ESRB Survey Fights Back Against Criticism

Thanks to GameInfoWire for the press release showing the Entertainment Software Rating Board's attempts to deflect recent criticism by publishing a new survey claiming that "...parents overwhelmingly approve of the ratings assigned to computer and video games." Following some notable critiques of the ESRB ratings, particularly in relation to the release of gory stealth action title Manhunt, an independent ESRB-commissioned study "...showed 400 randomly selected parents footage from popular computer and video games... an overwhelming majority of the time (84%), parents agreed with the ESRB ratings [for those games] or thought the ratings were too strict."

Comments

Strict ESRB

[Zevets]

I think the ESRB is way to strict. The article says that 84% of parents agreed with the ESRB, or thought that they were too strict.

On TV there is more blood and violence than some videogames, and TV is free. If you dont want your kids to buy violent videogames, dont give them enough money to afford it.

On the flip side however, Americas Army, which contains M worthy material, blood and guns, recieved a T. It is also free, available for a download by anybody, not even checking their age. Why? Because it is a US Army recruiting tool. Lets face it, we have to indoctrinate our children while they are young.

Your kids will also get their hands on bad games anyway, at a friend house or some other uncontrollable way. And if you wnat to shelter your kids from porn and other forms of sexual entertainment you would have to take away the internet.

So what happens is that once developers realize that they cant have just a smidgen of violence, they turn games into SOF2, which has buckets of gore and blood.

The ESRB is a big fat corrupt organization, designed to give parents a security bubble, when parents should be responsible for thier kids.