[Clickme]

The ESRB rating is listed in FOUR places on a game: the front and back of hte box, the instuction booklet, and in case you lose (or don't buy with) all of that, it's on the disc too. THe Rating system not only but a Letter on hte, but ALSO explains the Suggested Age above it. On hte back of hte box is a detailed break down of WHY it gets this rating, sighting various things such as Alcohol Reference, Violence, Blood, Language and about 30 other things. This systyem is im place so that people can know EXACTLY what they hold in their hands, and cna prevent games that were MADE ENTIRELY FOR A MORE MATURE GAMER out of hte hands of Minors.

Ignorant/lazy parents assume all video games are for kids. I personally liek hte way it was phrased in Moral Kombat: IF I assume that all TV shows are Sesame Street, and then turn on the the Sopranos, I'm going to be disgusted! - People tend to think of video games as a child's activity, not realising that the majority of gamers are over 18, with the average age being around 33. Also, I believe that something like 90% of the purchases involving minors had a parent present when buying games. If Violent games are getting into the hands of children, it because parents are not informed, or don't WANT to be informed, content to believe that all games are Mario and Pacman.

In most of hte arguments I've seen, people are saying that the games should not HAVE violent content in them because children shouldn't be exposed to it. That's because hte most violent content are in M-fucking-Rated games that are NOT TARGETED TO CHILDREN!!! But the anti-game activists ignore that crucial fact. The standard set in this law would relegate most games with violence in them (even T games) into a special category that only accounts for violence against images of humans, or characters with sufficiently human characteristics, marking them with a big extra label on the front, more or less marking them as Adult Only, which is completely unnecessary with the ESRB already marking Mature games, and sighting violence in Teen games too as per their system of rating. All this new system would do is drop VG sales. Retailers like Wal-mart and Target will simply stop carrying those marked games for PR sake, and with less places to sell them, developers make less money and eventually say fuck it, and stop putting that content in ANY game, which will truly bring all games down to a more childlike level while cutting off the free form of expression inherent in other media such as movies and TV.

All this system would do is further complicate things and piss people off, not to mention cut deep into the gaming industry as a whole. The ESRB already does the job of informing people (and SPELLING IT THE FUCK OUT FOR THEM) of the content in games, and retailers like Gamestop uphold the ID policy. In 2008, over 80% of underage buyers were turned away from purchasing M-rated games, which is far greater a ratio than the movie industry, and you don't see movies coming under fire. Hell in order to actually FIND OUT what's in a movie you have ot go to websites jsut to find out WHY they are rated R, whereas games tell you RIGHT ON HTE BOX!