ESRB Hits The Campaign Trails and the Courtrooms

Without any doubt I can write that you’ve probably heard at least some whisperings of the ESRB and game content that are corrupting our nation’s youth. Whether these statements are valid or just simple witch hunting, it’s undeniable that the debate has made its presence known in almost every facet of our public lives and our quests for daily information. From court rooms to schools and even the presidential campaign trails, game content has been barraging our front pages for some time now. Where do we gamers come in? How should we respond? Do these arguments have any merit?

Currently, the Hans Reiser trial is underway. Reiser is accused of murdering his wife and one of the hottest topics to come to light in the trial is that the couple repeatedly and vehemently argued over violent videogames. Hans Reiser, a Linux programmer, has been demonized by the prosecution as an avid videogame player and a fan of the violent sort at that. Obviously the prosecution is trying to create a tangible link to actual, real-world violence and the pixilated gore that millions engage in daily. This isn’t the only coupling of acts of violence and videogames either. It’s been happening for over a decade. The Columbine tragedy was blamed on the popular Doom games, other acts of violence on Grand Theft Auto game, and now rampant racism on Halo 3. Is there a real link?

It seems that there has been a real shift in the political world to the topic of videogames. Sen. Hilary Clinton has been pioneering for ratings reform for some time now and recently, a Minnesota attorney has used violent videogames as her platform for election.  And who can forget every gamer’s friend, Jack Thompson? Thompson, an attorney, has made the banning of violent videogames his personal agenda for the past decade and calls the production of games from Sony Entertainment as ‘Pearl Harbor 2’ and continues by saying that videogames ultimately disconnect the player with reality and remove the moral inhibitions that prevent violent acts or otherwise. With all of the negative hype and the political agendas surrounding the topic, it’s hard not to be taken in by the rhetoric and simply join the picket.

It’s hard to argue, gamer or not, with Clinton and Thompson. When I press that beautiful green button on the Xbox 360 controller and join a lobby in the omnipresent Halo 3, just listening to the pre-pubescent voices assault my living room with racial epithets and personal threats is enough to make me wonder if Ol’ Wacky Jack isn’t on to something. But then, I’m reminded that I had parents that, surprisingly, acted like parents.

My parents were involved. They asked questions. It seems now that, all stereotypes aside, the gaming consoles are really becoming the digital babysitter. I know that if my parents ever heard me say even half of the filth that flows off of children’s tongues, I would have been, at the very least, without an Xbox for quite some time. I know, though, that these people would not say most or even any of these things without the barrier of infinite anonymity protecting them from any sort of real retaliation for their transgressions, but the fact-of-the-matter still remains; it’s appalling.

While it may seem that I am beginning to casually drift over to the side of the politicos, I’m not. I’m saying they’ve been given ample evidence upon which they can base all sorts of claims (they don’t need much) and they’re running with it. Parents don’t want to be told they’re the ones at fault. People don’t like being told they’re wrong, much less, that they are the root of the problem they’ve come to hate so much. It’s much easier, just like the children of Xbox Live incessantly screaming in safety of anonymity, to point fingers at developers, production studios, and the artists they’ve never met. This content that is being made is, in fact, art. The creative process that is required to produce a successful videogame is mind-boggling in the very least and that’s how it should be viewed. It’s an electronic art form that is able to be produced and experienced on a global scale and these people are bordering on censorship.

It’s difficult, again, to say the last few sentences without some sort of acidic taste in your mouth. While it is an art form, it is encroaching on a territory that hasn’t yet been explored in its entire entirety. The realism of these games is approaching a finite line more rapidly than ever before and this line will eventually become more blurred and skewed by the technologies that power them. With this violence inherent in a niche of the market, how does one go about protecting or rating something that can seem so… real? It’s simple, really.  

The rating system IS effective. I have been carded (strangely enough) for my recent purchase of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and The Orange Box, and come to think of it, for Halo 3 also. While this is probably due to a proactive supervisor at my local store, this isn’t the only side to the story. The ESRB ratings system was never intended to act as a system that would protect the world’s youths from the evil empire of videogame production. It was designed as a way to present the parent with content information much like the way movies and the MPAA do. It seems that the bright colored screens of green and red and the noticeable ‘R’ logo for movies has made an imprint and the cuddly ‘M’ for Mature (17+) hasn’t. Parents have taken notice of the movie ratings for the theater police much better than the store clerks at your local Best Buy do for the ESRB content warnings. What’s different then?

The ratings are ambiguous. A simple change of words or letters would change the dynamic of the ratings much more than most people realize. Some parents like to regard their precious angels as ‘mature’ but as soon as little Timmy is in front of that beloved television, he’s anyone he wants to be. The word ‘Mature’ should be changed to something like the ‘R’ symbol. It doesn’t even have to stand for anything, just something that says ‘this age only, mature or not.’ Or perhaps the ratings should all be changed to “GI” for ‘Get Involved’.