I remember the day well. We were looking through our selection of PlayStation 2 games when I noticed that the DragonBall Z video games were rated “T for Teen” but Tokyo Xtreme Racer was rated “E for Everyone.” In the former, cartoon characters from a TV show rated “Y7” fly around, do impossible martial arts moves on one another, and hit one another with energy blasts. In the latter, Junior can race a photo-realistic onscreen replica of Dad’s sports car.
Which game would you rather your 8 year old was playing?
Video games are rated by the ESRB. This organization has had its share of controversy over the years. I will leave these issues aside. For our discussion it is only important to know what the ratings are supposed to mean.
To begin with, please note that although there are a half dozen actual ratings, you are unlikely to have seen more than 3 of them. Yes, it turns out that in addition to Everyone, Teen, and Mature, we have Early Childhood, Everyone 10+, and Adults Only. How does E 10+ differ from Teen? To use our example above, what makes DragonBall Z somehow not “cartoon violence” under the E 10+ criteria?
This brings me to the next issue, that game makers clearly game the system to get a desired result. What makes Counter Strike, rated M, more violent than Battlefield 2, rated T? A little bit of splut, that’s all. And from my point of view, at least the Battlefield games encourage the use of individual and squad strategy. Neither game is appropriate for our theoretical 8 year old, above.
So when considering a video game for family play, the rating on the front of the box is useless. The hapless parent is still reduced to reading a parade of reviews, and hoping. And other ratings systems are no better. Disney managed to turn the rating for Pirates of the Carribean into an ad all by itself, by pointing out that the movie contains “intense sequences of adventure violence, including frightening images.” Well heck, that sounds better than what Rolling Stone had to say about the film! And what the heck is “adventure violence” anyway? Is it more violent than fantasy violence? Less violent than a typical football game? How does it compare to the evening news? Who is the marketing genius that came up with this nonsense?
In Short, ratings systems are not a substitute for research and rational thought. They are only slightly misleading signage.
In closing, more restrictions on carry-ons mean more checked luggage which in turn means more lost luggage (I know, duh); just when you thought it was safe to talk about politics Congress is back in session to decide little things like the budget for the fiscal year that started October 1; a funny if slightly sexist cartoon; information on weight training for women; and Rumsfeld, War Crimes, and “Universal Jurisdiction.”