ESRB*S
Written by Bryan Los on August 10th, 2005 @ 1:26 PM
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) must take another look at how they rate games, and how ratings should be applied to games. Thus far, it’s not working at all.
For one, I’m all for lowering the ratings for all games that are rated ‘M’ for mature gamers of 17 years or older. Obviously, the ESRB has gotten it wrong.
Hell No, We Won’t Go
Parents groups of the 1980s and 1990s lobbied everyone from Congress to the Pope to stop the video game industry from corrupting the minds of America’s youth. They argued that video games with excess violence, sex, and vulgarity were a bad influence on their kids, and if played too much, could even teach kids to become serial killers and murderers. What, were the kids going to pull the trigger with their thumb? And if they did, wouldn’t they just be shooting themselves, and not hurting any innocent victims, thus not adding to the murder rate?
But the parents forget one small component of video game ratings– that they must actually “parent” and know what games their kids are playing. After all, how many 12 year olds can drop $50.00 a pop, week in and week out on games?
Fright Night
Spend a night on the Xbox Live! service and you will quickly find that games that are rated for mature players 17 years or older are routinely, and constantly played by children 10, 11, and 12 years old. I’ve seen younger. If parents don’t know or don’t care what their kids are playing, how can ratings help? Just because a kid can’t walk into EB Games and buy Halo 2, doesn’t mean his parent won’t.
And don’t let a 10 year old fool you. Some 10 year olds are more vulgar and nasty than anyone on Xbox Live!, and often they will insult you with a broad range of foulmouth tirades. These kids are far worse than the content within the game. Xbox should rate them!
What we have here is one of two situations– parents don’t care, and are oblivious to the ratings, or parents know better than the ESRB and deem these games not to be properly rated. Which means either parents are neglecting their children, or the ESRB has to go back to step one.
All in Session
Now, enter Congress. With the recent news of the “Hot Coffee” mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Congress is again back into the video fight. Senators such as HIllary Clinton are outraged at the “sex scenes” in the game. Mrs. Clinton is outraged at sex scenes, but she doesn’t mind one bit that you can run around with a shotgun and blow someone’s head off for no reason at all– and that’s one of the least violent things you can do in San Andreas. And like Hillary knows a game mod from a mod squad. She may be qualified to be president, but I doubt she’s ever held a game controller.
Rockstar Games, makers of San Andreas, has admitted to adding the code, though unused, to the San Adreas game disc. It took an end user to find this out, and create a mod, or modification code, to unlock the hidden code so you can see alternate “Hot Coffee” missions. Rather than hearing moaning and groaning, you now see the fruits of your work.
Murder Inc.
Big deal. As I alluded to, you can run around the city with a rocket launcher, blowing up cop after cop. This game is so violent, you get bored after slaughtering an entire police force, and then look to rid the streets of kind pedestrians. The language in this game is also over-the-top. You will here more four letter words per minute in San Andreas than all The Sopranos episodes played simultaneously.
Someone has got it wrong. Congress, parents, ESRB? I say it’s a little of all of them. Congress should stick to topics of national security and the welfare of it’s citizens. Parents should actually look at what their kids are bringing home when they give them $50.00 to go off to the local mall. And the ESRB should tell parents that if they aren’t willing to care for their kids, the ESRB certainly isn’t, and will make all games rated ‘E’ for everyone, as parents have universally agreed no game is too bad for their kids.
