Expectedly, this announcement of ESRB stirred up quite the controversy. As it is, ESRB, as they themselvse have confessed, really doesn't finish playing the games they are rating. They just get the "overall" feel of the game, and from there they make their judgment on what rating will be suited for it, regardless of context.


I do understand the predicament of the ESRB, given that they are terribly undermanned as compared to the number of games arriving at their doorsteps for rating. Last year alone, they rated 1,600 games in total, with some 30% designed for online distribution.


For their part, they're also reassuring that they will be taking another look at the game after it passes through the computer rating, before finally sending it on its way out the door.


However, there are only so much that the questionnaires can provide in terms of answers. Plus, what is more important is the context by which the scenes or gameplay are provided.


Computers may be efficient, yes, insofar as making it more expedient for ESRB. What it cannot do, however, is account for the human sensibility that should be inherent in these games, considering that they are meant to be played by feeling, thinking entities -- us.

At the end of the day, we'll just have to wait just how effective this computer rating system will go. It may either go the way of us getting a deluge of M-rated games just because a couple of cuss words were there, or we could get a barrage of Teen-rated games that should have been obviously for a more mature audience. Or it could work out just fine.


We just hope ESRB knows what they're doing, especially because they are catering to a vast market, consuming the online games.

Via [NY Times]

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