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August 16, 2005

What's broken here?

"The video game ratings aren't working."

It's a familiar refrain and one used to justify all kinds of legislation that seeks to censor or restrict video games.

But the ratings are working.

This article from the BBC News cites a study done by the ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) that shows that parents understand video game ratings - but choose to ignore them anyway.

If you understand something and choose to ignore it, what's not working right here?

As developers, how can we work with parents to take these ratings seriously?

Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at August 16, 2005 12:44 PM | Discuss this post on our forums

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Comments

The thing I found most enlightening about the BBC article was the reader comments.

It's nothing new; we've all heard the arguments from gamers, accusing politicians of using games as a scapegoat instead of placing the blame with irresponsible parenting. But I thought that sort of thinking was specific to US culture, and apparently it's much more widespread than that. Interesting.

Posted by: Ian Schreiber at August 16, 2005 10:46 AM

Yeah, that argument worked real well for the tobacco companies.

Tobacco company: "But we had a warning label on the packs. How are we to blame if people ignored them?"

Judge: "Shut up, and pay those smokers a big wad of cash."

Good luck with that.

Posted by: Greg at August 16, 2005 12:37 PM

Greg, a clarification:
The government imposed the warning labels against the tobacco companies' wishes. The tobacco companies concealed internal research that tobacco was harmful and denied that they had any such evidence, which is why they were slapped with huge fines.

Posted by: Nicholas at August 16, 2005 12:53 PM

Yes, the labels were mandated. But the labels remained in spite of tobacco company denials. I might have been sympathetic if the lawsuits had been filed earlier, but by the time the first lawsuit hit, anyone who honestly didn't know that cigarrettes were bad for them certainly didn't deserve money for what was obviously willful ignorance.

But I'll concede your point, because it was an imperfect analogy anyway.


I'm not particularly convinced that the parents who said they understood the ESRB system really did. If you know anything about polling, you know that people tend to exhibit "teacher pleasing behaviour" when they get polled. They also don't want to seem dumb, so they won't necessarily admit to not understanding something like the ESRB-- especially if someone from a gaming company crafted the questions.

But even if they do understand the rating system, and are ignoring it, so what? Does the existence of bad parents relieve the game companies of civic responsibility?

Just about everyone knows that abusing children is wrong, but some parents still do it. Does that mean that a company should market sticks for people to beat their children with?

And that's not such an imperfect analogy. Psychological damage is just as bad, if not worse, than physical injury. A 10 year old who plays a game like Leisure Suit Larry is already lacking good role models, and the game is only going to cause further problems.

Posted by: Greg at August 16, 2005 01:43 PM

Interesting points, Greg. However, your analogies all concern products that have no redeeming social merit or valid uses by responsible adults. If we accept that games don't cause psychological damage in rational adults, why are the developers on the hook for "civic responsibility"?

Where does social responsibility end at the developer, and where should it start at the publisher... and the retailer?

Posted by: Ian Schreiber at August 16, 2005 03:41 PM

"Just about everyone knows that abusing children is wrong, but some parents still do it. Does that mean that a company should market sticks for people to beat their children with?"

Ok, all well and good, but this stick is not made for beating children. This is a stick for beating consenting adults, and some idiots are using it to beat their children.

But perhaps you aren't into BDSM, so I'll use another analogy.

It is every adults right to drink beer. It is practically a requirement in American life that you get blind stinking drunk at least once in your life. But some people give alcohol to people who are under age. Some of these people are stupid, and giving alcohol to stupid kids, who then go and do stupid things, and hurt themselves or someone else. These are the ones you hear about on TV and the ones you see on the internet, jumping onto the hoods of moving cars.

There are also massive numbers of people who give their kids a sip of wine at dinner, or let them have a beer or something. These are the responsible adults.

How do we handle this problem? The irresponsible people get in trouble with the police, and the responsible people go about their bussiness of getting drunk without harassment.

Now, the idea that leasure suit larry would "damage" a child is just laughable. A 10 year old doesn't know enough to be offended or damged. leasure suit larry would go over his head, he would get bored with the games (lets face it, the games aren't really the point of leasure suit larry) and go do something else. If the child is a problem child, it doesn't matter what the trigger is, the problem was always there, it was just a matter of time.

It is safe to assume that people who say "video games made me do it" are incapable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality. The clinical definition for a state where you cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality is psychosis. That is to say, People who say "video games made me do it", are crazy, and should be put away by men in white coats.

Posted by: Anathema at August 16, 2005 03:51 PM

I see what you are talking about Anathema, and alot of your assumptions are true. But those who claim "video games made me do it" aren't crazy, they might have known what they were doing, and they were looking for a scapegoat, but I'm digressing here.

There are alot of responsible parents out there. Alot of my friends parents were extremely wary about the ratings when I would come over to play games with their son, because his siblings might watch. Though you might think that it is crazy, we were playing M rated games and his brothers were only 5 and 7, ages where violence and sex are making a huge impression on their lives.

"Does the existence of bad parents relieve the game companies of civic responsibility?"

No, because game developers should not have a civic responsibilty. They are there to make games, or entertainment, for people to consume. Much like the Movies, Games are entertainment that, if you don't like it, you don't have to buy it.

Posted by: Duane Jeffers at August 16, 2005 05:13 PM