TITLE: Wherein I agree with Jack Thompson
AUTHOR: Tom Carrick
DATE: 11/26/2005 10:29:00 ip.
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Bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this.
As we all know, Jack Thompson can't do none of that law practicing doo-das in Alabama no more. Good. I don't live even within a few thousand miles of there, but it's still good. However, I'd like to say, there is a point that I agree with him on, albeit for very different reasons.
ESRB is shit. To be less specific, all rating systems I've seen are shit. Jack cites different reasons, but seriously, it sucks. There's a *one year* difference between "mature" at 17+ and "adults only" at 18+. WHY? But even that doesn't really matter.
There are two things that *do* matter. People have value systems I guess is an important thing. An active Christian of any age is going to be more offended by GTA (or even Black & White) than any non-heavily-religious person of any age. Hey, I'm religious - although not in a theistic way - and I've not been offended by any game, really. Except by games I hope will be good and end up being disasteriously bad (I'm looking at *you*, Birthright).
The other thing that matters, that was half-almost-touched upon
was maturity. Age is not maturity. Maturity is maturity. If this Christian is 25, he will still be offended more than most 12 year olds would be. I'm not saying that Christians are immature, here, just that kids (especially gamers - not the charvers (regional variant of chavs)) have rather high maturity levels these days, for better or worse, and any rating system that doesn't cater for this is stuck in the dark ages.
My proposal:
Keep in content descriptors such as "violence", "strong langauge", etc.
Add descriptors for theists, like (a better way of saying) "goes against mono/polytheism", or "has scenes against the values of relgion x", and whatnot.
Remove all the useless age-related ratings.
Add a simple rating system. a game is either: "kiddie-safe", not "kiddie-safe", or "seriously, not kiddie safe" (with possibly better names).
What I would like to see happening is parents actively involved in the gaming that their kids do. Go shopping with your kid(s), choose games with them, play the games beforehand, decide for yourself if *you as a parent* think it's okay for your kid(s) to be playing them. Get closer to your kids, enjoy them a bit, and censor things at your own discretion, not just by what the box says - which would completely kill any sort of suing of games companies using tactics such as "OH BUT I DIDANT KNOW IT WAS A BAD GAME OHGNOES" and such.
Thankyou.
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COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Tom Carrick
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DATE: 02:45
A quick note that I completely forgot to add, but should've:
There's also the point of context.
Kingpin and SWAT 3/4 are both FPSes, and you get to shoot people and whatnot. There's a big difference though, since SWAT 3/4 encourages you to use non-lethal force where possible. There's also Deus Ex to a (much) lesser extent.
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DATE: 13:27
Problem is mainly with the US system. The UK system is generally fine, as games get censored twice, once by PEGI, once by BBFC or whatever they're called. Games such as GTA, Kingpin et al end up with an 18 certificate slapped on them, which is enforced by law as opposed to being a guideline.
I do agree it's utterly stupid to have a 17 and an 18 age rating though, the US system is rubbish.
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DATE: 01:18
The ESRB rating system does its job. You can't create a rating system for every possible group since some groups are just idiots. Your new rating system would have to include categories like "This company most likely worships Satan" or "Satan will try to possess your children through this game." The ESRB system is by far the most rational categorization procedure available compared to more liberal methods which you have previously mentioned.
I suggest you read this review of Doom3 written by a fundamentalist Christian to understand what I mean: http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/games/2004/doom3.html
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DATE: 13:27
Problem is mainly with the US system. The UK system is generally fine, as games get censored twice, once by PEGI, once by BBFC or whatever they're called. Games such as GTA, Kingpin et al end up with an 18 certificate slapped on them, which is enforced by law as opposed to being a guideline.