Is the ESRB Broken?

Prompted by Senator's Brownback's legislation, an interesting discussion is taking place on the ESRB, and gaming related politics. Next Generation offers up a damning look at the ESRB, wherein author Aaron Ruby says that the organization is 'incapable of effectively communicating with consumers, nor of fending off attacks from the industry's many critics.' At the Sony Online 'Station Blog', SOE's John Smedley retorts, saying that an industry-wide mentality is to blame for the ESRB's precarious position. Meanwhile, EGM's editor Shoe has some choice words on claims the organization shouldn't have to 'play through' every game that comes to market. From this last piece: "Sure, you usually can't see 100% of a game on an average playthrough. But I guarantee if you get three guys to sit down and finish every product, you can learn a lot more about what these games contain than from watching a bunch of highlight reels, which, remember, are edited by companies who have huge stakes in what the ratings turn out to be -- talk about conflict of interest!"

Re:Shoe for Senate

[Jabrwock]

Of course the problem is that they designed this legislation to assuade parental fears about Hot Coffee and the topless Oblivion. But playing 100% of the game, even with cheat codes, wouldn't have found such material, as both required external tweaking in order to access. So the premise on which he crafted the act is inherently flawed. Even foreign ratings boards, who are sometimes much stricter, their ratings usually agree with the ESRB ones (in the case of PEGI in the EU, it's actually a bit more lenient, mentioning only the most serious of content descriptors). Of course even those boards don't play all the game, but like the ESRB they do have steep fines for withholding crucial info that would have affected the rating.

Re:Penny-arcade critique

[14CharUsername]

Tycho did bring up a great point about user created content. It was user created content that caused all the controversy over GTA and Oblivion. If the ESRB played through those games it wouldn't have changed their ratings at all.

This is a major issue since we are seeing more and more online games. How can a publisher control what the users do in the game? The whole ESRB playing the games is a red herring.

Re:Shoe for Senate

[joshetc]

Obviously mods shouldn't affect the games rating anyway. I can tape a picture of my penis overtop of my TV while watching a football game but it doesn't change the rating of the game to XXX.

Re:Penny-arcade critique

[kfg]

All rating systems are inherently broken, Not just the ESRB. They are all based on giving a thumbnail description of what somebody else is second guessing you will find offensive.

The only true record of content is an exact copy of the content. If you wish to find out if the content will offend you, you will have to risk being offended by viewing it yourself. Them's the breaks.

If you have some special thin skinned needs to be met the ESRB ratings aren't the only ones available. Many special interest groups produce their own reviews and rating systems. They aren't printed on the box, but you can still read 'em before you buy.

In a world where everyone has a "right" to not be offended everyone will have duct tape over their eyes, ears and mouths.

And what is the rating for those of us who are offended by that concept? Wal-Mart does not label the bowdlerized content they sell as such. Stamping a big, red "B" on 'em might be nice, to let me know to avoid them and go off in search of a true copy.

In future we might see somthing like an "L" rating; for "Libre."

Warning! Warning! This media is a free speech zone. We make no guarantees against its content. Use entirely at your own risk.

You might be surprised to find that I do not welcome that day, because I have always thought of that as the default.

KFG

Re:Shoe for Senate

[Jabrwock]

You misunderstand the source of the material. Hot Coffee and Oblivion were both made using already present material. Hot Coffee was a disabled mini-game, the hack just enables access to it, almost like an undocumented cheat code, only you used memory/resource manipulation instead of just typing it in. Oblivion just removed the bra object, the nude breasts were already textured underneath. Both games were re-rated due to this content, because it wasn't "added" by a 3rd party, it was already present on the disk. But playing 100% of the game wouldn't have found this material, because you needed the 3rd party hack to access it. Unfortunately, Sen. Brownback seems to think that his legislation would have prevented Hot Coffee... Which demonstrates that like most politicians, he doesn't actually pay attention.

Re:Penny-arcade critique

[KDR_11k]

Censorship? I got news for you, the USK [wikipedia.org] has been doing that for years. And they've been rating thousands of games a year [helliwood.mind.de].

Of course they aren't safe from criticism, their frontpage has an article about some politicians going "think of the children!", demanding a ban on violence-promoting games and claiming the industry self-regulation has failed and has to be replaced with a federal agency. Well, guess what we've done three years ago... I realize politicians are dumb as hell but they should at least remember what they did three years ago.

Re:Shoe for Senate

[amuro98]

Wait wait wait... You're telling me that Oblivion was re-rated because it was discovered that a female character is naked under her clothing objects!?

Has anyone told Brownback that he too is naked under his clothing? Does he have no shame!?

Re:The problem with 100% playthrough

[amuro98]

Personal responsibility was SOOOO last century.

Nowadays it's all about "It's not my fault!"