Penny Arcade's ESRB Campaign

Gamespot reports on the official unveiling of Penny Arcade's ESRB ad campaign. Announced previously on their site, and discussed again today, the images are intended to connect up the ratings brand with the average gamer. From the article: "The ESRB ads will not make use of Penny Arcade's existing stable of characters, choosing instead to focus on original characters designed by the comic's creators. The first two ads (pictured) will depict E-rated audiences with Sarah, a pink-haired girl 'around age seven or eight,' and The Andersons, a father-and-son pair enjoying a game together."

Comments

Aww, maaannn...

[PSXer]

The ESRB ads will not make use of Penny Arcade's existing stable of characters

That's too bad. The Fruit Fucker would be perfect for AO rated games.

Just couldnt let it slide...

[Lord Bitman]

That they said "almost" all news sites he went to had mentioned it..

Re:Just couldnt let it slide...

[moranar]

I submitted this when it first appeared in their site. The story was rejected. Go figure.

Targeted Ads in Magazines

[RedMagus77]

Considering the brand of humor used for PA, I think these ads actually have a chance of meaning something to the audience. Still waiting for the R and AO ads to appear in Playboy and Hustler though.

Re:Targeted Ads in Magazines

[skreeech]

Yeah I want to see what the higher ratings ads are like. The ones released I guess are E and T

Re:Targeted Ads in Magazines

[twistedsymphony]

Actually they're Both E... the raiting appears to the left of the picture... though it could be more obvious I missed it at first glace too.

Yeah right.

[fuzzyfozzie]

This is going to work about just as well as the "Drink Responsibly" commercials.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Make no mistake about it.

[Sheetrock]

The problem isn't about whether people are sufficiently aware of ESRB ratings. Movies have had ratings for decades, TV shows have a box in the upper left corner, CDs still come with 'Parental Advisory' stickers on them, and every game I've purchased in at least the last five years has had an ESRB rating on it. If you've got any concern about content (besides books) you're aware.

The problem is that there are folks out there who want nobody to be able to consume content they deem objectionable. There is no middle ground or acceptable compromise for them. We've got chips in every TV out there and now in just about every gaming console but that's simply not good enough. Run all the advertising campaigns you want, it doesn't matter because they're irrelevant to the people causing the fuss.

Re:Make no mistake about it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Run all the advertising campaigns you want, it doesn't matter because they're irrelevant to the people causing the fuss.

On the contrary. The thing is, the USA is a democracy. The important thing is what the people think, because it's the people who hold the power. Therefore, the ESRB doesn't have to convince Jack Thompson that its ratings are working. It just has to convince the masses that Jack Thompson is wrong, and then it won't matter what Jack Thompson thinks, because nobody will listen to him.

At the very least, this advertising campaign will balance the record a bit, and dilute Thompson's ravings with enough truth that many who would have been swayed by Thompson's lies will now go back to being safely apathetic.

(Yes, I italicise words a lot. Irritating, isn't it? :P)

Re:Make no mistake about it.

[RsG]

I don't think it's the Jackass Thompsons of the world that this is aimed at.

Look at it this way - parents understand what rated "R" means, because they themselves watch movies. They often don't understand what rated "M" means, because they've never played games. There are obviously exceptions (and I'm sure someone will post in a minute that they're a parent and also play games), but of course the people who play the games aren't the ones who support fucktards like Thompson.

I've seen plenty of examples of parents buying games for their kids without checking the labels on them. At a guess those parents are the ones who simply aren't aware of the ESRB, and will go on to complain loudly to anyone who will listen that nobody told them that Gorefest 2K wasn't appropriate for a five year old. THESE are the people who need ad campaigns and efforts to raise their awareness of the ESRB labels. They are part of the problem, but unlike the puritans, they're a problem that can be solved.

The puritans, the ones who want to ban anything that they don't like, can go fuck themselves. They can't dictate what other people play, read or watch without running up against the first amendment (or other free speach provisions in other democratic countries). They're a hopeless lot, so we might as well just try and ignore their shrill wailing.

It's the people who are only interested in their own children, the ones who are rational, who need this kind of education. And if they take responsibility for screening their kids games, then the idiots like Jack Thompson will lose their only credible support base.

Re:Make no mistake about it.

[Breakfast Pants]

Unfortunately for your point, these comics don't describe the letter system at all.

Re:Make no mistake about it.

[RsG]

True, but the person I was replying to was reffering to efforts to educate the public about the ESRB in general. His point was that educating them won't help sway the puritans (who are by and large complete idiots to begin with); my point was that it isn't the puritans who need to be swayed, it's the moderates (who often do not know of the ESRB). The comics are a part of a whole. The ESRB knows that it needs to make more people aware of what it does, and it's good to see them doing something about it.

Re:Make no mistake about it.

[SySOvErRiDe]

Unfortunately for your point, these comics don't describe the letter system at all.

I disagree. Although we haven't seen the M or AO rated yet, I think the idea of the comic is to present each character for each rating. These characters (and the way they are portrayed) are supposed to present to the viewer the age group the particular rating is for, and perhaps even why.

There are explanations on the posters themselves (it was designed to be on magazines so people would turn turn the page around to read the text). E for example, has this to say:

Because the Andersons play games, there's a system in place to make sure they bring home the right ones. This is how that system works: First, Mom and Dad select games using the ratings on the box. Step two, everyone gets a controller. Step three, the kids win. This quality time is presented by the ESRB.

Re:Make no mistake about it.

[SquadBoy]

Also one of the things that I found interesting is that if you read the text for the "Andersons" ad. It stresses that parents should be involved in *all* stages of the game, to include being beaten by their kids. I think the message that you can't read the rating then ignore the rest of the process is important. Now I'm enough of a misanthrope to assume that this message will be ignored. But I think putting the message that there is more to the process than the ratings is important. And who knows I might just be wrong and some folks might grow a clue. I've seen odder things.

Uhh..

[SocialEngineer]

"We don't expect to ever be considered cool among gamers, but at the very least we want gamers to understand the purpose we serve," she continued. "After all, many of them will be parents one day, at which time we expect they will be far more appreciative of the tools we provide."

If by "many" you mean "one or two".

Re:Uhh..

[Jtheletter]

If by "many" you mean "one or two".

I sure hope there's two involved! Cloning ain't quite ready yet. ;)

Re:Uhh..

[mmalove]

Soooo, in my circle of gaming friends, 4 are parents, one's only 19 but gets more ass than a toilet seat, and one's the typical 24 year old virgin. I think your connection between gamer and cool is a bit dated.

nice art

[mgabrys_sf]

HIDDEOUS typography.

I'm sorry - you can't ask people to work to read something and expect any decent peneration. Great design - but lousy awareness building. This isn't design for design's sake - you have to do the basic legwork and then go from there. If you can't make it readable - go back to rasterbation, because it's poor design.

Turn the page around?

[Feltpants]

"The idea is that kids will actually be turning the page around in order to read the text" . I cant see kids actually doing this, kinda seems like a gimmick to me. Too much effort to take in adverstising ..

Re:Turn the page around?

[Soybean47]

A kid who's too lazy to rotate his or her magazine 45 degrees is too lazy to have picked up the magazine in the first place. "What? You have to turn the pages yourself? There isn't, like, a button for that?"

Re:Turn the page around?

[Anonymous Coward]

i thut kdz culdnt rd stf thtz nt rtn lik ths nywy.

Re:ESRB Misses the Point

[MachDelta]

Because they bought their innocent 17-year-old a game full of occult references and blood or drug references and racism... but no one told them it had breasts!

Heh, reading this really struck a chord with me tonight. I went and saw The Omen in theatres with some friends (summary: It sucked. BADLY. Don't even bother renting it).
Now this is a movie rife with references to the occult (the little boy is literally the SPAWN OF SATAN), and littered with BRUTAL death scenes. We're talkin one guy getting impaled by a 7 foot metal rod and then being pelted with shards of stained glass. Another guy is literally decapitated (spurting blood and all) and then you watch his body tumble down a flight of stairs. Wanna know what the movie is rated up here in Alberta (Canada)? 14a. That means a 14 year old can walk in, buy a ticket, and watch the movie. Kids under 14 only need an adult to accompany them. Fourteen! Gruesome murders at 14?! There's not a lick of swearing (I don't even remember hearing somuch as a "damn", which is odd given the context) or flash of nudity (five seconds of Julia Stiles nekkid ass would have made the film tolerable. Oh well), because oh dear me those things are just too mature for a fourteen year old. But excessively violent death? Sure, go ahead kid.
WTF?!

Anyways, just had to chip that in after being slapped in the face with it tonight. I'm kinda split on the whole thing myself. More power to the ESRB if its going to stop stupid laws and all that kinda thing... but at the same time, honestly, these "rating" systems we've got right now are pretty fucked up. It makes me think... Is supporting something stupid so it can prevent more stupid... well, stupid?

Re:ESRB Misses the Point

[ElleyKitten]

The dumb thing about it is that it's directed at gamers (according to the first link in the summary). Don't gamers already know about the ESRB? And even if there's some that don't, wouldn't they just play the games before their kids to know if it was ok, and if they don't have kids does it really matter if they learn about the ESRB? It's non-gaming parents who don't realize there's games more violent than Tetris that need to be educated, not gamers. Although, appearently this campaign is pushing the "OK to Play" campaign out of the game magazines and into mainstream magazines, which is just great. The other day I was looking at a women's fitness magazine, and there was a full page ad for the DS! Anything to kill the stereotype of us gamers as anti-social freaks hiding in our parents' basements is excellent.

Gamers need reminding of the ESRB's role

[L-Train8]

The reason it is directed at gamers is because, at least according to a lot of internet rants I've read (hey, some are even in this thread!), gamers hate the ESRB. Yes the ESRB is flawed, arbitrary, sometimes manipulated for commericial purposes. By reminding people that 6-year-old girls play games too, it might clue in the people who are so quick to cry censorship and see only the bad things about the ESRB.

Today's gamer demographic is much more diverse that it was 20 years ago. Game content is as diverse as movies. The twentysomething male gamer doesn't have to worry about it, but a lot of parents only have the ESRB to tell the difference between harmless kiddie games like NickToons, or something like Ratchet and Clank, which has cute cartoon animals on the cover and lots of shooting and blowing things up in the game. Sometimes our age group forgets that, and this campaign is to remind us.