Q
Shared on Fri, 09/29/2006 - 14:27Senator Sam Brownback is introducing legislation in the senate called the Truth in Video Game Rating Act. This would force the ESRB to play the full version of a game in order to assess a rating. Currently the ESRB relies on the developers to send them footage of the game that represents it as a whole and they make a judgement from that. Not that this is a bad idea but it is fundamentally flawed. This is coming about because of the 'Hot Coffee' scandal of last year but even if the ESRB had played the full game they wouldn't have uncovered the hidden code that caused all the fuss. They would have played the game in it's entirety and gave it the same rating that it got in the first place.
I'm all for the ESRB rating system being used to limit game sales to minors but I don't think making them play entire games is going to change the way they rate them. I can't remember the last game I played or even saw that I thought "damn, the ESRB really fucked up tha time" or "I can't believe they gave this game THAT rating". IMO the ESRB does a fine job in rating the games the way they do it now. Legislation shouldn't be targeting the ESRB but rather retailers in enforcing the ESRB system at the point of sale. The government needs to be forming a partnership with the industry to educate the masses and inform people of what the rating system is and what each rating means.
Even beyond holding the retailers responsible though we should look to the real root of this problem, the parents. A parent's responsibility is to monitor their children and what they are doing. If you let your 12 year old play GTA: San Andreas then, in the end, it's your fault. If you are just giving your child $60 dollars or telling them to pick a game without checking out what they are buying then you aren't doing your job as a parent. My son is 10 and there are games in my collection he can't play or even watch me play. He also can't go online without me there to monitor him. Hell, he can't even play vidoe games unless he asks permission first. That doesn't make me a better parent than everyone else but it does make me involved, and that helps me to be a good parent.
You can read more about the legislation here.
I'm all for the ESRB rating system being used to limit game sales to minors but I don't think making them play entire games is going to change the way they rate them. I can't remember the last game I played or even saw that I thought "damn, the ESRB really fucked up tha time" or "I can't believe they gave this game THAT rating". IMO the ESRB does a fine job in rating the games the way they do it now. Legislation shouldn't be targeting the ESRB but rather retailers in enforcing the ESRB system at the point of sale. The government needs to be forming a partnership with the industry to educate the masses and inform people of what the rating system is and what each rating means.
Even beyond holding the retailers responsible though we should look to the real root of this problem, the parents. A parent's responsibility is to monitor their children and what they are doing. If you let your 12 year old play GTA: San Andreas then, in the end, it's your fault. If you are just giving your child $60 dollars or telling them to pick a game without checking out what they are buying then you aren't doing your job as a parent. My son is 10 and there are games in my collection he can't play or even watch me play. He also can't go online without me there to monitor him. Hell, he can't even play vidoe games unless he asks permission first. That doesn't make me a better parent than everyone else but it does make me involved, and that helps me to be a good parent.
You can read more about the legislation here.
Comments
Submitted by KingDrewsky on Fri, 09/29/2006 - 14:44
Submitted by Q on Fri, 09/29/2006 - 15:02
Submitted by CapnHun on Mon, 10/02/2006 - 12:51