Gaming Industry Squeaks By With A C
So the 12th Annual MediaWise Video Game Report Card has been released, compiling data collected from Harris Interactive polls and filtered through the ultra-conservative National Institute on Media and the Family. It's a 26-page beast that I simply can't read more than a few paragraphs of without getting irate, but the gist of it is that while they appreciate the attempts of the gaming industry to police itself, they believe they're doing a terrible job of it. They also complain that mature-rated games continue to be marketed to children, and retailers aren't enforcing the ESRB ratings.
The poll revealed the somewhat unsurprising statistic that kids know more about the ESRB ratings than their parents. And that few parents play the games that their kids are playing. Well, duh. Nintendo's Wii aside, what videogame console is even remotely parent-friendly? You know, I bet most parents aren't aware of some of the websites that their children frequent, either.
As far as the actual report card goes, they gave Parental Involvement a C for the reasons I listed above. ESRB Ratings Education earned a B- (they could still do more, apparently, because a lot of parents don't understand the difference between an E and an M). Retailer Policies got a C- because they were appalled that stores don't tell their employees what the ESRB ratings mean. And as far as Retailer Ratings Enforcement goes, specialty stores got a B, while national retailers got a D and rental stores got an F. Because obviously the clerk at GameStop is going to pause before selling GTA to a ten-year-old, but the kid at Blockbuster could care less. (They do take a moment to praise K-Mart, EB Games and Hollywood Video for being 100% compliant, though.)
So the grand average for the Gaming Industry as a whole comes out as a very average C. I guess it could be worse. Any lower and they might have sent us to summer school! Make the jump for a buying guide, just in time for the holidays!
According to this document, these are the games parents should avoid buying for their children and teens:
Assassin's Creed
Call To Duty 4
Conan
The Darkness
Jericho
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (I suspect this should be avoided for other reasons)
Manhunt 2 (well, duh)
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (is RE IV okay?)
Stranglehold
Time Shift
MediaWise recommends these instead:
FIFA Soccer 08
Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock (Really? What about the Satanic lyrics?)
Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour (of course)
Madden NFL 08
Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games
Need For Speed Pro Street
The Sims 2: Castaway (what about the pixelated bits?)
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Galaxy
Viva Pinta (Pinta? Like Columbus' ship?)
Wootini
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 4 December 2007
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: esrb, mediawise, national institute on media and the family, poll, ratings, report card
I get carded more reliably for video games than for liquor. I'm not sure how to feel about that.
Super Mario Bros 3?
Buying your kid a SNES game for Christmas seems a bit cruel. They wouldn't have a clue what to do with it.
Why would anyone buy a Hannah Montana game? Are you serious?
What are people peddling nowadays?
I need to find the person responsible for Hannah Montana games and throttle them. Just a little. Till they stop making games.
Guys! Cant you see! Games are turning the world into a hell hole- We all need to stop being inside playing violent devil-games, and start going out side onto the streets- Where there are drug dealers, real guns, and pedobears! Its the only logical approach!
Stop playing video games! Start being raEp'D!
Pfffft* The National Institute on Media and the Family can explode for all I care... Whos gunna read that crap, if your kids want a video game- fuckin buy it, ya dunce!