I am really sick of everyone bitching about the ESRB.
Now, just so we’re clear, this doesn’t mean that I’m a big supporter of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. When I was growing up in the mid-90s and the ESRB started putting ratings on video games, I didn’t even take notice. Most stores didn’t start to get strict about enforcing them until I was at least seventeen anyway, so it was never a problem for me. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I liked it, though. I remember having to go to the local mall with my little brother just so he could get his damn copy of
Grand Theft Auto III, becoming outraged that anyone would dare to tell me or my brothers what games we could or could not play. I was practically raised by
Doom II, after all, and I turned out all right.
I was extremely anti-ESRB throughout the whole "video games cause violence!" crusade of the late 90s/early 2000s led by some ignorant parents’ groups and politicians, when video games were being blamed for school shootings and random acts of aggression all over the country. I thought that the ESRB was trying to suggest that games with a little blood and gore in them were actually responsible for these acts, which as we all know is just completely absurd. Video games don’t cause violence, people do.
Fast forward to 2005, when I actually begin working at a game store in South Philadelphia, and where every day I see unsupervised 10-year-olds trying to buy garbage like
25 to Life, and suddenly, I can see what the ESRB has been trying to do all along with these ratings of theirs. I’m not sure if it’s working, but I’m also pretty sure it’s not a good idea for an elementary-schooler to go home with a copy of a Mature-rated game without his parents knowing what he’s buying.
It’s not a perfect system, obviously. Some of the ratings seem a little harsh or even just completely ridiculous—a Mature rating for
Mortal Kombat’s cartoonish blood? Who wasn’t playing that game when he or she was a kid? But the ratings are here to stay, and have been for some time now, so let’s just accept it and get over it, okay?
What I mean by this is, every day I have to turn people away from buying M-rated games because they don’t have their IDs on them. Sometimes it’s clearly underage kids and teenagers, sometimes it’s harder to tell what age they are, but either way, if they look under 30 and they don’t have ID, I’m not selling them anything with that big bold M stamped in the corner. And every day, I have to listen to customers whine about it. "But I’m seventeen!" they swear up and down, and my response is always the same: "Prove it."
Listen. If you’re an adult, and you leave the house without your ID, you have no one to blame but yourself. Don’t come into my store and have a fit because I won’t sell you
Halo 3 without proof of age. My favorite part is when I have customers who have forgotten (or just don’t have) their drivers’ licenses flip out on me for enforcing ESRB policy, and then leave the store and get back in their cars and drive away. Seriously?
You just got behind the wheel without a license, and you’re acting like there’s something wrong with
me?
Even if you think that game ratings are censorship and the ESRB is the devil, just keep one thing in mind: the people behind the counter selling games are not responsible for the ratings. We’re just trying to do our jobs, you know, and giving us a hard time isn’t going to change anything. So quit complaining, go back home, and get your parents to buy the game for you—assuming they let you play Mature-rated games, that is.
I do personally hate when I have to drag my mom into Gamestop... But I realize its a law, and i accept that. The people at my gamestop are very strict so I know never to go in there alone.
I accept the ESRB, and I understand what they stand for, but I also think it is a little absurd to have to drag my mom into gamestop; lol!
Nice article. im 15 and when i go into a a gamestop (or something of its kind) i know what i can and cant buy. If my brother or parent are going to buy me a game, then I expect them to know and let them know. but come on Jack Thompson, video games have not made me violent, but thanks to solid snake i've sucessfully mastered CQC.
I agree with this article too, I was carded from getting Breakdown on the Xbox and didn't mind it at all. However I miss the K-A rating, they should bring that back for games both kids and adults can play together.
I agree 100%. The ESRB is a needed evil and while I wish I didn't need to card everyone who comes in to pick up Halo, I understand why I do. My problem is more in the fact that violence is fine and dandy but any sexual references rockets a game to AO faster then you can say MANHUNT!