(I try to think of the most unique names I can think of eh?)
Anywho, flipping through channels last night, nothing's on except Family Guy, David Letterman, and Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer (going to be shown at midnight) so I had some time to spare. Fortunately, something on Cspan caught my attention...video games.
Well, the group presenting this (Liberman included) were showing the media violent video games, cursing, etc. They mentioned a handful of games including GTA and God of War! They only showed the parts where the player kills people and gets "rewarded for killing." And they believe that this is the downfall of our civilization! But if there is something I learned out of all of this, is that the ESRB, that lovely group which rates games, DOES NOT PLAY THE GAME! Wow, no wonder why so many games duck under the gun with a "M" rating. Oh frogot to mention about the "new" commercial coming out on a small screen near you. Basically, all the commercial was is a small kid, no younger than 10 years old, reading off a script talking about killing hookers, doing drugs, and geting rewarded...um I don't get it. These fools tell you not to play games, but they are telling people in the commercial what these kids supposively do?
My question I pose to you, do you think the ESRB should even be here in the 1st place if they aren't playing these games? Should a new rating system take its place and put harsher ratings?
and BTW, if you pick up the Offical Playstation Mag. (OPM...NOT pronounced opium) has a little article of David Jaffe and "what's in your PSP?" In it, the article plugs his MB and what he's playing....cool stuff! Later...
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The ESRB is doing a fine job. Not an excellent job, but a good one none-the-less. There are some things they need to work on, though.
First and foremost, the ESRB needs a more family friendly website, like the family media guide (www.familymediaguide.com/index.html). They go very in depth with their games. While the site doesn't bash video games out right, it isn't as neutral as it could be either. This is where the ESRB could really blow the PSV ratings system out of the water. The gaming industry trusts the ESRB more and they can work hand in hand to create an awareness among parents AND empathy for parents within the gaming industry and community.
Yes, ideally the ESRB should play the games. To me its as bad as someone reviewing a video game with out playing it. BUT, the only reason this flaw is getting any real attention is because of the Hot Coffee mod, something the ESRB would never have caught, even if they had played the game.
Something to consider about the ESRB not playing the games is, I don't think they have the resources to play the video games to the extent they would have to. Tons of video games come out all the time and they have to get the ratings on it before it can be released. This is where the game developers/publishers would need to really help out and make sure they include as much info in their packages to the ESRB. If there is a risque (sp?)minigame that may be hard to find in the first place, then the publishers need to include it.
Finally, don't believe the myth that the ESRB doesn't give any AO ratings, because they do. The AO rating is such a kiss of death that the developers take the game back and re-work it to make it an M rating instead.
I say keep the ESRB, flesh it out a bit and put a little more responsibility on the parents and the actual industry. Parents need to be parents and the industry needs to be waaaay more empathetic to parents and to the ESRB who is taking a whole lotta shit for everyone right now.
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