rated like a movie, I would give it a light PG-13 and I've let my kids watch a handful of those depending upon the content. R-rated movies are not permitted nor would a game that would earn an R-rating. Halo and Halo2 would not, in my opinion.
If you don't believe me, play it yourself for a while. Buy it from a store that would let you sell it back if you don't like it. Sure, you won't get what you paid for it but at least all your money wouldn't be wasted. My bet is that you'll approve it for your kids to play.