# ESRB Rating awareness for parents may be at its peak



## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)

They cite an 85% awareness amongst parents with children that play games, and 70% that actually use the ESRB rating system to dictate what games they allow their children to play. Although Patricia Vance (President) said it's possible that as time goes on, more gamers will have children that become gamers and thus raise this awareness it's just as likely that they will use their own personal experience to dictate what children play as opposed to the ratings themselves.

This report comes hot on the tail of a report that states, "the entertainment and videogame industries have a responsibility to give parents the tools to make appropriate choices about what their children watch and play."

As  rhetorically asks, what is one supposed to do with the individuals clamoring for this information has it... and sources indicate most claim to be using it?


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## Inuhanyou (Feb 13, 2013)

I can't tell you how many slack jawed parents come into my place of business hoping to get the new cawl of duty for their 9 year old kid. 

"It says rated M on the box sir"

"But my kid WANTS IT"

"Okay sir"


That's as far as the ESRB rating system goes


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## Axl Low (Feb 13, 2013)

Lol
oh man
i was at a gamestop and this kid stole his bro's ID trying to buy black ops 2
I started laughing so hard


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## Charlotte D. Kurisu (Feb 14, 2013)

Krory said:


> They cite an 85% awareness amongst parents with children that play games, and 70% that actually use the ESRB rating system to dictate what games they allow their children to play.* Although Patricia Vance (President) said it's possible that as time goes on, more gamers will have children that become gamers and thus raise this awareness it's just as likely that they will use their own personal experience to dictate what children play as opposed to the ratings themselves.*
> 
> This report comes hot on the tail of a report that states, "the entertainment and videogame industries have a responsibility to give parents the tools to make appropriate choices about what their children watch and play."
> 
> As  rhetorically asks, what is one supposed to do with the individuals clamoring for this information has it... and sources indicate most claim to be using it?



never thought about it.. but the bolded makes sense to me.. 



Inuhanyou said:


> I can't tell you how many slack jawed parents come into my place of business hoping to get the new cawl of duty for their 9 year old kid.
> 
> "It says rated M on the box sir"
> 
> ...



some parents just don't give a shit


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## Shirker (Feb 14, 2013)

It's my sincere hope that these non-shit-giving parents aren't the ones screaming "Games ruin EVERYTHING" from the rooftops.

Speaking of which, I really never got what was so hard to decipher about the (US) rating system in the first place, but hey, the fact that awareness is so high and climbing is great. Anything that gives those that decry the video game industry for its content less weight to stand on can't be anything *but* positive.


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## cnorwood (Feb 14, 2013)

Inuhanyou said:


> I can't tell you how many slack jawed parents come into my place of business hoping to get the new cawl of duty for their 9 year old kid.
> 
> "It says rated M on the box sir"
> 
> ...



You're trying to tell me you didn't play any M rated games when you were 9? I was playing Doom when I was 4 (no esrb back then, but I'm sure it would've gotten an M rating) And when Gta3 came when I was 10 and I was obsessed with it. I think if a parent thinks that their kid isn't some crazy psychopath and can differentiate between reality and fiction, then buying these games shouldn't be a bad thing. Now if the parent comes in butthurt that they bought their kid a violent game and they didn't know, then I would get where you are coming from.


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## Unlosing Ranger (Feb 14, 2013)

cnorwood said:


> You're trying to tell me you didn't play any M rated games when you were 9? I was playing Doom when I was 4 (no esrb back then, but I'm sure it would've gotten an M rating) And when Gta3 came when I was 10 and I was obsessed with it. I think if a parent thinks that their kid isn't some crazy psychopath and can differentiate between reality and fiction, then buying these games shouldn't be a bad thing. Now if the parent comes in butthurt that they bought their kid a violent game and they didn't know, then I would get where you are coming from.



Who are you talking to cnor?


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Feb 14, 2013)

Shirker said:


> It's my sincere hope that these non-shit-giving parents aren't the ones screaming "Games ruin EVERYTHING" from the rooftops.
> 
> Speaking of which, I really never got what was so hard to decipher about the (US) rating system in the first place, but hey, the fact that awareness is so high and climbing is great. Anything that gives those that decry the video game industry for its content less weight to stand on can't be anything *but* positive.



Doesnt seem to be doing shit for retailers though. Atlus did have to make a sextape full of explicit scenes from other games that retailers stock on their shelves in order to convince them to put Catherine on their shelf space despite the cover.

Its like this WELCOME TO WAAAALLLLMMMAAARRRTT HEELLLLLOOOO THARRR BUY CATHERINE PLZERU IT DOESNT HAVE FISTING LIKE GOD OF WAR HURRDY DURR DRURR


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## Orochimaru800 (Feb 14, 2013)

How much trouble would  gamestop employees be in if they sold an M Rated game to someone below 17?


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## Sephiroth (Feb 14, 2013)

Do most parents even care if kids play M-rated games or watch R rated movies these days? Doesn't seem like it to me.


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## Xiammes (Feb 14, 2013)

A m-rated game shouldn't be a flag that a child shouldn't play it, the games they play should be up to parental discretion. Obviously a 7 year old shouldn't be playing Grand Theft Auto, but playing a Halo game would be perfectly reasonable.

Of course, kids shouldn't be allowed to use a mic online, not until they are at least 14 years old.


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## cnorwood (Feb 14, 2013)

Unlosing Ranger said:


> Who are you talking to cnor?



the guy that i quoted who said that slack jawed parents buy their kids m rated games.


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## Unlosing Ranger (Feb 14, 2013)

cnorwood said:


> the guy that i quoted who said that slack jawed parents buy their kids m rated games.



Well yea, they do.


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## cnorwood (Feb 14, 2013)

Unlosing Ranger said:


> Well yea, they do.



and like I said, if a parent can tell that their kid can tell the difference between reality and fiction, its not that bad.


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## Charlotte D. Kurisu (Feb 14, 2013)

shitty parents need those ratings though


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## Xiammes (Feb 14, 2013)

I personally think they should just drop the letter part of the rating and just keep what parents need to look out for, or have a more indept rating system.

Both of these games are rated M, but do they really belong in the same catagory?




> Demon's Souls
> 
> Content Descriptors: Blood, Violence






> Saints Row
> 
> Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language


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## Charlotte D. Kurisu (Feb 14, 2013)

T-rated violence is different from M-rated violence though


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## Naruto (Feb 14, 2013)

cnorwood said:


> You're trying to tell me you didn't play any M rated games when you were 9? I was playing Doom when I was 4 (no esrb back then, but I'm sure it would've gotten an M rating) And when Gta3 came when I was 10 and I was obsessed with it. I think if a parent thinks that their kid isn't some crazy psychopath and can differentiate between reality and fiction, then buying these games shouldn't be a bad thing. Now if the parent comes in butthurt that they bought their kid a violent game and they didn't know, then I would get where you are coming from.



You played Doom when you were 4?

With your forehead I assume?


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## Charlotte D. Kurisu (Feb 14, 2013)

Naruto said:


> You played Doom when you were 4?
> 
> With your forehead I assume?



i played resident evil at 7-8 iirc.. and i saw my cousin play doom at around that age too 

and everyone played GTA as a kid... that's how you learn about life


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## Xiammes (Feb 15, 2013)

Khris said:


> T-rated violence is different from M-rated violence though



The point is that, M-rating is far to broad and ecompassing, seing something rated M means nothing till you look at what its been rated for. It either needs scrapped or a serious overhaul.




> You played Doom when you were 4?
> 
> With your forehead I assume?



I was playing Duke Nukem 3d when I was a boy, me and my dad would play games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Twisted Metal when I was younger.

Luckly I had parent gamers and understood the rating system was a joke.


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## Shirker (Feb 15, 2013)

I wouldn't call it a joke (not anymore anyway. LOL, waddahell's KA?), but I get what you're saying about there needing to be something in between T & M. When E10+ was introduced, I was endlessly confused; what separated E & T always seemed pretty clear cut to me, so why'd the ESRB waste their time with a new rating in between them?


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## Xiammes (Feb 15, 2013)

The differances between E - T are pretty clear cut, a rating like E10+ is not really needed. However the differances between the M ratings are not so clear, a parent shouldn't be looking at a rating to determine if the game is appropiate from their child, it should be the content, but the content is undermined because of the big ass M-rating.


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## cnorwood (Feb 15, 2013)

Naruto said:


> You played Doom when you were 4?
> 
> With your forehead I assume?



I didn't say I was good, I only got to the 3rd level if I was lucky, and I mean really lucky


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