ESRB ratings

[antonkr]

okay first thing i noticed when i came to US about video games is ESRB ratings. I was pretty amazed. I played Grand Theft Auto since i was 7 or 8. What do you think about them?

[Megatarius]

When I was 7, I was obsessed with the original Transformers cartoon. My little world-view in the late 80's probably would have been shattered and traumatized by GTA. I was frequently upset by things that, in reality, would have been tragic. I had no concept that stories could be making fun of or commenting on reality. I merely thought that everything was to be taken literally. (Yes, I knew things weren't real, but it was more the tastelessness that offended me.)

 

Of course, there were a number of (relatively) violent movies that I loved, because I knew they were intended for older people, so it was okay. It was their hard-edge compared to all the Disney I was force-fed.

 

Maybe I would have secretly liked GTA. Of course, when I first saw Doom in 1993, I was frightened by it. I was 13, which is way too old to be scared of pixeled blood, but it was the tastelessness, again. It would go on to become the center of my visual creativity for a decade in the form of map creation. It played a part in ending my faith in Christ. (Something more personal really ended it though.)

 

 

I think ratings are important. They clue people in. I'm glad to know what's in something before I watch or play it. Not because I want to be warned about violence or sex beforehand, but actually so I can be warned about lack thereof. "Oh, this game is rated E for everyone? Damn, it's not gonna have enough blood for my tastes." In many cases, but not all, I consider lack of objectionable content to be just as offensive as some people consider including it. I want realism, not sugar-coating. I know I'll probably get it if it's rated M or R.

 

 

No doubt people will post in this thread that ratings are a threat to free speech and the artist, but that's not quite the truth.

 

The only reason NC-17 or Adult is a death sentence is because of the minds of the people involved in selling the products. Adult rated games don't get sold because stores are afraid of looking bad in the eyes of a conservative public. The Puritan values of the European settlers are very much alive and well in this day and age. Conservative values drive the market because they are the most finicky, and people don't want to lose customers. Nobody worries about offending liberals, they're more likely to excuse it as freedom of speech.

 

I don't mean to go off on a political rant. I'm just reporting what my experience has been observing people and news.

 

 

From the 1930's to the end of the 60's, there was something in Hollywood called the Haye's Code. Basically, it was complete and total censorship. You were not allowed to have certain things in the movies, period. I think ratings are a nice compromise between completely censored to appease Puritan values, and completely unrestrained to appease more artistic values.

[UncleRoe]

ESRB's are nice to have.. and many parents do pay attention to them..but in my opinion,the ratio for parents that could care less and let their kids play GTA is way higher than the ratio for caring parents that do not wish to see their kids in a car chase that sadly ends with the kid trying to jump from one parking garage to the other while screaming "Why am i not flying!!! this is a damn triple stunt jump!!"

 

I've been playing games since i was probally 8 or so.. started with less gruesome games like mario bros,moved on to hack n slash rpgs like secret of mana..then combat games like armored core(still no blood here but the punchline here is "You kill alot of things in the name of money")..then moved on to a few 2d fighters like mortal kombat(lot of blood.. lot of screaming..lot more blood)..what's wierd is even though mortal kombat had the gore..alot of the future games i played after MK didn't .. medal of honor frontline,a WWII 3rd person shooter.. awesome for it's time.. and one of the first 3d games to take place in the 1950's(good ole nazi killin) but no blood..lots of explosions,lots of bullets but no blood..Nowadays though,you can't play a single combat game that doesn't involve at least a nose bleed here and there. Most parents my age that have played games half their life are starting to see their kids play games that involve alot more blood and gore and mature themed actions that we didn't even think would be possible until we were in our mid teens..First reaction is to take the game away and start monitoring what your children are into..thing is with time,public media expands and with it so does blood,gore,sex and yes..even the jonas brothers..Thing is..alot of the kids raised in this new generation are exposed to these actions way earlier than we were and are adapting to the situation.

 

I'm not saying to promote ingame gang violence to your 11 year old.. but the games we grew up on ironically ended up being the backbone of games our children will play. ESRBs help,but in the end i think if a kid wants to play GTA15 and fly his airplane into a fully destructible twin tower for laughs..there won't be much stopping him.

[Vagrant0]

Nothing screams "buy me" to a teenager with money to burn more than a game marked with a "mature" label. And the game companies know it. While most parents do care in one form or another, many have realized that their fight is usually not winnable, or worth the amount of energy spent. Game stores rarely enforce the rules since they're often staffed with teenagers who have also gone through that crap at one point or another. Even those that do are often negated rather quickly by a call home and a parent who is too tired/lazy to drive to the store to buy/rent the game for their kid. Most parents would rather have their kid perform violent acts inside a game (that usually has justification for that violence) rather than bring it into reality. Some parents, atleast in the US probably even find solace that their kid is interested in violent games as opposed to less proactive forms of entertainment. By and large, all rating systems are a failure when it comes to limiting the ability for younger people to get their hands on that kind of content. And, likewise, any game which refrains from having that kind of content either gets modded to contain that content, or is branded as looking too much like a "child's game". A recent example being Torchlight, which, despite containing many aspects that people would enjoy, does not contain any graphical violence, or adult content, and was therefore given a pass by most fans of rogue-like games. Kingdom Hearts is another example, which managed to shake some of its initial stigma.

 

Additionally, none of the studies related to video game violence have conclusively linked it to real violence as a precursor. Most violent people either have genetic predispositions toward violence, or are pushed into violence as a response to stress and bullying, or simply live in an environment where real violence is encouraged. While assertive behavior is usually always preferred, most would rather be the person doing the beating than be the person being beaten.

[AncientSpaceAeon]

I've watch on tv a Korean teenager became overly paranoid (and addicted) because of violent games, or maybe because he play games all day and night ?

 

But ESRB are okay, it can give parents information about what are their kids are playing. It's better that the game companies create games that can be played for younger people, but of course with great quality.

[Megatarius]

ESRBs help,but in the end i think if a kid wants to play GTA15 and fly his airplane into a fully destructible twin tower for laughs..there won't be much stopping him.

 

The first time I found a 747 in San Andreas, guess what I did. :whistling:

[antonkr]

ESRBs help,but in the end i think if a kid wants to play GTA15 and fly his airplane into a fully destructible twin tower for laughs..there won't be much stopping him.

 

The first time I found a 747 in San Andreas, guess what I did. :whistling:

another reason why GTA 4 doesn't have planes. :whistling:

[Balagor]

We don´t have ESRB in Denmark. The games are only to be marked "minor fantasy violence" or "heavy fantasy violence". Futhermore a users age will be recommended. In the end it´s for the parents (e.i. the kids) to decide.

I guess we have the same amount of heavy gameplaying amongs youngsters here in DK, like in the rest of the world.

[evilkoal]

i think that the ESRB and anything like it is completely freaking retarded.

 

small children should be able to play games where they massacre populations if they want to. IT IS NOT UP TO YOU WHAT ANYONE ELSE DOES, and the world governments will never understand this so there will always be wastes of time and money like the ESRB.

[rbrophy2]

Hell yeah its retarded i want more nudity in my games :biggrin: