Where Politics And Video Games Collide

Aside from MMOs and RPGs like Oblivion already mentioned, how would this even apply at all to sandbox games like The Sims, or any of the GTA series?

Publishers would never pay the ESRB what it costs to rate games in this manner. If gaming magazines don't review games this way with advertiser support, how can the ESRB ever do it?

The entire system of ESRB ratings is supposed to be voluntary. Publishers voluntarily submit for ratings, and retailers voluntarily choose what they will or will not stock on their shelves in part based on those ratings.

This shouldn't be a political issue at all. If consumers find the ESRB ratings unreliable, they should communicate this directly to the retailer. If the retailer cannot use the rating system for the purpose for which it was designed, they will communicate this to the ESRB and to the publishers.

As much as people like to pile on it, the ESRB system is not broken. One instance of one publisher submitting a sandbox game that had hidden content unlocked by consumers is not an indictment of the ESRB's entire system.

What the ESRB ought to be doing right now is getting the retailers and publishers to rally behind it; because if the ESRB is seen as a total failure and it is replaced with a mandatory, legislated ratings system, that certainly won't be better either for retailers or publishers.

The only reason I can think for them not to do so is that 1) they resent the necessity of any ratings system whatsoever, and 2) they hope that while the scandals may eliminate the ESRB, that legal challenges can successfully be brought against any mandatory, legislated ratings system that replaces it, which will create a vacuum.

Actually, that might be what the publishers want. I doubt all retailers want to have to decide what games are appropriate by reading reviews.