April 25, 2008 -
The relationship between the National Institute on Media & the Family (NIMF) and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has often been a contentious one.But the two organizations have joined forces in the run-up to the Grand Theft Auto IV launch to remind parents that Rockstar's controversial game is not intended for younger players. A press release jointly issued by ESRB president Patricia Vance (left) and NIMF president David Walsh (right) reads, in part:
With [GTA IV] to be released on April 29th, parents need to be reminded to make sure their kids are playing games appropriate for their age and level of maturity. Grand Theft Auto IV is rated M (Mature for ages 17+)... The game’s rating also includes content descriptors for Intense Violence, Blood, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Partial Nudity and Use of Drugs and Alcohol.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, a parent is involved in the purchase of a video game nearly nine out of every ten times, so it is critical that parents consider the assigned rating carefully when purchasing or renting computer and video games for their children.
The ESRB and [NIMF] encourage parents to be informed and exercise their discretion when considering the purchase of all M-rated games. Parents should look for the ESRB rating on the game’s box, which provides guidance on age-appropriateness as well as describes the content in the game...
Comments
Still though, I commend the ESRB and NIMF for passing the responsibility to parents and leaving it up to them to make the decision of whether or not to buy the game for their kids, instead of just going "WAHHH LET'S BAN GTA4 SO THAT PARENTS DON'T HAVE TO BUY IT."
And you shouldn't be telling me how to raise my children.
With that said, a couple points.
The press release is aimed at those parents buying the game for their children, not themselves. Also, it says that a parent should consider the content carefully before making the decision. They didn't say "don't buy this game for your kids or they'll shoot helicopters out of the sky when they get older."
Also, just set the parental controls. There's no harm in it. That way, the kid won't be able to play the M rated games while the PARENTS ARE AWAY. I'm not saying people leave their 5 year old kids at home. I'm just saying the basic principle: when the cat's away, the mice will play. This could mean that the kid plays the game while a babysitter's around (or the babysitter plays the game without respect to the kid).
There's no way you can monitor EVERYTHING your kid does ALL the time. They're going to go to school. They're going to have friends. They're going to go to those friends' houses. They're suceptable to do things their parents don't know about or wouldn't aprove of. Then there's the kids that go home alone. Yeah. It happens.
It's not lazy parenting to read the descriptors of what's in a game. It's not lazy parenting to then say "no" to your kid. In fact, that's often good parenting when it's done the right way.
In short, your naivety on the matter astounds me. No one is really saying ratings are the magic barrier to keep kids safe from harm. A rating is one thing, the descriptors are another thing. Oh, and the descriptors are supplied by the same "faceless and undemocratic beurocracy" you so... erm... lovingly described.
I'm just wondering what would happen if your daughter accidentally pressed the wrong button in Assassin's Creed, causing Altair to stab someone from behind. I'm guessing you tell her not to press those buttons, but the finger can slip.
They also mention not JUST to check the warning but to check reviews online. Reviews are a great source of information. I'm not talking about the bottom line score of a game that game reviews often have, but I'm talking about the filler. That stuff that says "Oh, by the way, there's a point in this game where you can toss someone off the roof into the spinning blades of a chopper." The more you know before purchase, the better.
Also, having a rating system helps keep those pesky lawsuit happy people at bay, which is part of why they have one in the first place. What I mean is that someone would buy the game knowing full well what content is in it, then turn around and sue because a warning of some sort wasn't given on the outside of the box, and their kid was "traumatized" by the content.
Silly Rabbi. Kicks are for Trids.
No references to Hitler, nazis, God, scriptures, 60 minutes or any other completely irrelevant stuff.
You forget gay porn, assessination of fax machines, name-calling and self-promoting rants...
oh, and his book.
I'm not sure who's just trying to look good and to whom they are trying to look good for. I'm going to have to look into this more. A NIMF and ESRB alliance. Interesting.
@ everyone
How old were you guys or girls when you played your M-rated game?
Just curious.
M-Rated and otherwise violent games of yesteryear DO NOT, I repeat, do NOT compare with M-Rated games of today.
I believe i was around 10 or so when i played the 2D-console Mortal Kombat's, and i think... i dunno, 13 or so for Perfect Dark? I was never much a fan of FPS games, and i bought GTA3 when i was 19, and it bored me. (though that may have been because it was the PC version and my PC just plain SUCKS, but that's another story)
If I remember correctly, the first M-rated game I played was Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. I was 10 at the time.
I was about 12. The only thing they desensitized me to is the clearer graphics of today's M rated games. I could no more rip someone's heart out of their chest as I could run over a helpless squirrel.
being alive pre-ESRB, i couldn't say which was my first mature-rated game.
i remember playing the Gabriel Knight games, and phantasmagoria. those were pretty freaky, but i also watched tons of horror movies and read Stephen King as a young child.
my parents still helped me put things in context, and when the ESRB did begin, i used that to help them monitor what games my little brother played.
Currently our culture feels the need to protect anyone under 18 from everything. That is not my concern. You raise your kids the way you feel they should be raised. I disagree with the government telling me that I should raise my kids the way some congressman thinks my kids should be raised.
What I would like to do is give them props. THIS is the way it should be done. This contrasts with Yee's address yesterday. Notice no insults of the company, no accusations. It's clear that the game was put out for adults so trying to villify it is as rediculous as trying to forbid Playboys for showing things kids aren't allowed to see yet.
Yeah, I can't bring myself to kill an actual thing either (not including ants, spiders, flies, etc.). I once stepped on a mouse and killed it and I freaked out like a total pussy. I sometimes wonder if the games have actually made me more sensitive to real death and violence.
I agree with you there but it's nice to see NIMF joining the ranks of common sense (education with the ESRB) rather then censorship (government regulation with the likes of nanny-state Yee and Clinton).
@TheEdge
Mortal Kombat 2 when i was 12.
Very well put. There is a difference between those who seek to just educate people and parents (the ESRB) and those who seek to censor or have the government come in and do the job of parents and decide though law what is or isn't appropriate for children (Leland Yee, Clinton, Thompson).
Just to hop on the bandwagon: I was familiar with the likes of Doom and Street Fighter when I was a kid, but I largely ignored them in favour of Final Fantasy and Mario Kart. It wasn't the violence that bothered me so much as the complexity (plus the seeming futility of being able to see a soul sphere but not get to it.) The solution is obvious: game companies need to make their games harder and more annoying, so that younger players will be give up after being discouraged by the effort required.
...Well, maybe not, but any excuse to demand more challenging games in this day and age.
Fangamer
Don't be too optimistic.
I had to kill a rat once, it ws chewing up my house. I still felt real bad for it.
I captured a squirrel in my apartment once. I knew we had someting eating something in my house, but it was so skittish that every time I almost saw it it would move like a streak and I coulnd't tell what it was.
I put down a glue trap (instead of a mouse trap) to catch it. Well it turned out it was a baby squirrel. It had gotten it's tail stuck in the glue trap, jumped down to the linoleum floor and the glue trap fell sticky side down. It was trapped and stuck to the floor, I don't know how long but I'd guess for several hours.
When I cam home and saw it, I put a trashcan upside down over the body and carefully cut the glue trap off the floor. Then I slid a piece of cardboard under the trashcan to be able to take the squirrel outside. I figured that it would have been a tramatic enough experience that it wouldn't ever return there again.
The next day I came home and there was the squirrel, sitting on my counter eating my bread. The only thing that changed was it was frightened of me anymore. Instead of seeing me as the mean giant that glued it to the floor, I guess it thought I was the nice giant that rescued it...
My first M rated games I played were a bunch of PC FPS. Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, etc starting when I was 8.
But that aside, I am glad to hear some common sense during this whoe GTA IV advertising campaign.
Penny Arcades comic finder was down and I was looking for something, I picked a date at random and it came back with this:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/12/1/
Soooooo apropos!
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Dude, that was kick ass!
It won't do anything. This isn't the first high profile M game (see the 3 GTA III's), why didn't people figure it out then?
REELY?
*GASP!*
And they're WORKING TOGETHER!
Can it be ... ?
And what's that sound ... ?
It sounds like fear-spreading, axe-grinding activists weeping and gnashing their teeth at this ominous portent of the death of their pet cause through common-sense and peaceful resolution...
As Zach pointed out, they don't understand technology. ESRB, team up with Bub from GamerDad instead! He understands technology and isn't an old senile man that can't tell the difference between unaccessible and accessible content.
Watch someone mention a rape scene in a mission to get misconstrued as a rape mission.
It's great to say that they already are. Take a look at this webcast the PTA and the ESRB just did a webcast for parents, and the PTA did a brochure to hand out with Andrew helping to write it. You can watch it at
http://visualwebcaster.com/DSSimon/47485/event.html
It really turned out great.
It plays to their suppressed sexuality. Kind of a Freudian slip.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Yes. I'm old.
I'd let my kid play Grand Theft Auto 4.
Or references to Jack Thom-- oh wait you already said 'irrelevant stuff', my bad. :P