This is an opinion editorial
War has been declared. A war that has seeded itself in the big cities of Chicago and Detroit, to small rural towns in Kansas. This war has been declared on the gaming industry on behalf of a handful of Government officials and watch dog organizations. However, our adversary has sold us far too short and has miscalculated our effort and ironclad will. What has brought us to war? The alleged blatant violence and sexuality in video games and the perceived lack of preventative measures taken by the ESRB.
The MPAA and The ESRBLet’s examine this further. The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) has been created and regulated in the same fashion as the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). The MPAA will review a movie and based on its content they will hand down a rating. Equivalently, the ESRB will also review a game and based on the content of the said game, will also hand down a rating. Now the rating system for both organizations is slightly different, but the similarities are uncanny. The ratings themselves can be perceived as being identical in meaning and recommendation for both the ESRB and the MPAA. Let’s do a comparative analysis of both organizations rating system.
As shown above, the ESRB ratings are a near carbon copy of the MPAA version. One can easily identify the similarities between ratings without exerting too much brain power. The rating which has caused the most controversy would most likely be the M rating. Many believe the content within an M rated game merits an AO rating due to explicit content. Let’s compare the M rating with the MPAAs’ very own R rating.
MPAA regarding the R rating:
“
In the opinion of the Rating Board, this film definitely contains some adult material. Parents are strongly urged to find out more about this film before they allow their children to accompany them. An R-rated film may include strong language, violence, nudity, drug abuse, other elements, or a combination of the above, so parents are counseled in advance to take this advisory rating very seriously.”
ESRB regarding the M 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.”
It appears the M rating is an abridged version of the R rating. It could be argued that the MPAA has produced an explanation with specificity while the ESRB has only made a brief description of the M rating. With such a paralleling system why is it that the Government and other characters like Jack Thompson are attacking the gaming industry with unrivaled vitriol and misguided determination while they blatantly disregard the MPAA and movies? They cite common games such as Doom, GTA, Quake, and even Halo in instigating, influencing, and initiating violent thoughts or actions in people who play and engage in these video games. Granted, the games mentioned do contain adult content and merit an M rating but why is it that the gaming industry is under attack when the movie industry is producing and releasing movies with an equal or greater amount of violent, sexual, and adult oriented content?
