Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

December 26, 2008

There is a somewhat curious report in the Tehran Times which says that Iran is "joining" the ESRB.

One interpretation of this is that the Iranian government will henceforth require that games sold there carry ESRB ratings. Another possibility is that the Iranians are instituting their own rating system and using "ESRB" generically, in the same way that xerox is commonly used to refer to copy machines.

We're guessing the latter, since comments from an Iranian official involved in the project indicate that some sort of local editing process took place. From the Tehran Times:

The managing director of the National Foundation for Computer Games Behruz Minaii announced that Iran will be joining the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) next week...

Minaii added that the idea of joining ESRB was initiated last year and since then, 20 experts from different religious, psychological, social and media organizations have worked on compiling the project.

“Afterwards, several members of the Guardian Council and scholars of the Qom Seminary and different universities of the country did the final editing,” he remarked.

The first part of the plan is now ready and the next parts will also be completed through establishing this organization, he stated.

We've got a request into the ESRB for clarification as to any potential involvement on their part.

Via: Kotaku
 

Comments

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

Hopefully this means they're officially supporting a games industry but regulating it via the ESRB. Or it could just be an excuse to censor everything.

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

Prehaps TVtropes has ruined my life, but this screams Xanatos Roulette.

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

Oh, thank god I'm not the only one addicted to tropes!  I've looked up one definition, then spent hours linking from one description to the next.

It's actually more of a Xanatos "Gambit," in that they're trying to use a cunning plan to trick the "good guys" into giving what they want.  The difference is, "Roulette" is based heavily on random chance events they don't really have control over.  Considering that Iran already has pretty strong censorship, there's no luck involved.  Adopt a ratings system, regulate the sales of games.  Pretty staightforward.  Now that I think about it, it's not even that cunning.  Transparent, really.

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

I was thinking they had something much bigger and incoherent in mind.

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

Rated "AA" for Allah Approves.

The Honest Game - http://www.thehonestgame.org

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

Both a good thing and a bad thing.

Good thing, perhaps that would mean that parents in Iran will be more informed of the games they would be getting for their younger children.

Bad thing, they will still be hating anything with a 17+ or 18+ rating just like the USA parents and politicians do.

But I see this as more of a good thing than a bad thing because Videogames do need content ratings and classifications.

 

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

Well i don't think this will stop then from banning or censoring games. Iran is a facist state with little to no freedom.

"No law means no law" - Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black on the First Amendment

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

It's actually more of a Xanatos "Gambit," in that they're trying to use a cunning plan to trick the "good guys" into giving what they want.  The difference is, "Roulette" is based heavily on random chance events they don't really have control over.

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eglen - video izle

Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?
Re: Iran Adopting ESRB Ratings?

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