Thu 21 Jul 2005
Bleh, what a mess :(
While blogs, forums and mailing lists are on fire with everyone’s opinion on the matter (was it intentional, who screwed up, was the reaction to severe or not severe enough, etc), I’m wondering if there’s some overall benefit to come of it. My first thought is awareness. In fact, I’ve been saying that since the early panics over GTA3. Given the extent of media coverage, “everyone” knows about how games have grown up and that they’re not just for kiddies anymore (side point, were they ever just for kiddies?). When my mother-in-law asks what all the fuss over hot coffee is about, I know that exposure has hit supernova. In fact, there was a research report earlier this week saying how news is effecting purchasing decisions.
Bottom line is that the ESRB system is good and effective when:
1 - parents/consumers are aware of it
2 - retailers voluntarily enforce it
3 - developers/publishers don’t abuse it
Hmm, this mess probably helps with all those points…
(Side complaint: Is it just me, or are parents made out to be morons? Several stories have been talking about how hard it is for parents to “deal with the complexities of media ratings”, etc. Dude, the box says Mature, 17+, sex, violence, etc. Or, it says Everyone, cartoon violence, etc. What’s so confusing? In my opinion it is a lack of motivation, interest, effort, time that is the culprit and NOT their inability to understand the ratings. Being a crappy parent doesn’t necessarily equate to stupidity. It is unfair to suggest that these schemes are too complex for parents - there are bigger challenges at hand for parents… I know. I am one!)
July 21st, 2005 at 4:21 pm
Well. I think a lot of times it can be either stupidity or laziness/lack of involvement, but that most of the times it’s a hindsight-is-20/20 kind of thing.
I think the bigger problem with games (and movies and music, to some extent) is that many parents don’t see them as that big a deal. It’s more like “eh, what’s a few explosions/expletives/maimings?” - at the time of purchase - rather than a view of a continuum in your child’s experience. Parenting in my opinion is a very instance-oriented thing, where often you’re making decisions on the fly, at that moment, and that without repeated incidences, global awareness, and/or conscious, premeditated decisions about your future parenting decisions, it just doesn’t implant itself into a parent’s brain until they realize they’re watching their preteen bash hookers.
The movie rating systems IMHO have actually caused problems with game ratings. “R”-rated movies often are rated R for content many parents don’t consider a big problem. My parents let me watch R-rated movies at 12, because mostly it was just swearwords or “Issues,” and they had had enough intelligent conversations with me to know that that kind of thing wasn’t a problem for me.
On the other hand, the politicians here make me sick, as do many of the parents, because if you as a parent FAIL to make those kinds of premeditated, future-oriented decisions about your child’s life, it’s your fault, as a parent.
And there is something to be said about the marketing. I think it would be wise at this point for game developers to make it much clearer when extremely graphic content is in a game than they have, if for no other reason than to avoid the inevitable lawsuits. What is true is that many violent games do not appear “all that bad” if all you see is an ad. Again, yes, it’s the parents’ responsibilities, but parents also do have a lot on their minds, and I don’t see a problem with game companies being a lot more upfront than they have been.
In fact, I guess I think that’s the central point for me: trust. Rockstar has behaved so unbelievably stupidly here that I am flabbergasted. I think that if they had come right out and said “Holy crap, oops! Our bad! Sorreeee!” they’d probably still have an “M” rating.
The game companies don’t trust the government OR their audiences, the government doesn’t trust the game companies OR the parents, and the parents don’t trust the government OR the game companies. Out of all of those groups, I think the game companies have the best chance of making themselves more trusting and trustworthy.
Not that it’ll happen :)
July 22nd, 2005 at 12:29 pm
Hey, Jason –
Nice to see you credited as “Justin” in this AP story. Or is that your evil twin? Or is Justin the good twin and are you the evil one?
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Game-Girls.html
Oh, and regarding the intelligence of parents. Its those darn Barney and Raffi records. They contribute to a steady process of “dumbening.”
July 22nd, 2005 at 4:39 pm
Thanks for the heads up, Adam. I pinged the writer and he has fixed my name :)
Jason
July 24th, 2005 at 11:37 pm
What I find upsetting (I’m sure this has come up before). I equate the “M” game rating with an “R” movie rating. The hot coffee sex scene is definately only “R” rated, not “X” (ie, not “AO”). The game is already “M” rated so even if Rockstar put in or left it in intentionally so what?
Maybe the ESRB should switch to movie ratings, “G”, “PG”, “PG-13″, “R”, “NC-17″, “X”. GTA:SA would definately be an “R” rating, it’s no more worse then any Tarintino movie.
I can only hope that like you mentioned, maybe what will come of this is people will get that an “M” rating means the same as an “R” movie and that people need to take responsibility for what their kids get ahold of.
I find the new “Sims 2″ issue even more upsetting:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/gamepolitics/51467.html