How are parents supposed to decide whether games are good for their children when there are so many popular misconceptions about sex and violence in video games? In 2001 the Surgeon General of the United States published a study that read, "...(the) findings suggest that media violence has a relatively small impact on violence."
Yet other researchers claim viewing violent media does cause children to behave more aggressively. How can such great discrepancies exist?
In this article, we a take a look at the individual elements facing the game industry and video game sex and violence. What is the ESRB rating system? Is it effective? Did it fail in regards to Hot Coffee? Do violent games make kids violent? Why do so many reports conclude contradictory things? One by one, we try to answer all of them.
Regulating the Game Industry: ESRB and Government Regulation:
Much like the movie industry, the game industry is self-regulated. Video game developers and publishers voluntarily submit their finished products to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). The ESRB then assigns each game one of 7 ratings, ranging from Early Childhood (EC) to Adults Only (AO). You can find a breakdown of what each rating means in this article here. Also like the movie industry, not all video games have to be rated, but pretty much any title you'll find for sale in the United States will be. Trying to sell an unrated title in the United States is very difficult, since many retail stores won't carry unrated video games.In 2005, only about 14% of video games sold were rated M, the video game equivalent of an R-rated movie. 85% of games sold were rated Teen or lower.
- Why it works:
The Rating Board is a non-profit organization and has no legal authority to force game developers to submit their games for rating. So why does it work? What are the consequences of receiving a high rating? The answer to this has to do with retailers, specifically Wal-Mart. Once a game actually ships, many retail stores decide which games they'll sell depending on the rating system. Wal-Mart, for example, refuses to carry Adults Only titles. They also refuse to sell any M-rated video games to minors, requiring I.D. during check-out to verify age. If a game receives too high a rating, some stores will refuse to carry the game, or will restrict its sale, potentially costing the developer millions of dollars in profit. Many stores will treat an unrated title as if it's rated Adults Only by default. Since Wal-Mart is so large, its decision to carry or not carry a game can make or break the game's success. Financial pressures encourage developers and publishers to participate.
- Does the ESRB have teeth? Does it work?
Barring the objections below, yes, the ESRB can and does work, for the most part. How the ESRB scores your game can have substantial impact on how many units you sell, even to the biggest name titles in the industry. When Rockstar Games mislead the ESRB about the presence of the Hot Coffee content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the subsequent re-rating cost them tremendously in sales. Many retailers pulled the product from their shelves until Rockstar published an updated version of the game with the offending segments removed (there's more on Hot Coffee under, "Understanding Hot Coffee" in section 2).
- Does the ESRB have teeth? Does it work?
- Common objections to the ESRB rating system:
- No government regulation:
One common problem people have with the ESRB is that it's paid for by the game industry itself. The ESRB is funded by the Entertainment Software Association, a video game organization subsequently funded by participating members of the game development community. The question is whether or not a group can be relied on to regulate the industry that pays for its bills. Some have claimed that the ESRB is inaccurate in their ratings. Dr. Kimberly Thompson of Harvard University supposedly found during an independent analysis that the ESRB didn't identify all violence. Of course, this is a matter of opinion based on what is considered "violence." This problem is addressed in section 2's, "Understanding Video Game Research." The same study found that Pac-Man is "64%" violent, which would suggest that the study sensitivity is more to blame for the results than actual game content. Most people would probably not object to the violence level in Pac-Man.
- No government regulation: