E is for the ESRB

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Yes, they rate games and make it easier for parents to pick which game is appropriate.  I'm sort of grateful for that. I know not every parent is a gamer. But, parents can be lazy and blindly trust those rating. Then they turn around and blame the game. Or they ignore the ratings and then complain about little Billy being exposed to Grand Theft Auto at the tender age of six. Duh. That's not the ESRB's fault, but over the years I have found some of their ratings off. Usually, they err on the side of caution. For games that I think the ESRB has rated wrong go here.

But I'm not done. My biggest bone of contention isn't lazy parents who don't pay attention to their child's gaming habits. It's the AO rating. If you're not a gamer, you probably never heard of it. Why? It stands for Adult Only. Since 1994, only 20+ games have gotten that rating. It's the kiss of death. Retail stores don't carry them. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo won't allow AO games on their systems. It pisses me off, frankly.  Content is cut from games so they can be rated M. To me, that's censorship. Unfortunately, video games are still seen as toys.  Beyond any other form of entertainment, they are judged harshly and scrutinized  more. Parents, lawmakers, and other naysayers need to realize games grew up and so did the people playing them. There's a rating system, it's not perfect, but it's there. And maybe one day an adult gamer can actually enjoy a good game with an AO rating.  Since I like ranting about this, I've covered sex and nudity in video games on this blog last year.

Sex and Nudity in Video Games: What's the Big Deal?

Yeah, what is the big deal, cause I don't get it. R rated movies and even PG-13 movies have sex and/or nudity in them all the time and few people complain. But when it comes to video games, we all got to "think about the children". I'm not a child and just because I don't mind games with sex and nudity, that doesn't mean I'm some immature pervert.

But these two reasons are the driving force behind the outrage over sex in games.  One one hand, you have the idea that video games are still toys meant for only kids. This is usually spewed by people who don't play games or have much to do with them. The other reason, the immature one, is an idea shared by some gamers who feel because they are adults, they are too mature to look at the occasional set of  digital boobs.  Why can't we treat games the same as movies or TV? They are all  rated and as forms of entertainment, they should be treated equally.

Read the full article here