Where Politics And Video Games Collide

You know what? I'm sick and tired of gamers rehashing the same old "parents should watch what their kids play!" argument every single time something like this happens. The ESRB is there to rate games and give parents trustworthy information, but the difference between an M rating and an AO rating is such a joke; one year? Come on, that's a load of nonsense and you know it. There shouldn't even be any differentiation. We shouldn't have "Rated M" and "Rated AO." We should just have "Rated AO" period. The comment about M being a wink and a nod is totally accurate; it's a useless rating, because lots of stores still don't card you for a rated M game.

I agree that parents need to be involved, but you know what? The industry DOES count on KIDS playing games like this, whether they admit it or not. And I'm not talking about 9 year olds; I'm talking about 14-16 year old gamers who quite possibly THINK they're mature enough to play games like this. And while they may not be mature enough, they're certainly smart enough to work past all those safeguards like built-in parental controls.

One of the ratings needs to be abolished, and the retailers need to get their act together and support the industry instead of allowing a rating to completely kill the sales of a game.