This weeks Ten Ton Hammer editorial is by Byron "Messiah" Mudry and looks at ESRB ratings. What are they? Are they Effective? How are they Policed? And more.



Introduction



Being a long time video game player of over 25 years, I remember a time before the ESRB. I remember getting an Atari 2600 for Christmas one year (1980 to be exact!), ok at only 7 years old at the time it was more for my Dad than me, but it didn’t take long to master the hit Space Invaders and take over the system for my own! This followed a few years later with a Coleco and has not stopped since.



None of these early systems had any rating system for games. After all, they were just games. I remember more warnings over “burning out your eyes” from playing games than concerns over what the game was about.



This started to change through the late 80’s and sometime in 1990 was what I remember as the first time I saw a game with a serious warning. The game was N.A.R.C., and was a very graphic game, where you took on the role of a cop hunting down druggies, distributors and underworld kingpins. By that point game graphics had gotten realistic enough for some parents to voice concerns. Very shortly after the ESRB emerged.



In this article I will attempt to give a brief guide to the ESRB ratings and how I see them working both from the prospective of a gamer and as a parent. I have tried to give a balanced view of the system and try to look at it from all angles for the most part. At the end of the article however, I will go into rant mode and give my opinion of the whole system.



What is the ESRB?



ESRB or Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings are the industries attempt to provide additional information on what kind of content is contained in a game and what age it is geared towards. It is best described from the following quote from the ESRB website (www.esrb.org).



"The ESRB rating system helps parents and other consumers choose the games that are right for their families. ESRB ratings have two parts: rating symbols that suggest what age group the game is best for, and content descriptors that indicate elements in a game that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern."



The ratings are broken down to the following ratings: Early Childhood (age 3+), Everyone (ages 6+), Everyone 10+, Teen (13+), Mature(17+), Adults Only (18+). They also list ESRB content descriptors such as: Animated blood, Language, Drug References, etc. For a complete list of content descriptors and more definitions of the categories visit the ESRB ratings guide page here: http://www.esrb.org/esrbratings_guide.asp.



The ESRB started in 1994 and back then very few games were rated. Now the ESRB rates over 1000 games per year.



How are the Ratings Policed?



Being a self regulated body the ESRB rates all games that are submitted for review. To get a rating the video game manufacturer must fill out an in-depth form explaining what the game is about and the most graphic or controversial parts of the game. They must also submit video footage of these parts of the game. ESRB then reviews the submission and based on three reviewers opinion generate a rating.



Once a game is rated, a final copy of the game and packaging must be submitted to the ESRB before release. The package and game is inspected to ensure that all rules have been followed and nothing has been changed since the review process.



Part of being self regulated rather than a government enforced system is that not all games are ESRB rated. There is nothing forcing any game company to submit their game for review, nor is there any law in effect that only rated games may be sold. Several large corporations (Walmart as an example) however have taken the stance that they will ONLY sell ESRB rated games. Virtually all games released for retail sale are ESRB rated.



Do game manufactures gear games to ratings?



Defiantly, but many times not in the direction that you would think! All game developers know exactly what it takes to get a game up or down a few levels in the rating system. They also know what the target audience for a game is and if they will be more or less likely to play based on a given rating.



If a game developer is making a new kids platform game (example: a new game about our favourite friendly spiked rodent), they know that the target audience is 6-10ish. They will ensure that they do not include elements that will raise the rating over the Everyone rating or they may risk losing some of the target audience.



On the flip side, a developer making a flashy new first person shooter aimed at all of us long term adult game players, has a very different goal. They are very likely to make sure enough adult elements are included to get bumped to an adult only rating, or a mature at the very least.



Are the ratings effective?



This one is hard to answer. What is effective with a rating? Does effective mean that people that shouldn’t get a hold of the game don’t get it? Or does it mean that people view the ratings as a useful guide?



The first part is really enforcement. This is a mixed bag from everything that I have seen in person. I have seen some stores sell just about any game to anyone, including violent adult games to young teens (12-13) as long as they have the money. I have also seen stores ask people that look like they are 17-20 to prove they are 17 before selling them a mature game. I have also see parents walk up and buy games that their kids want without even looking at the rating, completely bypassing the system.



As for people viewing the ratings as an effective guide, I believe it’s also mixed. I know several people that completely ignore the ratings and refuse to even look at them. I don’t look at them for games for my own play, but them I’m an adult so can see and play anything I want. I also know a few parents that live by the guides and do not get anything that is rated above their children’s age level.



Are the ratings required?



This is really a personal opinion. It comes down too; do we all need “big brother” out there watching out for us? Some people feel strongly that we do, some feel strongly that we don’t.



There are many groups out there that have lobbied in the past for rating systems for everything. This is how systems like the ESRB and Movie rating systems first came into being. These systems make it relatively easy for people to find out what the target audience for a game or movie is.



From the opposite side there are groups that complain that ratings are just another form of censorship. That stating that certain people can not play a certain game or see a certain movie is a form of discrimination or censorship.



Both sides will argue long and load over the issues and if the system is really required. In the end though as with most issues, both sides have some completely valid and logical points as well as some absolutely crazy ideas. It still comes down to the fact though that some people like ratings and think of them as a necessity, while others think they are completely unnecessary. It’s all about personal opinion here.



My personal take on ESRB ratings



Now that I have gone over the description of the ESRB, how it is used and thoughts on effectiveness, its time to give my thoughts as game player and as a parent.



I used to feel very strongly against the ratings. I always disliked the ratings as a teenager, who’s business was it to say what game I should and shouldn’t play! As a young adult I still detested the ratings, I mean really it’s a game. It’s not real life, why censor it. Now that I have kids and am older though my views have softened a bit, however even now as a parent I still have mixed feelings over the ratings. I can see some benefit to them, but also some huge downfalls.



The benefit is to those parents that may not be computer literate, and not be able to research or try a game before their kids do. I have other issues with these people (who in the year 2005 can survive day to day life successfully without knowing how to use a computer), but I’ll leave that rant for another day. The ratings allow these parents to make a quick decision based on the rating.



The downfall is that these parents are now not making decisions about their children’s game play, they are letting someone else make the call. Do their views match yours? They may be more or less strict as to what they consider appropriate. They may have different moral, ethical or religious views that factor into their decisions.



This is very similar to movie ratings. For example I know many of my friends let their kids watch movies such as Shrek. Is this a funny movie? Of course, it’s hilarious. Is it rated for kids? Yes, its rated PG, which while it explicitly means Parental Guidance, is generally taken as it’s a kids friendly movie. My wife and I made sure we watched Shrek first and after seeing it decided that our children (now 5 and 7) were not allowed to see it (and still are not). While rated ok for them, we did not feel the humour and sarcasm were ok for a 7 year old to see. We probably will not let them see it until at least 12 years old. Other examples of PG movies are the recent Disney movies Home on the Range and Brother Bear, both of which have crude humour at points.



As an avid game player, I almost never look at or care what a game is rated at. The rating it is irrelevant to me as an adult. Even as a teenager it was essentially irrelevant, no one enforced it and my parents knew that I was not going to go and kill anyone because I played a video game and allowed me to play anything I chose.



My point to this rant is that by having a rating given, MANY parents opt out of parenting. They take ratings for granted and do not give the proper care that they should in selecting games and / or movies for their children. As a parent I would almost rather NOT have a rating system, so that I do not have a crutch to fall back on.



We all know that some kids are more mentally mature than others, some can handle scary scenes, some understand that games are all fake, some understand the difference as to what is allowed in real life and what is allowed in a video game, while other children can not see the difference between these issues. Age does not always correlate to what a given person can or should be able to handle. No rating company can know where your child fits in this scale of maturity, only you can. Do you really want to leave these decisions up to someone else who has never even met your child?



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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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