A MMOG by any Other Rating

By Shayalyn


Note: Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar has not yet been rated. This article is not intended to suggest any rating; merely to debate the principles behind the rating systems and its effect on young gamers


It seems like every MMOG I get behind has a portion of its fan base crying, “Give this game an M rating to keep the kiddies out!” Can an Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB ) rating of M (Mature, for ages 17 and older) really keep kids out of MMOGs like Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar? And should it? In my opinion, ESRB ratings don't keep kids from playing mature-themed games; and not all kid gamers need to be kept from playing MMOGs.

When it comes to parents controlling what their kids experience, the fact of the matter is, I’ve met more than a few who seem oblivious to the meaning behind those Es and Ms on the game titles they put in their children’s hands. My son’s friend received Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for his 10th birthday…from his parents. I haven’t had the inclination to ask them whether they purchased the game knowing their kid was going to be fragging cops, sleeping with prostitutes, jacking cars, and robbing homes.

I don’t believe adding an M rating to LotRO will do much to keep kids out of the game, or any other game, for that matter. ESRB ratings can serve as a guide for parents who pay attention to them, but the sad fact is, many parents use video games as digital babysitters without paying much attention to their content. And kids are wise--I doubt my son’s friend is going to chirp, “Guess what, Mom! I bedded a hooker and shanked a couple cops last night,” over his morning bowl of Frosted Flakes. Ah, if mother only knew!

This doesn’t mean I’m some avid watchdog of a parent who feels all games that aren’t rated E (for Everyone) should be banned. I’ve slain many a creature, humanoid and otherwise, in various MMOs over the years, but, I’ve never had the urge to draw my sword and behead the evil counter clerk at the DMV who’s telling me I filled out the wrong form and I’ll have to wait in line again. (Well, perhaps I’ve felt the urge, but I’ve never acted on it.)

I let my own 11-year-old boy play the occasional rated M game. He played Fable, for instance. But I didn’t get the game for him just because he wanted it--I knew what it was all about. I knew the game would have my kid making some mature choices, and doing some mature things. I also know my kid, and I know he can handle it. I liked the moral choices posed in Fable, and I was strangely tickled to see my son’s character at the end game with a glowing halo and butterflies circling around his head (indicating he made moral choices).

All it takes to be the responsible parent of a kid gamer is a little interest in what she’s seeing while she’s sitting there with that controller in her hand, or tapping away at the keyboard. You don’t have to be a gamer yourself to do a little research. There are sites all over the web that will tell you what sorts of content a game contains. ESRB.org is one example. Kaboose: Kids Domain has a listing of popular and kid-friendly titles. These and other resources make shopping for games for your kids a whole lot easier. You can even ask your local game retailer for pointers--most of the folks working in game stores have first-hand experience playing the games they sell. (In other words, they could’ve warned my son’s friend’s parents about the hookers and the carjacking.)

But what about MMOGs? What about the ESRB warning: “Experience may change during online play?” MMOGs are indeed different animals. And yet, I’ve let my son play EverQuest (EQ) since he was 8. Why? Because I knew I could control what was coming at him to a reasonable degree. I turned on the language filters, turned off /OOC and /SHOUT, and let him have his fun whacking away at orcs and skeletons in the newbie zone. I gave him three simple rules to follow: no kill-stealing (KSing); don’t talk to strangers; and no grouping. (The latter was more for his potential group-mates’ protection than his own.) And I kept an eye on him. I never let him play for hours on end, and I always remained watchful to make sure everything remained on the up and up.

Am I a bad parent for letting my kid play EQ? Draw your own conclusions. I didn’t feel that letting my boy run around smacking evildoers with a rusty scimitar was hurting anyone--not him, and not the other, more serious gamers.

Which brings me back to those people who want to keep young gamers out of MMOGs. I’ve found that gamers come in all varieties, and age has nothing to do with maturity. I’d much rather deal with 10 pre-teen kids who accidentally KS my giant bats in the newbie zone than one 23-year-old griefer who repeatedly trains my group for kicks. I’ve grouped with very young gamers who play with skill and wisdom. Then again, I’ve grouped with 20-something gamers whose antics could’ve easily landed them a spot on MTV’s Jackass.

Will ESRB M ratings keep immature players out of games? Nope. Will they keep kids out of games? Unlikely. And, when it comes to kids at least, maybe the bigger question is whether they should. After all, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with a young audience in mind. I know that my own kids would jump at the chance to play an elven hunter, slinging a bow like Legolas, and I don’t view their enthusiasm as a bad thing.

Back when I was a teenager, in the age of Atari, video games were demonized as if they were some sort of evil and addictive drug. Parents warned that if we played too much of the stuff it would rot our minds. People referred to gamers as “vidiots.” My parents were the exception. Nine times out of ten, when I wanted to grab a quick game of Asteroids, I’d find my mom parked in front of the TV, controller clutched in her hands, tongue dangling out of the corner of her mouth, with her little pixel space ship going “Pew! Pew! Pew!” as she blasted toward a new family record.

And maybe that’s why I have the attitude that I do where my own kids and video games are concerned. I’m not indiscriminate, and I don’t let them play any game just because it’s the latest thing (you won’t see GTA: San Andreas in my house), but I do encourage their gaming, just as my mom did when I was a teen. “It actually builds good hand-eye coordination,” she would say.

No doubt hand-eye coordination is a good thing (we call ‘em “twitch skills” now, Mom), but as I watch my own kids play role-playing games, from EverQuest, to Fable to the pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons, I see how acting and making choices in a virtual world and a virtual society helps foster creativity and teamwork. My son’s teacher would quite likely agree with my assessment, since my gamer-boy recently wrote the script for and participated in a group project to create an anti-drug commercial for Time Warner Cable. Their commercial was selected a top-20 finalist of 1500 entries statewide, and we’re waiting for the day in March when we’ll find out whether it will become the grand prize winner and our family (and the families of the other kids involved) will be on its way to Disney Land.

Not bad for a vidiot. Not bad for a kid, either. You might not mind a kid like that running around your MMOG.

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