Where Politics And Video Games Collide

Her comes more holes to play in:

But right now, families and retailers have
put too much faith in the current ratings system; the ESRB has put too much trust in the gaming industry; and some in the gaming industry have not done enough to monitor themselves.

Is faith in the current ratings system really a bad thing? I would rather trust that the ESRB is doing thier job than constantly worry that it isn't. But I guess when you have the time to pick and peck at the ratings system looking for loopholes trust in the ratings system is a bad thing.

Seventy two percent of parents understand little or nothing about video game ratings. This is surprising, given the efforts over the years to provide in-store displays by retailers, public service announcements (PSAs) by the ESRB, and ratings disclaimers in television ads by game makers. And, when compared to TV ratings, which are not required for television programming, twice as many parents say they understand TV ratings compared to video game ratings (54% vs. 27%).

Is it me or am I the only one that does not know what the ratings on TV mean? I know the age part, but I cannot fo the life of me figure out the letter "descriptors" under the age rating. But eh, that is just me. I guess I am one of the 46%. I would think that it would be easier to understand the ESRB ratings since they spell out all the descriptors.

On one important matter kids and parents seem to agree: video games are causing family friction.

Leisure activities have always been a source of friction in the family. The kids would rather be having fun than doing homework or chores. I would think that most of these arguments are about not being able to save the game before the parent shuts it off.

In a significant shift from last year, only 59 percent of retailers educate customers about the ESRB ratings, either through signage, brochures, or videos. In 2006, our survey found that 73 percent of retailers educated their customers about the ratings.

I would like to see the stores that the surveyed for both years. This change could have easily been made by calling more of the offending retailers than the year before of a simple change in all retailers called last year.

Another dimension is the lack of education sales clerks receive from their employer. Although nine out of 10 sales clerks say they understand the ESRB rating system, only 60 percent of stores train clerks on how to enforce the rating on a game’s box.

I will admit that this is a problem. If these numbers are anywhere near accurate, then change needs to happen.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board’s system for etermining the ratings of games needs review and some loopholes regarding locked and blurred content must be closed. One incident in particular highlights the need for new procedures to ensure that content
only appropriate for adults does not fall into the hands of minors.

I will give you one guess as to what they are refering to here. That's right. Manhunt 2. Manhunt 2 exposes the flaws in the ratings process and why the rating systme needs to be scrapped. After all the ESRB didn't make a press release stating that all the hidden and unblurred content was reviewed and was complient with the M rating... oh wait they did.

M-rated games, officially sanctioned for 17-year-olds and
widely available to much younger children, should not contain easily unblurable or unlockable AO-rated adult content, “blurred” or not. The ratings procedures should take into account not only all the official content of regular gameplay, but all of the code on the discs.

Um... What did I just say?

A continuing trend of questionable marketing practices on the part of the game makers that the National Institute on Media and the Family believes undermines the ESRB’s attempts to make the ratings
matter. In one instance, an M-rated game, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, was promoted on MySpace.com with a contest to win attendance at a Playboy photo shoot. In another example, the supposedly family friendly Nintendo Wii promoted the launch of Manhunt 2 on the console with a special edition Wii which had fake blood splattered all over it.

I believe that Myspace as a whole is not the best place to be letting your kids have unsupervised time on. As for the contest, it most likely was only valid for people 18 and up.

As for the Manhunt Wii, I literally laughed out loud. I remember the contest on Joystiq. That console was a fan mod and not Nintendo endorsed. I think they need to do a little more research before making such accusatory statements.

That's all Folks.