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ESRB Responds to 3D Realms' Kvetching
Via GamePolitics, an article at the Hollywood Reporter site on the ESRB's snappy comeback to 3D Realms. You may recall Scott Miller (3D Realms' co-founder) saying a short while back that he viewed the ESRB's smackdown as a 'sucker punch'. The Reporter article lays out the ESRB's response, courtesy of the board's president Patricia Vance: "It's unfortunate that Mr. Miller's feelings were hurt, but let's be clear ... The ESRB is the self-regulatory body for the video game industry. We were established by the industry and we simply enforce the rules and guidelines that the industry has imposed upon itself. The games industry determined that there should be rules with regard to the proper display of rating information and that ESRB should enforce those rules by notifying companies who are not in compliance ... Unfortunately, due to 3D Realms' lack of experience submitting games to the ESRB, it would appear that they were unaware of the various industry guidelines in place and the consequences of not complying with those guidelines."
Seriously. Fuck them right in the ear. This is no different from the PMRC in the 80's, or even back to the Senate hearings on Delinquency in the late 40's that centered on the Comic Book industry. Yes, we had senate hearings about how Comic Books caused delinquency in minors... And this is more of the same reactionary bullshit. This is what happens when you let religious nuts **Cough-The South-Cough** inject their religious beliefs into the public debate. They try to 'protect' the rest of us from ourselves, but limiting our freedom of choice.
If everyone stopped submitting their games to the ESRB, and we pink slipped those censor's like they badly deserve, would anyone even notice?
But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!