Rate My Game!

The Morality of Gaming

By: Savanja

 

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Video games have long been a target for the witch hunters and smiling politicians as a cause to save our children and our souls from corruption. Questionably sane people have taken it up as a pass time to harass video game companies and have made it their life's mission to alert all unknowing parents to the horrors that can be held within those harmless looking platform or PC game boxes.

I'm a parent and a gamer. I know what the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is and what the little letters marked in black and white on video game boxes mean for the most part. Admittedly, I have never used a ESRB rating as a tool in determining a video game's potential of use in my home, I use a much better tool which is my own research and playing of any game my kid plays. Weird I know, but it works for us and gives me an excuse to check out all the neat games my mini me gets for her X-Box 360.

I know though that some rely on those ratings, and I can understand that. Not all parents do, or desire to, play video games with their children so they just won't know what can be contained in them. Although, if you accidentally buy a game called "Grand Theft Auto" or "Scarface" and don't realize that both will have crime and violence in SOME manner, well, no ESRB rating is going to help the level of -DUH- there.

The unfortunate part in all of this is the limited knowledge the ESRB has and how many find it completely appropriate that they pound their gavel in judgment knowing next to nothing about any given game. They might actually play the game, but it isn't a requirement of their rating process, so chances are they rated the game without having ever actually experiencing it.

So what goes into rating a game? The ESRB Website states that they rely on questionnaires, game clips of "pertinent content", and video footage of gameplay. The video game company, of course, has an obligation to disclose all that they can and be truthful about their product and the ESRB has an obligation to interpret what they are seeing correctly. To me, there are far too many judgment calls happening here.

Let's look at the Mature rating:

Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

Intense violence. I need to know how much violence is okay, and how much isn't. Is there a specific amount of blood and guts that is allowed be be shown before it gets bumped up to "Mature"?

Sexual content. This one amuses me. Is a kiss with the implication that they are gonna get it on in the next few minutes in a cut scene mean sexual content? The Sims 2 offers a lot of sexual content. Sims may have sex in various places for fun or for procreation. We only see the caresses, kisses, and then a wild scuffle under the covers (or wherever they decided to knock boots for public woohoo), but we still know what they are doing, right? Did anyone think that "woohoo" was just cutesy code name for making out and the babies just came from insemination at a nice sterile and non-sexual clinic?

Then take Mass Effect that was slapped with a "M" rating for similar content. It gets hailed as evil and parents are warned to steer their innocent children clear of this horrible game. I mean, they can have sex with aliens and same-gender people. *gasp* Oh wait. You can do that in The Sims 2 as well.

So if the sex is more cartoony, then it's okay. Right?

ESRB has been a battle that PC and platform games are fighting against on a regular basis. So far, the limelight hasn't focused strongly on MMOGs, but it will. With the boom of online gamers in games like World of Warcraft (or as known by non-gaming parents "That game that keeps my kid at home and in their room all weekend") more and more politician and concerned parents and blaming online gaming for the moral demise of their children. We can't have sex in EverQuest II, but there is a certain amount of violence since your primary goal in nearly every task is to kill something. Age of Conan just received it's "M" rating, which is something that we all expected, but how much controversy will this cause when it hits the shelves? We'll have to wait for a do-gooder to stumble across it before we will know for sure.

I don't disagree with having a rating system. I'd just like for the system to make sense and to have solid lines that leave nothing up to personal interpretation. I don't want to know that "sexual content" means "Mature", I want to know WHY it's "Mature" and what the difference is between more realistic sexual encounters that show nothing and cartoony sexual encounters that show nothing.

I also feel that these silly committees need to stop assuming that they have to tell parents how to parent. Make your decisions based on a solid guideline and stop shooting from the hip on instincts. Us parents are smart, we can make our decisions without a group of older generation suit-type fuddyduddies spotting a belly button somewhere and calling it sexually explicit.

Above all else, I feel as though parents need to proactive in what their children are spending their time doing. Don't blame the game if you weren't paying attention to what you purchased, or what your child purchased. Every bit of media info that goes into your kid's mind has the very real and trustworthy filter of the parent's consent. Check out what your kid is reading, watching, or playing. Even better, take an interest and do it with them. I promise you that if you do, you won't have to worry about the unintentional corruption of your youth, and you won't even have to care about what "T" means exactly.

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