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ESRB Hiring Pro Content Reviewers

Posted by Zonk on from the that-would-get-old-fast dept.

In April of this year, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board will move to using full-time reviewers to determine ratings for game content. With rumblings of 'play the whole game' legislation in the halls of Congress, the organization is pre-empting the problem by having full-time raters. The ESRB's Patricia Vance commented on the project: 'Having full-time raters will allow for each one to have greater experience actually reviewing content and recommending ratings ... this would provide each rater with a greater sense of historical parity for ratings, not to mention helping them to be more attuned to pertinent content and how it should be considered from a ratings standpoint. The full-time raters would also be responsible for play-testing final versions of the game, time permitting, which would allow for ESRB to play-test a greater number of games than it currently does.'

5 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Good friggin luck by Sciros · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well perhaps their full-time testers will get an MMO pretty soon here, and maybe one of those 90+ hour RPGs to boot. That should keep them busy while other games continue getting however little playtime they do.

    Then again, supposing 85 hours into a game that was rated Teen there is some nude ninja combat (M-rated), does the ESRB get in any trouble for that? If not, then they can just decide on some "max time played" for a game (say, 20 hours, i.e. ~4 days' worth of a full-time employee's "clean playing time") and that will be fine.

    --
    I like basketball!!1!
    1. Re:Good friggin luck by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

      Then again, supposing 85 hours into a game that was rated Teen there is some nude ninja combat (M-rated), does the ESRB get in any trouble for that? No, but the game publisher gets in trouble for defrauding ESRB. The ratings contract states that with each game, the publisher shall provide a video of the strongest sexual, violent, and drug-related content on the disc.
    2. Re:Good friggin luck by amuro98 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      After Hot Coffee, I'm assuming that "game play" must include easter eggs.

      However, I can remember in one of the SimCity games, if you typed in a profanity 3 times, suddenly the game would start building churches everywhere as a punishment.

      Now then, does this mean SimCity suddenly gets hit with a "T" rating instead of "E"?

      What about other sandbox games, like The Sims? Sure, you could be nice and build a nice house for your Sims. or you could be cruel, and lock them in a room with no food or bathroom just to watch them die. Does this mean The Sims is "E", "T", or "M"? After all, I'm sure if you made a movie about a sadistic villian torturing his victims to death, it certainly wouldn't be rated "G"...

      Another example would be Roller Coaster Tycoon. I had a rollercoaster of mine malfunction, causing the train to jump the tracks, and fly over my park while the riders screamed in terror until they crashed into the ground and exploded. So if the game allows for death - if you were so inclined - does that make it a "M" game?

      (side note: no matter how many times I fixed that rollercoaster, it always sent its riders to their doom. after a crash, obviously no one wanted to ride it, but each time I "fixed" it, it was the most popular ride in the park!)

  2. Another Idea by HappySqurriel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I was younger (back in about 1995 or so) my brother used to have friends who made some money on the side doing "market research" for movies. Essentially there were a couple dozen people in my city who would be mailed pre-released movies every week and would be expected to watch them and give feedback in order for places like blockbuster/rodgers video to know how many movies to order; they weren't expected to return the movies but (being that they were pre-release) they were not allowed to throw away the movies for awhile. This worked out great for me because it meant that I was able to borrow movies rather than rent them and the only drawback was the occasional "If you bought this movie contact the FBI" message (or whatever it was) scrolling across the screen.

    I'm sure the ESRB could probably find thousands of trustworthy (sorry most slashdotters) people who would be happy to recieve free games and systems in exchange for a content review.

  3. Penny Arcade once again says it best... by The+Orange+Mage · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/01