Is the ESRB Rating system outdated? - PSP3D.com - Sony PlayStation Portable News, Homebrew, Hacks, Reviews, Videos, Mods, Forums

dq9 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-10-2008, 11:46 PM

As some of you may or may not know, I recently wrote a research paper for English class on why the ESRB rating system for videogames need to be changed. Any critique is welcome, however I have turned the final draft in to my teacher.

As promised here is the paper:

Quote:

This Needs to Change!

Quote:

In the late 1980’s the Electronic Software Rating Board (ESRB) was formed. The board’s intent was to warn consumers of videogames of the content within the game. When ESRB was founded, videogames were aimed more towards children as opposed to the present day where videogames are being marketed towards everyone. Games like Super Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong, to name a few, were amongst the most popular. When ESRB invented the rating system, the ratings and the process of rating videogames was more logical. Videogames were innocent and extremely different from the games of today. Newer games are aimed more towards everyone, mainly adults. While the Super Mario Brothers franchise is even more popular than it was in the 1980’s, adult games such as Grand Theft Auto or Halo are even more popular. Today the rating system still exists, but it was not changed to adapt to modern games. The rating system and process in which games are rated is now outdated and needs to be completely revised.

The ESRB rating system originally consisted of four ratings: Kids to Adults (KA, contained childish humor, cartoon violence), Teen (T, contains minimal blood, violence), Mature (M, contains blood, suggestive themes, adult themes, violence), and Adults Only (AO, contains intense violence, adult themes, blood and gore). In the early 1990’s the Early Childhood (EC) rating was added and in the late 1990’s the KA rating was changed to Everyone (E) and recently a new rating was added: Everyone 10 and Older (E10+). The rating system has been revised and still does its job, but it has become outdated. This system was created before First Person Shooters or games like Grand Theft Auto were first created. The ESRB rating system needs to be completely revised. One possible system could be: EC: Early Childhood - Games suitable for children under the age of five years old. Equivalent to a G rating movie, C: Adolescent Children - Games suitable for children under the age of 11 years old. Equivalent to a PG rated movie or an E rated game. Contains a little bit of violence, harmless humor, no blood or gore, ET: Early Teens - Games suitable for Teenagers in their early teens, 13-15ish. Equivalent to a PG-13 rated movie or some T rated games. Contains a little blood, adult swim style humor, - LT: Late Teens - Games suitable for teenagers in their late teens, 16-17/18. Contains more blood and gore, more adult situations, adult humor, - A: Adults - Games that adults should be playing. Adult themes, Adult situations, blood and gore, adult humor. Not suitable for teens or children under 18! This system still retains much of the current system, but this new system adapts to current games. The Adult rating clearly states that this game is for adults only!

Maturity can occur at any age. The revised system clearly states who the game is not only aimed for, but suitable for as well, age wise and content wise. A ten-year-old may be able to see a scary movie such as Saw and be able to know that it is fiction and also know that the behavior in the movie is inappropriate and should not be mimicked. While a 16-year-old may see the same movie and think that it happened or is happening somewhere in the world. Some teens play shooting games and then mimic the behavior in the game by shooting their friends or worse. Robert A., administrator of the web forum PSP3d, had this to day about the maturity issue: “One's maturity isn't really determined by a set age. I know when I was under 17, I was definitely a whole lot more "ready" for the scenes in Saw 3 than the 20 year old chick who was sitting in the seat a few front of me, who screamed her ass off and ran out the theater.” Maturity is something that needs to be not only taught by, but also determined by one’s parents. Robert A. also had this to say on the issue of maturity, “Sex and drugs? Comon' now, if you're parents instilled any cent of morals into you, you'd know what's right and wrong.” Parents need to moderate what their children are playing. A five year old should not be playing a violent and adult game like Grand Theft Auto. Maybe when they are 11 or 12, but at that point parents still need to moderate what they are playing. Even when a teen is 16 or 17 years old they might not be ready to play the crime simulator that Grand Theft Auto is. When parents don’t moderate what their kids play, we get immature people who attempt to recreate the Columbine tragedy. While videogames are not entirely at fault, they do contribute to the madness.

The process in which videogames are rated under the ESRB’s system has never been a good one. Basically what happens is videogame developers will bring in a small movie clip of their game. A panel of two or three people rate this movie clip and the game is judged this way. Very rarely does the panel actually play the game and when they do, they play a small portion. This is how the sex mini-game made it into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA). It was hidden and not meant to be shown, but it was still found by a hacker. When ESRB rated the game they had no knowledge of this mini-game and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas received a Mature rating. After the sex game was found GTA:SA received an Adults Only rating.

“Instead of watching videotapes or DVDs of gameplay on a never-ending quest for the ever elusive ‘pertinent content,’ I would strongly suggest having the raters play the games to completion and carefully log their findings throughout the playtest. I’ve heard on this one: “That’ll take way too long and it will compromise our turn around time.” My solution to that is simple: Hire more people.” (Bonner, 30)

When games are rated, ESRB should play the game all the way through and play or view any extra features, scenes, etc… If this takes to long then as Jerry stated, hire more people. More personnel working on different portions of the game will speed up the process. This will be better not only for ESRB, but for developers as well. They will be able to get games out to the public faster. Now every one wins!

Throughout the years, videogames have evolved in many ways. One of which is becoming more mature and marketed more towards adults. The Electronic Software Ratings Board has been rating games and informing the consumer since the late 1980’s and has barely changed since being formed. The rating system and the process in which games are rated needs to be completely revised to sit the modern day games.

Here are the sources I used for this paper:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Works Cited

1. Robert A. Online Forum Post. 8 April, 2008. PSP3d, 11 April, 2008 http://psp3d.com/off-topic/15054-sho...ng-system.html
2. Bonner, Jerry. "How to Fix the Rating System." Electronic Gaming Monthly April 2008: 30-32.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bibliography

Entertainment Software Rating Board. 2008. Entertainment Software Rating Board. 5 May 2008 <http://www.esrb.org>.

Disclaimer: This is my original work. It is property of Jeffrey Spitzer (dq9) only. Please do not steal my work. This is plagiarism and is a federal crime, according to United States laws. You may however use my paper as a source for your own work. Please make sure to cite the paper properly.

Thank you to all who contributed to my other thread in the making of this paper! I wish I could have used every one of your responses in there, but alas I couldn't.

jsf · #2 (**permalink**) 05-11-2008, 10:17 PM

Nice paper and you used this site in your work cited. awesome. Hope you get a good grade

dq9 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-11-2008, 10:22 PM

Thanks, I hope I do good too. I failed this class once before because of my final paper. It was on utopias, I couldn't pick the topic, and I absolutely hated it. Got a flat out F on that paper which was worth 75% of my grade.

dorkdork777 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-12-2008, 01:06 PM

Owch. But this one looks like a good 'un; hope you get a good grade!

dq9 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-20-2008, 03:37 PM

Hey I got my grade for the paper. I got a B- which is awesome because English is my worst subject. Which is weird because I speak the damn language every day.

iamstrange14 · #6 (**permalink**) 05-20-2008, 08:03 PM

Good paper, except:

Quote:

Newer games are aimed more towards everyone, mainly adults.

everyone, mainly adults?

and

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...administrator of the web forum PSP3d, had this to day about the maturity issue...

i think you meant 'to say' >.<

anyways, im pro at english just lazy. however, im horrible at picking up oter languages

dq9 · #7 (**permalink**) 05-20-2008, 10:46 PM

Yeah my english teacher picked up on that second one.

jsf · #8 (**permalink**) 05-20-2008, 11:42 PM

I always hated english in school. B- isn't bad

gdspsp · #9 (**permalink**) 05-20-2008, 11:49 PM

congrats, keep plugging. writing takes practice. use a five minute journal or similar exercise. you can do it, i think.

dq9 · #10 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008, 12:58 AM

I actually kinda enjoy writing. I am currently in the process of writing a story that combines all my favorite things, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, GTA, etc... I started it a little before I joined this site and it's still not done. I also don't have a lot of time to work on it. Maybe when I finish it, I'll post it here.