Examining the Research the U.S. Senate is Using to Judge the ESRB:
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Understanding the 62% Violent Pac-Man
In July of 2006, Dr. Kimberly Thompson testified before the U.S. Senate on the effectiveness of the ESRB rating system. To support her claims, Dr. Thompson cited a study she conducted in 2001 which analyzed the violent content of E-rated video games. The study found that the classic arcade version of Pac-Man is supposedly 62% violent. In the same study, Dig Dug is 67% violent, Ms. Pac-Man 54.3%, Q*bert 33.5%, and Centipede 92.6%.
While completely out of touch with reality, the study was still taken seriously as evidence that the ESRB is missing "violent" content during their labeling process.
It gets more amazing. The numbers come from measuring the duration a player engages in violent behavior over a 90 minute period. So to say that Pac-Man is 62% violent literally means that the player spends 56 out of every 90 minutes being violent towards another character. The process of measurement is simply flawed. In fact, when you apply the same measurement to 15 minutes of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, an M rated game, you find that it says Oblivion is 18 times less violent than Pac-Man, about 5%.
The results of the study deviate so much from what the average person would consider to be significant violence that the results are almost inconsequential. Still, this is the research that the U.S. Senate is listening to when deciding if the ESRB system should be revamped, and the gaming community should be paying attention.
But before we get to details of the study and its flaws, take a look at some of the other ratings that were assigned to games, starting the Super Mario Brothers and Zelda franchises, and be amazed at how misleading research can be.
While completely out of touch with reality, the study was still taken seriously as evidence that the ESRB is missing "violent" content during their labeling process.
It gets more amazing. The numbers come from measuring the duration a player engages in violent behavior over a 90 minute period. So to say that Pac-Man is 62% violent literally means that the player spends 56 out of every 90 minutes being violent towards another character. The process of measurement is simply flawed. In fact, when you apply the same measurement to 15 minutes of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, an M rated game, you find that it says Oblivion is 18 times less violent than Pac-Man, about 5%.
The results of the study deviate so much from what the average person would consider to be significant violence that the results are almost inconsequential. Still, this is the research that the U.S. Senate is listening to when deciding if the ESRB system should be revamped, and the gaming community should be paying attention.
But before we get to details of the study and its flaws, take a look at some of the other ratings that were assigned to games, starting the Super Mario Brothers and Zelda franchises, and be amazed at how misleading research can be.