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How to Fix the ESRB Ratings System: An Insiders Perspective

1up.com — I worked for the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), and I rated approximately 700 games during my time there. The ESRB has the power to change the ratings system before it becomes irretrievably lost. Something desperately needs to happen here because the alternative -- a government-controlled scheme--is a downright frightening concept.

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  • TimesHero, on 03/15/2008, -2/+27"It is not a matter of time and resources; it's a matter of electing the most effective way to ensure all relevant content is reviewed." -- ESRB president Patricia Vance

    If that is the case... then why not play the entire game, instead of "They just watch submitted videotapes or DVDs of someone else playing the game."
    • fkr3, on 03/15/2008, -2/+9How is playing the entire game feasible? That could take hundreds of hours - aka months of work - just to rate one title.
      • SarcasticPirate, on 03/15/2008, -1/+8Not necessarily the entire game. They could show the videos as a baseline example and then give the raters some sort of actual play testing of the game to understand the title better. For example, if the video has a character curse, the reviewer assumes that that is a mainstay throughout the title. However, once the rater has played the game for several hours (less than ten) , they realize that the cursing as an isolated incident, so their rating could be more lenient if the title deserves it.
      • Kennerk, on 03/15/2008, -0/+5if they did do that, they then also have an extremely accurate rating. i hope i'm not the only one who thinks so....
      • Shaflugi, on 03/15/2008, -1/+4Hundreds of hours? What games do YOU play? Most single-player games are less than 10, and multiplayer-focused games would hardly take any time at all. You can get a good idea of what the game should be rated just by playing some of the modes a few times.
        • fkr3, on 03/15/2008, -1/+3Obviously more complicated games than you. :P

          I'm into RTS and turn-based kind of stuff ... c&c, warcraft, heroes of might and magic, that kind of thing. Not short games.
  • DemonDivaDani, on 03/15/2008, -6/+3yeah... obviously there are some gmes that can't be played to completion, but watch the gameplay vid PLUS play some of the game.
  • dontdoitjake, on 03/15/2008, -8/+58Step one to fix the ESRB: stop blaming video games for society's problems and people's wrongdoings.

    Step two: Dismantle the ESRB.
    • TehMCP, on 03/15/2008, -0/+7Well, to be fair, I do think that most parents appreciate the ESRB, despite its less than perfect work. My parents are incredibly behind on technology and would have absolutely no idea of what was in a game without ratings help. Unfortunately, they just look at the box and figure that if it's not ok for everyone, it must be a "bad" game. I agree with the author's assertion that the game's rating should be far more customized in a manner reminiscent of the MPAA (not that I thought I'd ever say that). Hell, we'll just say I generally agree with the whole article. >_>
    • gypsi, on 03/15/2008, -3/+6if you dismantle the esrb - you're just asking for trouble. the existence of the esrb is what has allowed so much freedom up until now
    • canthraxp, on 03/15/2008, -1/+9You need to dismantle Fox news and their "experts" first.
    • BevansDesign, on 03/15/2008, -1/+2Step 1 is good. Step 2 is stupid.
  • theaceoffire, on 03/15/2008, -1/+25ESRB is a far better system than the Movie rating system.
  • HydrogenOxide, on 03/15/2008, -1/+35Oblivion's rerating was *****.
    • Dumbledorito, on 03/15/2008, -0/+49Don'cha know? Killing is fine and healthy, but if people under 21 were to realize that everyone is naked under their clothes, it would be the end of civilization!
    • oxdeltaxo, on 03/15/2008, -0/+9What really confuses me is that you can use a third party mod to view characters nude in wow cept they don't change its rating. In fact any game can have third party mods used to make the models look nude. Seems like a retarded reason to re-rate a game.
    • BevansDesign, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1Well, to be fair, the final levels of Oblivion had you go to an island where everyone was topless. I don't think that's bad (certainly not as bad as the constant killing) but it makes sense given the rules of the rating system.
  • jcani, on 03/15/2008, -13/+3Figures the ESRB president would be a woman ~
    • SarcasticPirate, on 03/15/2008, -1/+2Thanks for the sexism there, bud.

      Buried. Reported.
      • MrPeach, on 03/16/2008, -0/+0Ooooo reported.
        He's so gonna get a purple nurple.
        Being a sexist or making a sexist comment is NOT ***** report worthy, douchbag.
  • Dumbledorito, on 03/15/2008, -1/+8I just took a look at "Spiderwick Chronicles." For being a game for kids, it sure has some of the more realistic baseball-bat beatdown moves (admittedly of goblins, but still) this side of GTA.
  • FriedTurkey, on 03/15/2008, -10/+4These ideas are completely stupid.

    Get rid of AO? OK then M games are the ones who cannot be put on consoles. There needs to be something so we don't see porn games for the Nintendo Wii.

    Competing system? That's great - publishers can just pick the rating they want and make the system into a joke.

    What really needs to happen is that parents aren't ***** and pay attention to the ratings instead of waiting for the Fox News story to tell them they should be outraged.

    The other is thing is that M rated games shouldn't be sold to minors. If we want really mature content, it shouldn't be sold to kids unless their parent willingly knows it is a mature game and buys it for their kid. The enforcement at stores for the policy is a joke. We don't need government regulation but stores shouldn't sell the M games to kids. Once we have this there shouldn't be the phony outrage that there is nudity and violence in games because they will be the products for adults.
    • legoalert33, on 03/15/2008, -0/+8"There needs to be something so we don't see porn games for the Nintendo Wii."
      Think of the possibilites with the Wiimote. There has to be a porn game somewhere in Japan for the Wii.
      • Gir53457, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2Nope. However you can grope anime high school girls on the DS.
      • Kennerk, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1sega's second priority next to dreamcast 2 is "Real-Life High School"
    • jcani, on 03/15/2008, -1/+3"The other is thing is that M rated games shouldn't be sold to minors. "
      Why do you think they check the ID's of people who look less than 30 and I have yet to hear about a retail store STOCKING "porn games" on their shelves. Buried for stupidity.

      • FriedTurkey, on 03/15/2008, -2/+1The enforcement is a joke. Are you serious? Best Buy is the only one that checks.
      • xkorbin, on 03/15/2008, -0/+3I am 15 and I've never been carded once, and I look fairly young.
    • mikemil828, on 03/15/2008, -0/+3//Get rid of AO? OK then M games are the ones who cannot be put on consoles. There needs to be something so we don't see porn games for the Nintendo Wii.// There is something to prevent porn games for the Nintendo Wii, that thing is Nintendo itself, the big three decide what exactly goes on their consoles, even in Japan where pornographic games are relatively accepted in the society generally have to have their pornographic elements removed before they are ported onto consoles.
    • JudgeMonkey, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1"There needs to be something so we don't see porn games for the Nintendo Wii. "

      Actually, not Nintendo, not the ESRB need to worry about this. It's called NOT BUYING THE DAMN GAME if you don't want. Why should there be ANYTHING limiting the games on something? You aren't forced to buy any.
  • Snyz, on 03/15/2008, -0/+4Even if a new system were to be put into place, I doubt it would do any good, any parent who's careless enough not to check a rating, or just don't care at all, is not going to care any more than they already do.
  • smacksaw, on 03/15/2008, -3/+5Dead wrong.

    There needs to be actual criteria. Foul language, blood, death, nudity, sexual situation, etc. None gets a 0, some gets a 1 and a lot gets a 2. Score it for your letter like that, but an M for violence and an M for sex should say so. People should know WHY it's rated that way. And that is why I will never work for the ESRB because my idea is good.
    • rabidg00se, on 03/15/2008, -1/+4There ARE reasons, they're listed under the rating.
      • ceraphin, on 03/15/2008, -1/+1only minor "for cartoon violence" really tells me what to expect, gimme a number 1-10 10 being the highest it'll make it easiar for me to find games this way as well as i love to look for the goriest stuff
    • BevansDesign, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2There WAS a system like that. What happened to it? I definitely remember seeing little black and white thermometers on game boxes for language, violence, nudity, and so on. I think it was a 1-4 rating.
  • linuxrocks2007, on 03/15/2008, -3/+14I agreed with most of his ideas except for the one stating to merge Adults Only to Mature. Mature games could be more like NC-17 to R rated movies, mostly because of violence and language while Adults Only are more like X rated movies where pornography is the case. I don't wanna see Playboy anywhere near my Resident Evil 4.
    • sexypeon, on 03/15/2008, -2/+4I do.
    • Kennerk, on 03/15/2008, -2/+1but you can't say "Playboy: The Mansion" wasn't the *****...
      • reckless8594, on 03/15/2008, -0/+4No, but I can say that it was *****.
    • Lunarbunny, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2You're slightly misinformed. NC-17 is the MPAA's official, trademarked "X" rating. X was not trademarked and therefore you started to get porn titles advertising themselves as X, XX, XXX... you get the picture.
    • ceraphin, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2if movies can show boobs at Rated R which is for 17+ why can't a game rated 17+ Mature do it also. adult only to me is like the equivalent of rated R, cause have you seen some of these PG-13 movies lately they've got some sick action in it, hell beowolf was pg 13(although to be fair beowolf was pretty slow and boring but theres was limbs being lossed in it)
  • p014k, on 03/15/2008, -5/+21I don't remember the last time I paid attention to the esrb rating of a game. The rating does not affect me in any way shape or form.
    • Irfit, on 03/15/2008, -0/+12The target of the ESRB is parents who have no idea about videogames.
  • NGliam, on 03/15/2008, -1/+10I like the English version, controlled by the BBFC.. why use things like Mature, Teen, etc when you can just apply literal age references? After all, the ESRB ratings are just converted to ages (10+, etc) so why not make it easier? I can't remember any specifics but I think our ages are universal, 12+, 16+ and 18+.
    • ceraphin, on 03/15/2008, -0/+3that is a great idea you can then finally get rid of that BS AO rating and just call it 18+, which technically is the legal adult age
  • NanoChron, on 03/15/2008, -2/+4When I was a kid, I would play video games all the time. Now as an adult, I don't have time to be playing all the games before I give it to my kids to play. Ratings for games helps me know if it is OK to let my kids start to play. I have the TV in a public part of the home(not in their bedroom) then as they play, I can keep an eye out for what they are seeing. If I see something inappropriate I have them turn it off. This would be a harder task without a rating system. Nothing is perfect and I think some (not all) of the article is correct but what we currently have is adequate although could be greatly improved.
  • samdu, on 03/15/2008, -0/+10The only way to "fix" it is to make parents actually pay attention to it. Which is impossible, so the point is moot.
  • DrSpud, on 03/15/2008, -3/+14The way you fix the ESRB, and other broken rating systems, is to make them completely objective. My idea for movie ratings - really, all media ratings - is as such: you have 3 factors, sex, violence, and all other objectionable content (SVO) and a number from 1 to 10 that corresponds to each based on a set of rules. Have revealing outfits or romance? That's at least a 3 for sex. Nudity? That's a 7. Shooting people with a fair amount of blood might be somewhere around a 6 for violence while the most extreme examples of blood and gore would get 9 and 10 ratings. Language, drug use, and anything else you can think of would affect the 'other' rating. Of course the actual rules would be much more specific and account for the length of time or even the rough percentage of game time anything objectionable occurs or lasts.

    With a rating system like that, people will know exactly what level of content to expect at a glance. 'Oh, no, little Jimmy, you can't get Doom 3 because its SVO is 1,8,4 - it's way more violent a game than I want you to play!' And they would know based on the rules exactly what it can contain, so, say, parents not wanting their kids to be scarred for life at the sight of an exposed breast can know to avoid anything with a sex rating of 7 or higher. With the objective, freely available, standard rules, you don't even need a ratings group - every publisher can rate their own and be held responsible should they not follow adhere to the rules.

    The main thing this fixes is judgment. An ESRB rating of T is a judgment that the game is only appropriate for people 13 and older. Well, I'll decide what's right for my kids, thank you very much! Just let me know what's in it, and let me make up my own damn mind.

    Might not be original, but I think it'll work.
    • gmprunner, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1I think language should actually have its own rating too, since it's role in a rating can be very influential and many parents look out for it specifically.

      Other than that, I think your idea is great.
  • neiltc13, on 03/15/2008, -3/+5The only way to give the ESRB purpose is to make it illegal to sell a rated game to a child below the age on the box.
  • jbonner71, on 03/15/2008, -4/+3To anyone who is interested I, I posted my official response here:

    http://www.gamestooge.com/2008/03/08/the-official- ...

    I have to admit that it's kinda weird that this story made the front page of Digg...but I'm glad people are interested, regardless.
  • GalacticXenu, on 03/15/2008, -1/+10There's nothing wrong with the ratings systems, and M games aren't going to damage kids; hell, even an Ao game probably wouldn't. Children don't go exploding at the sight of something they can see on TV (and most kids turn out fine regardless).

    It shouldn't even be illegal for kids to buy an M game. Hell, my parents were annoyed at having to get out of the car to buy me a game when I was a kid, they knew why they had to but they'd rather just send me in and buy it while they stayed in. They knew me and that I wasn't a violent person and that video games wouldn't turn me violent.

    Let the parents police their kids and watch what they play, not letting the state play nanny or teachers on kids and inconveniencing everyone.
  • scamper22, on 03/15/2008, -4/+0I think a practical way to fix it is to hold developers accountable.
    It's unreasonable to expect raters to go through and find every single cheat code that unlocks a room to a cheap sexual joke.

    Developers agree to have their games rated by the ESRB.
    Developers send in clips of the most offensive parts of their game (Sexual, violence, language...)
    The ESRB bases their rating on their own gameplay as well as these clips.

    If the clips provided by the developers are not accurate. For example, there is a scene of violence that is substantially more graphic than the ones provided, the developer is FINED as per the ESRB agreement. This includes cheat codes and other hidden materials that will be available on the game disk. That would keep everyone honest.
  • doodirock2, on 03/15/2008, -2/+2Check out his response

    http://digg.com/gaming_news/Writer_responds_to_ESR ...
  • Owwmykneecap, on 03/15/2008, -1/+1Its very Simple:
    U: Universal: for everyone.
    PG: Parental Guidance: possibly not suitable for small children
    12: Not suitable below this age
    15: Not suitable below this age
    18: Not suitable below this age

    Would it really be hard to rate games this way?
    • BevansDesign, on 03/15/2008, -0/+4It IS very simple. The ESRB system is almost exactly what you've written down.
      • Owwmykneecap, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1Yeah but Label it as such...

        Also some places wont stock M in America...so much for land of the free.
  • Izacus, on 03/15/2008, -1/+1Why not just copy European PEGI ratings?
  • Azriel7, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1I agree with merging AO and mature into one rating, but instead of mature I would have it listed as 18+, it is less intimidating than AO and there can be NO confusion for which age group it is for. AO is worse than useless, it is the kiss of death for games since no retailer or console maker will support it and most MATURE games are a joke since most of the time what the ESRB consider mature I consider pg-13/teen at most.
  • smashingmonkey, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1"The primary mission of the rating system is to help parents determine what games are appropriate for their children." - ESRB president's response.

    The problem is that the paradigm has changed - games are an adult medium as much as (or even more so than) a children's medium, but the way the ESRB has structured their ratings systems has prevented games from getting mature content aimed at adults. AO draws no line between pornography and slightly more explicit mature content than M will permit. Their mission completely ignores the fact that gamers have grown up.
  • Rileyper, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1Thompson is that you
  • peanut1972, on 03/16/2008, -0/+11. They need to get real funding not from major video game developers.
    2. Play the games like video game reviewers. Too often we review games and find big gaping holes in content that the ESRB missed.
    3. I like the competition idea - a lot.
    4. Let the ESRB be sued by parents when they miss something. That would shake them up quickly
  • esc27, on 03/17/2008, -0/+1"AO goes the way of the dodo and Mature now becomes the top of the scale"
    Terrible idea, by that standard porn movies would be rated R.
    The usual good idea for rating systems is to focus more on content labeling than age. You could do away with AO only if the M rating had a second level to show that a game had something traditionally considered adult.

    Also, raters need to be anonymous to prevent bribes and conflicts of interest. Secrecy is good.



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