Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine: Smut Police

Just down the hall from the Half-Life poster and the withering potted plant, havoc is unleashed. Bullets fly. Blood flows. Bosoms heave. Heads roll. Mayhem ensues.

This is the stuff of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the group that rates the videogames you play. Every year, all your favorite games make their way into this modest office on Manhattan’s East Side, where they’re given the once-over prior to release.

But don’t come here expecting to get a sneak peek of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. As I learn during a rare visit to mission control, the ESRB is tighter and quieter than Area 51. And just as controversial.

“Sorry, you can’t go back there,” says Patricia Vance, president of the ESRB, as we make our way from the lobby past posters of Tiger Woods and brochures of happy kids, tongues wagging as they play their videogames. The place we can’t go to is a tiny room at the end of the hall, where, at this moment, some undisclosed games from some undisclosed companies are being rated. One thing you’re guaranteed when you’re a professional rater, we’re told, is your privacy.

And with good reason. Videogame ratings are under fire like never before.

The ESRB has been rating videogames since 1994, when the industry created the group in response to threats of governmental regulation. Today, game publishers send in their products for voluntary ratings, which include E for Everyone, T for Teen, and M for Mature. Lately, however, sparks have been flying.

In February, Harvard University issued a study titled “Content and Ratings of Teen-Rated Video Games,” which found that almost half of the games looked at included content that was not listed on their boxes. And in Washington State, legislators are trying to ban the sale of M-rated games to anyone under the age of 17. The game industry is fighting this on the grounds that such a law would be a violation of free speech. How’s that for something gruesome?

Not Rated by Gamers

Deciding whether Siren gets slapped with an M rating or a T isn’t easy, we found out. It all starts with the raters: a pool of 50 Americans from all walks of life—teachers, doctors, single moms—ranging in age from 21 to 65. The ESRB places ads in parenting magazines and gets swamped with about 1,000 applications per year. Game-playing experience is not required. “They definitely don’t have to be gamers,” Vance says.

Here’s why: When a company sends in a game to be rated, it’s not actually sending in playable demos—it’s just sending in video footage. Publishers are required to send in what Vance calls “the most extreme footage” of a game, usually two or three months prior to a game’s release. If a publisher doesn’t send in the extreme stuff, it will have to face “serious consequences.” Everything the raters see of a game is supplied by the publisher as video footage, and the raters never actually play games as part of the rating process.

Depending on the amount of blood and guts or exposed boobs, the extreme footage can last anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours, Vance says. Once the footage for, say, Ribbit King arrives, the dirty work begins. Two or three raters come to the office to check out the game and complete some on-the-fly microanalyses.

As they watch the footage, there’s a frame count rattling off onscreen. The raters have a guide to content that should be flagged—such content ranges from gambling and sexuality to violence and destruction. Every time raters see a bit of gore or postmortem damage, they pause the game and take note. “There’s no formula,” Vance says. “We want raters to use their own judgment.” Once the raters review a game, the team looks to see if there’s consensus on the evaluation—Vance says there almost always is—and the game gets rated accordingly.

The fun doesn’t end there. If a game publisher balks at the rating, it can lower the body count of the game, for example, and reapply. But that’s seldom the case, says Vance. In fact, only 10 percent of games get an M rating; the vast majority, nearly 60 percent, are rated E.

Difference of Opinion

But, as the Harvard study notes, sometimes gore or smut is in the eye of the beholder. And this problem is compounded by the increasingly unpredictable world of online play, where users can affect a game’s content. The ESRB has done its best to respond by including a note on boxes for games such as Final Fantasy XI and Champions of Norrath, which states: “Game experience may change during online play.” As the controversy rages on and on, Vance says, the ultimate responsibility resides with the players and parents who buy the games in the first place.

“If a rating doesn’t give you pause, that’s not our problem,” says Vance. “We can’t dictate morals or ethics. People make up their own minds.”

What is the ESRB?

32% of all games rated in 2003 received a T rating.

10% of all games rated in 2003 received an M rating.

Senator Joseph lieberman says that the esrb has the

“Best entertainment rating system” in the united states

According to www.esrb.com, “The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory body for the interactive entertainment software industry established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), formerly the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA). ESRB independently applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles adopted by the computer and videogame industry. To date, the ESRB has rated more than 10,000 titles submitted by over 350 publishers.”