ESRB

[Calax]

Who are the ESRB? I mean not in terms of what do they do. rather I'm asking what exactly they did to be put in charge of rating the fastest growing media of the era.

 

Do they have ANY Idea what games are like other that what they see in a video or read?

 

Are they an Apolitical body similar to the supreme court?

 

many unanswered questions about a group that is trying to keep things "clean"

[Kaftan Barlast]

Those **** are one of the pains one would get rid off if we didnt have to sell games via Wal-Mart and the like.

 

 

Listening to Beethoven does not make you want to rape goats and worship the devil, and playing computer games doesnt make you want become the next Charlie Manson either. People never friggin' learn.

[Surreptishus]

Who are the ESRB?

many unanswered questions about a group that is trying to keep things "clean"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

CLICK ME!!!

[Calax]

The Entertainment Software Rating Board is advised by a large panel of specialists from diverse fields, including psychologists, school principals and superintendents, business analysts, consumer advocates, and other experts on media and child development

 

it's advised by... I'm asking what the actual degrees that the ESRBoard has... are they pop psycologists... perhaps angry mothers... or even creationists. That's what I'm trying to get at. We have a rating system but we don't know who's doing the rating so we are incapable of knowing if theres a bias or political influence on the group (shivers at the thought of hillary clinton being put on there)

[Enoch]

Well, there is no right for the public to know any of this because there's no governmental involvement. It's a voluntary effort by game producers' trade association to comply with public pressure and avoid potential regulation. Movie and TV ratings are done the same way, and for the same reasons.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

I'll just do the UK version.

 

The Euro ratings board Pegi. Is for the most part voluntary. In the UK anything which could be considered borderline goes to the BBFC (which is the same organisation that rates movies).

[Darque]

Well, there is no right for the public to know any of this because there's no governmental involvement.  It's a voluntary effort by game producers' trade association to comply with public pressure and avoid potential regulation.  Movie and TV ratings are done the same way, and for the same reasons.

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It's dumb.

 

No group should have the right to tell someone else what to think or how they should think it.

 

That's how I view them.

[alanschu]

The Entertainment Software Rating Board is advised by a large panel of specialists from diverse fields, including psychologists, school principals and superintendents, business analysts, consumer advocates, and other experts on media and child development

 

it's advised by... I'm asking what the actual degrees that the ESRBoard has... are they pop psycologists... perhaps angry mothers... or even creationists. That's what I'm trying to get at. We have a rating system but we don't know who's doing the rating so we are incapable of knowing if theres a bias or political influence on the group (shivers at the thought of hillary clinton being put on there)

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If there's any bias, it's from the games industry.

 

IIRC it was set up and funded by the games industry....or maybe that's just the ESA?

 

Meh.

[Enoch]

Well, there is no right for the public to know any of this because there's no governmental involvement.  It's a voluntary effort by game producers' trade association to comply with public pressure and avoid potential regulation.  Movie and TV ratings are done the same way, and for the same reasons.

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It's dumb.

 

No group should have the right to tell someone else what to think or how they should think it.

 

That's how I view them.

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They're not telling anybody how they should think. They're just a review board that decides what label gets put on a game's package. It's about informing the consumer, not censoring the games. It's no different than having nutritional content on the packaging of food items. (Except that there aren't many supermarkets that refuse to carry food with more than 900 Calories per serving... But that's a different issue.)

[Dark_Raven]

Well, there is no right for the public to know any of this because there's no governmental involvement.  It's a voluntary effort by game producers' trade association to comply with public pressure and avoid potential regulation.  Movie and TV ratings are done the same way, and for the same reasons.

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It's dumb.

 

No group should have the right to tell someone else what to think or how they should think it.

 

That's how I view them.

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They are just like those clowns that stick lables on music.

[alanschu]

And why praytell, do you not like them?

[Calax]

sure they were set up by the game companies... but we honestly don't know much else about how they work.

 

Heck for all we know they could be forcing game makers to put hypnotic suggestions into the games to take over the world.

 

 

My MAIN problem is that they seem to be bending more to the will of the paranoids who think that if we play various games we'll turn into perverts that go on school shootings. I would hope that the ESRB would think of a way to get those who know the game to put a rating on it themselves, give relavent points, and then essencially 'approve' the rating or modify it TO A DEGREE (unless of course you've got sombody claiming that a X rated item is really E for everyone...) or visa-versa.

 

the whole reason that only 19 games are rated AO is because if it gets rated AO it cannot be sold in stores.. only via internet or other more "secure" (from children) sites.

 

And I personally think that there should be a world wide board or rating system. It'd help moderate the insanity we see with oblivion, it'd remove it from political pressure from the national level, and it'd probably do better in terms of ratings overall. From a sales perspective this would be better because pretty much anywhere else in the world there is easily an more relaxed view of video games.

 

 

but from the way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if I have to buy all my (possible) kids games for them because the ESRB rating system becomes more like the Comics Code of America

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

And I personally think that there should be a world wide board or rating system. It'd help moderate the insanity we see with oblivion, it'd remove it from political pressure from the national level, and it'd probably do better in terms of ratings overall. From a sales perspective this would be better because pretty much anywhere else in the world there is easily an more relaxed view of video games.

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That would be impossible as laws vary from region to region.

[Craigboy2]

And I personally think that there should be a world wide board or rating system. It'd help moderate the insanity we see with oblivion, it'd remove it from political pressure from the national level, and it'd probably do better in terms of ratings overall. From a sales perspective this would be better because pretty much anywhere else in the world there is easily an more relaxed view of video games.

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That would be impossible as laws vary from region to region.

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What you don't think we can agree on a game rating with N.Korea or lets say Pakistan? Or even China?

Edited May 5, 2006 by Craigboy2

[Calax]

And I personally think that there should be a world wide board or rating system. It'd help moderate the insanity we see with oblivion, it'd remove it from political pressure from the national level, and it'd probably do better in terms of ratings overall. From a sales perspective this would be better because pretty much anywhere else in the world there is easily an more relaxed view of video games.

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That would be impossible as laws vary from region to region.

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What you don't think we can agree on a game rating with N.Korea or lets say Pakistan? Or even China?

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you take waht I said an Itsy bitsy bit too far. I'm mainly referring to either combining the American, british, and Euro ratings systems or somehow making it so that the games are defined sanly rather than "Ohhhh look a file on a disk that they didn't tell us about and it contains somthing that could be used to create somthing that could turn into a very sexual overture in the game... RATING M/AO!"

[alanschu]

I went back and looked at your first post, and I saw this:

 

Do they have ANY Idea what games are like other that what they see in a video or read?

 

When assessing content, why does it matter if they actually play the game, rather than just watch the game?

 

"Ohhhh look a file on a disk that they didn't tell us about and it contains somthing that could be used to create somthing that could turn into a very sexual overture in the game... RATING M/AO!"

 

Well, if you would have preferred that they "stick to their guns" over the hot coffee mod, we could just as easily have regulation coming in via the government, rather than advisement by the ESRB. It's a pretty simple solution as far as I'm concerned....don't leave naked skins or sexual content on the CD. The ESRB's decision to change the rating of GTA: San Andreas made it painfully obvious what their stance is on any content placed on the CD. IMO Bethesda dropped the ball on this one.

 

 

Something people might like to read over.

 

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/faq.jsp

 

 

And no, he doesn't take things an itsy bitsy bit too far. When you start having multiple culture determine what is or is not okay in a video game, you'll end up getting nothing done because they won't be able to agree.

 

For instance, the American in the group would have no problems showing a swastika in a WW2 game, whereas the German will be outright saying "banned!" So what rating do we put on that game?

Edited May 5, 2006 by alanschu

[Calax]

and yet if you look closely there are no swasticas in ANY ww2 game... only the Iron Cross.

[alanschu]

Of course not!

 

[Calax]

Of course not!

 

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wasn't that pre-esrb?

 

If you look at the more recent batch you won't find any.

[alanschu]

Also, let's not forget the special version of Carmageddon that had the people replaced with "zombies" and green blood.

 

Or the omission of any children in the Fallout games.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

The world is bigger than the US, the UK and Europe

 

Besides you wouldnt want to be stuck with our ratings system on most things anyway.

 

The Germans have a particular aversion to some things. I think it's blood has to be coloured green (or something along those lines).

 

I'm in favour of ratings. I'm also in favour of people trying to take advantage of the system being punished . But I don't want to see legislation taking the place of voluntary ratings for a number of reasons.

 

The UK is very antsy when it comes to depicting children that can be hurt. Thats why you wont find them in FO or FO2.

 

Interestingly though, they are on the disk and you can patch them in. If FO were to be made today and PEGI or the BBFC feel the same way as the ESRB that would have to be changed.

 

Every culture has their own values which is why one rating system isnt ever going to be feasable.

Edited May 5, 2006 by ShadowPaladin V1.0

[alanschu]

Of course not!

 

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wasn't that pre-esrb?

 

If you look at the more recent batch you won't find any.

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It has nothing to do with the ESRB, but the fact that different countries censor different things.

 

The reason why more recent games do not have swastikas in them is because that game will be outright banned in Germany, which has become a larger video game player market.

 

 

Oh, here's the 2002 remake of Wolf3D for the Gameboy Advance. Rated M for Mature for "Animated Blood, Violence":

 

[StillLife]

Hmm, I seem to recall seeing swastika's in most WWII games, even modern ones.

 

RTCW:

 

 

Weren't they in games like COD and Hidden and Dangerous too?

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Normally they will overlay the Iron Cross for the German version of the game.

 

Whether or not they remove the texture completely from the disk I don't know. Seems likely that it will be the case in the future.

[alanschu]

Only if whoever reviews for the German company cares about the "hidden" content.

 

Only the ESRB has made this kind of statement.