While I would never dream of accusing anyone on these forums of maturity Bioware does seem to like throwing around the terms Dark and Mature when describing the Dragon Age series, so what do these terms mean in relationship to Dragon Age Inquisition and how does the Dragon Age series qualify?
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I think Mature is mostly looking at a particular topic from an in depth, intellectual and perhaps philosophical perspective. As such, almost any topic can be portrayed as mature, I feel. A hypothetical example I often use in threads where this topic comes up is an in depth look at a friendship between two characters that has its ups and downs based on a variety of external and internal events, in what ways that friendship is positive and in what ways, if any, that friendship is actually a source of negative.
I do feel it's gotten to a point where there's groups that expect "mature" to basically mean uncomfortable topics. Whenever I see a topic about mature themes (on any forum, not just ours), I can typically predict that that means the topic will be mostly about violence, sex, rape, incest, racism, and sexism. These topics are often dark, but I also often find they are often don't really make a story any more mature simply with their inclusion. That depends on how their inclusion is handled.
I also think that for some people, explicitly seeing it (rather than just knowing it exists) is required as a form of shock. Almost a slap in the face of "yup, this is mature." If all the sexual underpinnings of Game of Thrones was removed from explicitly being on film, but we knew it still happened, does it really make the story less mature? I don't think so. But I think there are definitely people that disagree with me. If rape exists but we, as the player, don't actually see it, then it feels muted and in the words of some even unrealistic or sheltered. I always find this perspective somewhat startling since I've never seen such acts occur in real life, though I know they exist and I recognize them as being bad things. Perhaps this is a statement of our ability to disassociate our reality from those we experience in media.
I'm definitely not someone that needs to see an act like that to feel it's a requirement of being mature (or even dark), really.
Rape. Not exactly the kind of subject you talk to toddlers about on their birthdays. Its something usually discussed between adults. As an adult, you've had some time to experience many different things, those things imparting sense, knowledge, and the wisdom capable of discussing a topic like that. So rape, as a subject matter, can be seen as naturally a "mature" subject.
I think that's reasonable enough. Although since the topic itself need not be portrayed in any sort of mature fashion, I think it's more of a reflection that the topic is dark rather than innately mature. (Philosophical aside: if the topic was innately mature, could it be presented in an immature way?) In this sense, yeah a degree of maturity is required to process a topic, but I think that's more just how a developed person is able to process and understand uncomfortable things.
Things like sex, violence, and so forth are rated for older audiences because there's a degree of being able to understand what you are experiencing is fiction, as well as an understanding that the behaviours that are occurring violate a society's norms/mores. A movie like Predator isn't really a mature movie (though I do enjoy it as it is fun). It has lots of shocking imagery, however, that could frighten a child however. In that sense, I'll go "OOOHHHH!!!" when Carl Weathers gets his arm shot off and I can go "heh heh heh, that was awesome." But it's not really mature, even though the movie is rated mature. I'm just capable of recognizing that it's fantasy and am at a point where the imagery doesn't actually cause things like nightmares and so forth.
In terms of wanting to consume mature content, however, a movie like Shawshank Redemption doesn't explicitly show Andy getting raped like say, American History X. Both are well done movies and showing dark scenes can work for invoking a sense of empathy with the character, but Shawshank is a very mature movie and not slighted in the least because Andy's fights with the sister's are mostly off camera.
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