Topic: ESRB Adds New Content Descriptors, Tweaks Ratings

[WindyMan]

Parents will have an easier time of making the right game choices for the kiddies who shouldn't be playing all those violent games.

We all know and love the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for informing uninformed parents about what's in the games they buy for their children.  Game ratings and content descriptors give an idea of what a game is like without actually needing to buy it.

However, the ESRB has realized that the "Violence" content descriptor was a bit too vague, so they have remedied the situation with the introduction of four new ones, as listed below:

• Cartoon Violence - Violent actions involving cartoon-like characters. May include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted.
• Fantasy Violence - Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life.
• Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons and depictions of human injury and death.
• Sexual Violence - Depictions of rape or other violent sexual acts.

In addition, rating icons for Mature and Adults Only games have been tweaked, adding the 17+ and 18+ age groups that the respective ratings suggest for a person to buy or rent the game.  All these changes are effective immediately.

[Ian Sane]

I don't really see what the point of this is.  The parents that ignore the ratings and them freak out when they realize what their kids are playing are STILL going to ignore the ratings.  The problem isn't the ratings themselves it's the ignorance of some sh!tty parents.

The only parents I encounter that ever seem to pay attention to ratings are those that play games and thus don't even need a rating to know what the content is like.  Everyone else I meet has at least one story where they bought a game for their kid and then suddenly noticed this big 'M' on the box when they got home.

[mouse_clicker]

It's still a good gesture on the ESRB's part to at least clarify their restrictions a little more, especially with all the pressure on violent videogames. Game stores also need to enforce not selling M rated games to underage kids- game ratings have just as much importance as movie ratings yet, as Ian pointed out, are largely ignored. Selling an M rated game to a 10 year old is like selling an R rated movie to a 10 year old- I'm 15 and have bought M rated games without an adult plenty of times. Lucky for them I'm a perfectly sane individual (that is NOT open to discussion ) and haven't killed anybody yet, but you never know what crackpot is buying a game.  

[WindyMan]

Bull, the ratings system does work.  I work at Kmart, and the majority of parents that are there with kids that buy games check the content descriptors on the back.  In fact, just the other day, a woman and her 8-9 year-old were looking at Xbox games.

It's a good thing they added those extra descriptors too, because two games with the "Violence" tag, Godzilla and Dead to Rights, have two totally different kinds of violence.  (These were the games that the parent was looking at.)

[Grey Ninja]

If I ever go on a mass-murdering spree, I am most likely going to be spewing out video game quotes, and doing it with my trusty katana.  Does that mean that video games are bad, and both they and anime should be banned to keep people from repeating my crime?

Hell no.  It means that I was out of my freaking mind when I started playing video games.  If I was going to go on a murdering rampage, I would have done it regardless of whether I played video games or not.  The fact that I am a video game addict merely changes the delivery, not the end result.

Anyways, that's my piece for the day.  Like mouseclicker, I will add the disclaimer that says I have never killed another human being.  Yet.

[Jonnyboy117]

Hey Grey Ninja, hope you're having a nice day.  We're friends, right?

[Grey Ninja]

Heh.  Yeah, today was pretty nice, and I love all the staff at PGC.    Now, IGN on the other hand...  

[Djunknown]

its interesting that the Violence descriptions got updated, not the Sexual ones. But there aren't too many games with sexual content to be worried about anyway but hopefully the ESRB will treat Sex and Violent content differently. DOAX for Xbox had NO violence (Unless you count hitting a volleyball really hard and the ladies preforming Kata [or forms if you will] as violent) but it because some areas were bouncy and some areas were left bare, it was stamped with an M rating.

Beach Spikers, on the other hand squeeked by with an E rating, despite some Psudeo-Lesbiansim (Girls just don't palm butts like that, and other suggestive embraces..)

Looks like the ESRB will need a set of magnifying glasses with this new system. This time, Parents will have no one to blame but themselves.

[Nephilim]

DOAX had bouncing breasts and alot of sex appeal, clips of them laying on the beach and wriggling there butts and stuff
while Beach Spikers wasnt crude in anyway. Also people hug after games or Hi5's, you have never watched beach volley ball?
Thats why DOAX got a M and beach strikers got a E, geez

anyway Im glad with the "Sexual Violence" rating, If i had a young child, It would help my choice.
children need to stay away from the horrors of rape

[Ninja X]

As the ESRB keeps getting better with their ratings system, parents will have no one to blame but themselves eventually when buying their kid a violent or sexual-themed game.