Slashdot Mirror
The ESRB Don't Get No Respect
Via the ffwd linklog, a story on the Hollywood Reporter site discussing the public image of the ESRB, from "pain in the butt" on the developer's side to lax child perverter on the lawmaker's side. From the article: "The issue Greenberg describes is one involving dollars and cents: Almost every single retail chain chooses not to sell 'AO' rated games, period. In just the same way that many movie theaters will not show films branded with an 'NC-17' rating, the 'AO' severely limits a game's distribution, to put it mildly."
No I'm not... I said this when they first implemented this monstrosity back when I was working in the game industry.
"Oh.. we only want to help parents to make an educated CHOICE... we don't want to censor anything."
Look it up, those were the "pro" arguments for such a system.
And now we have attempts at laws to ban shops from even displaying M rated games (unless you go into that back room) and AO is right out.
Meanwhile the game industry is playing the same game as the movie industry is. R rated movies (M games) sell better than the PG stuff.
(Of course that's been changing since the crackdown of theaters to actually ID people for R rated movies... My friend laments that the Ring 2 was PG-13. How scary can it be in PG-13?!)
Not that I'm disparaging parents from making an educated decision. It's a double edged sword.
A rating system no matter how good it is, is not an excuse for poor parenting.
First of all, the ESRB is doing its job. They take a game, and I'm sure they have a tally sheet marking whether games have certain degrees of violence type 1,2, and 3, or whether it has certain degrees of nudity. That's not the issue.
The article paints a picture of "lawmakers vs. ESRB", but it mentions one Republican who is accusing the ESRB of being too light on handing out AOs, and another (Clinton) of launching an investigation into the effects of M games.
Now, read that again. Clinton (and, for that matter, almost every other lawmaker "fighting the good fight") doesn't have a problem with the rating system, they have a problem with the games. The article only has one quote from one senator that thinks the ESRB is not tough enough. Then the article goes on to point out how tough the ESRB is. And the insight they give there is pretty spot-on, espeically the comparisons between the MPAA and the ESRB.
However, the majority of the article is a defense against the first politician's quote, and doesn't really hold water against the other attacks (which are against videogames that have been rated M, not the rating system itself). Besides, it isn't the ESRB's job to ensure that games rated M aren't sold to 17 year olds, it is the retailer's job. And video game (only) retail stores are pretty scuzzy to begin with, especially the chain ones.
How come every other country has managed to launch movies/games with virtually no censor labels. Yet we Americans are the ones with super high crime rates, blaming video games.
The parent is the one responsible for communicating to the kids what's appropriate or not. Not the fucking paper label.
G - Kid's cartoon
PG - Action movie without much violence
R - Movie with enough violence and/or sex to be a concern for children
Do people know what E, T, M mean? Well, I was reading a review of The Incredibles for Gamecube on Amazon. The angry dad reviewer said he wanted to get the game for his kid, but he was upset that it was "Teen" rated. He thought it was inappropriate for a game based on a G Rated movie (of course, The Incredibles was PG, but never mind.).
It's clear that T, in this case, was meant to indicate a PG rated game. Instead, T means an age group. It is more like the "reccomended for kids 8 and up" notes on toys than a movie rating.
Some parents see the system as:
E = games for kids
T = games for thuggy teenagers
M = X-Rated games that should be banned.
So, of course the ERSB gets no respect. They've failed to create a coherent rating system.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
I guess what struck me as amusing was the difference between a game rated M (Mature) and a game rated AO (adult only). For M games, the age range is 17 and up. For AO games, it's 18 and up. It's amazing how in one year we can change from being unable to handle graphic acts of violence and sexual content and then bam, we hit 18 and everything is cool. They do make an interesting point that the content in a movie is not held up to the standards of games because a movie isn't interactive. Which makes sense...sort of. They talk about how AO is sort of a kiss of death for a game title. A lot of stores won't carry them..despite that there is only a +1 to age when compared to M. So game companies have to change a lot of their content to get that M rating. Too bad...I wish they would just sell it AO...adults should be able to make their own choices on how they are entertained. But think of the children...right? I don't know about other people, but I don't want children to dictate my life. Parents and retailers need to be responsible in selling games...it's as simple as that. The whole Clinton study is BS unless they are only doing testing on people 17+. I think the current administration has taken shoving THIER morals down other's throats way too far. It makes me sad to see that the Democrats are jumping on this band wagon too. Agressive and screwed up chidren or going to gravitate to watching violence and playing violent games. It's not the games that make them agressive and screwed up. Does it have some effect? Sure, after playing a racing game, I tend to drive a little faster. After watching power rangers, some kids may play a little more rough. But it's really the parents and community that have a lasting effect on a kid's choices. But in certain cases...the kids are just screwed up. Place the blame on the kids that commit the crimes. There is too much of this "it's X fault" they went astray. Ok...off my soap box...but it drives me nuts. Why aren't the people we put in power intelligent enough to know these simple things? Or do they know this and are they just trying to get re-elected?
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com