In todays society, we can spend as much of our time in a made up world than a real one. Videogames are one of the most booming forms of media today, and yet we seem to be criticising them much more than any other.
Games like GTA IV, Manhunt 2, Painkiller, Beowulf, these are deemed by our media to be gory, bloodfilled, and incentive to violence ala Doom and Wolfenstien 3D. But who is this supposed arguement going to affect?
The gamers, certainly, but this has always been a very consumer based economy, so it makes me wonder how the corporations will be affected. Naturally, they would probably be forced to put tighter restrictions on what actually goes in the game, which therefore means that the blame now falls to the ESRB.
The ESRB, Electronic Systems Ratings Board, is something of an annoyance to gamers everywhere. Sure, they provide a rating which makes things seem "legal", but they also have an incredibly flawed reviewing system which makes games like Manhunt 2 and Doom3 have to be fought for by its companies and fans.
The ESRB takes three "Diverse" members and has them sit together. Now, Diverse can mean many things, but from what I have seen, most of them tend to be of Caucasian decent and often of middle class families. While this is usualy good, your missing out on dozens of other demographics and other groups. Especialy considering that these people are probably not the ones who would even play the games that they must rate.
When it comes time to Rate the game on the ESRB's scale of E, E10+, T, M, and AO, They watch a recorded video of someone else playing the game and going through cutscenes, dialogue, and actual gameplay. They do not play the game, but simply watch a 5-10 mintue movie of the game and then fil out a freaking questionaire on the game and footage they just saw.
Now, this poses some problems. Because of this, developers can chose to "Hide" things from the footage, either directly by not including them, or simply hiding them as easter eggs and cheat codes (IE: The Nude Sims, Hot Coffee, ect.), as well as the fact that the people do not experience anything that a gamer would feel. They dont get the controler, the reactions the very idea of what somebody experiences when playing the game.
The industry needs to look to consumers to get ratings. The audience in which its directed at must be able to grade the game for whether they think its appropriate for them. People need to have responsibility and this is a way to give them that responsibility.
