thoughthead

It’s that time again. Rockstar is gearing up to release the next version of their flagship Grand Theft Auto franchise, and Jack Thompson is gearing up to start more frivolous lawsuits and draft more unconstitutional laws. The whole video game rating system has been a bone of contention for quite some time now. Anyone who has paid attention to mass media for a length of time now will realize that video games are just the latest in a long line of art forms that have been pegged by the US government as unfit for minors. Comic Books, Music, and Movies have all had their share of the spotlight, they’ve all also dealt with it differently be it the Comic Book code, explicit content labels and radio edits or a rating system.

Comic books managed through it by the big labels agreeing to a code of content, and for those who don’t follow that code there’s a legal defense fund. Music ended up having the government step in and issue “Explicit Content” warnings as well as some artist recording safe for radio versions of their hit songs. Personally neither one of those situations are very attractive. Codes and radio edits undermine and severely compromise the artistic integrity of the work while government issued labels puts the government in control of what they feel is fit for public viewing, which has it’s own Orwellian undertones.

The movie industry is a bit different however, they developed a rating system that they themselves control, rather then block content they simply issue descriptors which enables consumers to choose for themselves what they would like to see or not to see. The big differences between this and the explicit content label is that essentially it’s the content creator (the movie industry) that is the one issuing the label. Contrary to popular belief this isn’t controlled by the government but self governed by the industry itself. The video game industry has already taken a big first step in the right direction by simply forming the ESRB to rate games. In many ways it’s even superior to the movie rating system since the actual content developers have a larger hand in the rating system. Not to mention I personally find the ESRB ratings easier to understand then that of the movie ratings.

So if video games have a rating system similar to that of the movie industry why is there still a problem?

I believe the problem has several elements that must be tackled before we’ll see government bodies put this to bed. The first and foremost is the stigma that associate video game playing with a children’s activity. This is the same stigma that plagued both comic books and the music genres that were under accusation of corrupting children and bringing governmental involvement. It is true that video games are played by children, and that in the industry’s infancy most of their consumers were children. However they seem to not realize that not everything is associated with a phase of life. Many things in the way of personal preference grow with the audience. Many of those who chastise video games today seem to forget that the comparatively docile classic rock of their youth was chastised by their parents before them, further forgetting that that their music preferences generally stuck with them into adulthood rather then changing into something more old fashioned as they got older. Similarly video games are growing up with with the children who were first exposed to them now full fledged adults and productive members of society. It would seem however that many of those who would call upon fire and brimstone to strike down the industry are still too old to have grown up with video games and might I add not introspective enough to draw parallels between their current feelings about video games and how policy makers viewed the pastimes of their own youth. Regardless of the industry’s involvement this facet of the problem will eventually work itself out as gamers get older and eventually find themselves the ones making the decisions on these topics. My only hope is that they’ll remember what’s happening today and not make the same foolish assumptions about tomorrow’s new hobbies.

The next important element is education. A rating system is only as good as the how much the consumers understand it. While I myself find the system easy to understand many consumers do not, even more worrisome is that many consumers don’t even know a rating system exists. While this might work itself out over time given a long enough timescale (see: aging gamers) much can be done to accelerate the process. The industry seems to be doing quite a bit on this front from taking out magazine adds, TV commercials, larger and more descriptive labels on the box and even some minor store signage explaining the ratings. They could be doing a lot more on this front. I’d recommend dumping a postcard sized rating guide in the bag of every video game purchase, large signs behind the counter stating “you must be 17 years of age or older to purchase M rated games”. As well as clerks requesting ID for all M rated games regardless of the purchasers perceived age. If someone doesn’t know that game ratings exist they’ll certainly become aware if they’re asked to produce an ID to make the purchase. This is particularly important for those purchasing adult games as gifts for children. It’s appalling how unaware some of these people are, nevermind not noticing the big black “M 17+” text on the box, but one would think maybe some flags should go off when a game holds a title identical to that of a felony. The movie industry doesn’t have this problem because the rating system has been around long enough that nearly everyone is familiar with it at this point, or at very least familiar with the fact that a rating system is in place.

The last major stumbling block the Video Game industry has to conquer is not only the most important towards getting the government off their back but also the biggest difference between the movie industry and the video game industry is enforcement. A rating system is useless unless it is actually adhered to, without that it’s just noise. To my knowledge there are no repercussions or even testing in place to ensure retailers are enforcing the industry set ratings. Compare that to the movie industry which has “secret shoppers”, if you will, that attempt to purchase a ticket or tickets to films they aren’t old enough to see, if the theater fails they risk loosing their blockbusters to other local theaters, or worse loosing all MPAA support. It’s in the best interests to enforce the rating system.

The Video Game industry on the other had doesn’t seem to have anything like that in place, they have no idea if retailers are respecting their ratings, and retailers have no punishment from the Video game industry if they neglect ratings. AFAIK the only thing the Video game industry does is have long talks and meetings with retail franchises where they agree to enforce them. The problem is that this corporate policy isn’t really followed that well down at the local management level, again rarely having any internal corporate repercussions. As a result some stores actually ENCOURAGE the sale to minors because it improves their bottom line, and without without retribution there’s no reason to follow the rules.

This is where JT comes in, as does all of the other wontsomeonethinkofthechildren people. They feel it’s their duty to create a governmentally enforced law where the video game industry has obviously failed. It’s absolutely true that the Video Game industry has failed, but the solution isn’t to have the government step in and enforce it. The Video Game industry needs to enforce it themselves, and until that happens this monkey wont be off their back. I would be remiss if I complained about this situation without offering some kind of solution, and with that I have some suggestions… how about spot checking stores every so often without notice. Send in secret underage shoppers to ensure that stores are enforcing the rating system and if they don’t hit them with a fine or some other more severe punishment. Maybe if they sell last years Halo to a minor they wont get to sell any M rating games next holiday season, I’m sure you’d see their policy enforcement make a quick one-eighty. How about working with retailers to institute new code into their registers that requires clerks to punch in and perform basic validation of the purchaser’s license number, that way not only will clerks be required to ensure the purchaser is of-age but you’ll also know exactly who it was that bought the game and thus where the blame lies if that game ends up in the hands of an underage child. I’m sure the movie and music industry would also be happy to help develop such a system to further quash problems they have with underage purchases of restricted films and explicit albums. (added anti-”big brother” rules could be added to such a system for more comfortable purchasing)
The problem with a government enforced law is now you have government censorship. Laws like this have been struck down in the past for their violation of the First Amendment rights (freedom of speech/expression/press/religion) and for good reason. The video game industry isn’t trying to sell adult video games to children, but many assume that all games are for children and therefore any game made is marketed to children. Many aren’t even aware there is a rating system in place that works fairly well towards those ends, but I think most people would get the picture if the rating system was actually enforced. It doesn’t exactly help the industry much when someone trying to make a case against them can send an 8 year old into a game store cash in hand and walk out with a stack of adult specific games as tall as they are.

I believe games should not be censored less they loose their artistic and creative integrity, I believe access to violent and sexual content should not be viewed by children without their parent’s explicit consent. I believe an enforced rating system should be in place to enable parents to control the content that their children are exposed to until such a time that they are old enough to make decisions on their own. And most importantly, above all, I believe that it is the place of the content creator, not the government, to determine what those ratings are and to enforce the ratings, less our rights of expression are abhorrently defiled for little more then silencing the uninformed.