The Inconsistencies of the Mature Rating
Written by Troy Benedict Wednesday, 18 April 2012 14:00
This is a Best Of article, which was originally published on February 2, 2011.
Being a geeky husband and father has it’s benefits. I’ve introduced my wife to some technologies and social network sites that she uses on a regular basis. Having kids also gives me an excuse to continue my gaming hobby (as if I really needed an excuse). However, being a husband and dad, who loves video games, also comes with a downside. My stepson will be turning 12 later this month, and he’s at that age where some of his friends at school are claiming to play M-rated games.
To be clear, my stepson goes to a private school, and many of his friends’ parents are friends of my wife, so it’s easy for us to detect the BS. While the kids may talk about Black Ops or Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood at school, not all of those kids are actually playing them. After doing some research, the “M-rated game playing friends” actually have older siblings (or a dad) who play these games, and they either watch with permission or watch secretly. Thankfully, most of the parents seem to have at least some common sense when it comes to video games taking a game’s rating into consideration.
It’s hard being a parent, and dealing with this situation. On one hand, I know that I by age 12 I’d seen R-rated movies at friend’s homes including Friday the 13th, Rambo, Commando, Predator, etc. All of them filled with violence, blood and gore, bad language, and nudity. While there is a request for R-rated movies, I think the realistic portrayal of the gore and violence is still a bit off-putting that he doesn’t make requests for R-rated movies that often.
When it comes to the game’s mature rating, I often find inconsistencies. For a game like Halo, I often scratch my head wondering exactly why the game has a Mature-rating and is not Teen-rated. Sure there’s the occasional bad word (but we’re talking “dammit” and not the F-bomb), and alien blood, but for the most part it’s nothing worse than what we saw in the T-rated Call of Duty 2. The violence in Halo is simple, if not cartoonish, and nobody explodes into ribbons of blood and gore, or gets dismembered.
On the other side of the coin, you have a game like Call of Duty: Black Ops, where the portrayal of violence is much, much grittier. Much worse than the previously-mentioned Call of Duty 2. Sneaking up on somebody and stabbing them in the back or slitting their throat, as their eyes bug is a lot more disturbing than a simple head shot from afar. There are scenes of torture and murder, brain matter being blown out of the back of a person's head in slow motion, discussions of genocide on a horrific scale, and assassination.
When the violence and content leans more towards the psychological, where the damaging effects of a players actions are up close and personal, there becomes a huge distinction between M-rated games like Halo 3 and M-rated games like Black Ops and Dead Space 2.
The deeper psychological effects of the content in an M-rated game, which isn’t at all apparent when it comes to the ESRB rating description on the back of the box, is when I become the overprotective parent. I’m not saying that the ESRB needs to be more descriptive with their ratings, in fact I think they’ve done their job. It’s our job as parents to then review the content, based on that rating, to see just how bad (or not bad) it would be for our children.
It’s very similar to the difference between R-rated movies like Inglorious Basterds and Schindler’s List. They’re both rated the same, in that younger children shouldn’t be watching them simply based on the content, but one will weigh significantly heavier on the the soul than the other.
Video games still carry a stigma that they’re for kids. I don’t doubt that uninformed parents will buy a game for a child and not really look into the content of that game because it is only that -- a video game. Or base the decision on the content of an earlier game in the series that may not have been M-rated.
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Comments
"It’s our job as parents to then review the content, based on that rating, to see just how bad (or not bad) it would be for our children. "
Thank you for saying this, instead of blaming others for kids being raised by media.
It is up to the parents to make decisions on what is in their home. (I linked to my article on this subject in this reply if anyone wants to see my full opinion).
Regardless, the sad thing about ratings boards is that they don't have the time to see EVERYTHING in a game. They watch a movie once, 3 hours tops, they get an idea. Games take 80+ hours at times, and there's no budget to hire people to personally witness everything in a game. The creators basically have to bring a sampling of what is in the game, and the reviewers have to go on that. You can't even 100%% trust what they say, like my Castlevania experience.
As for this article, I enjoyed reading it. Very well written. I agree the ratings can be misleading at times. Reading up on a game really is the best way to find out what you'll be getting yourself into.
P.S. There is an occasional F-bomb from the marines in Halo if you crank up the difficulty. It's not common by any means though.
I doin't know have kids but I do have to say its up to the parents job to screen what their kids play.
So in a mature game what bothers people the most, sex, blood, storyline, mature themes? I smell an idea!
Remember that old movie Jumpin' Jack Flash? It had one killing, filmed from far away. But Whoopi Goldberg swears her head off so it's rated R. A contemporary film, Red Dawn (which of course I loved, so I'm not being biased) opens with a scene of Russian paratroopers mowing down high school kids. PG-13. Perfect example of how messed up our views have gotten, when boobs and swearing are "scarier" than murder.
Another example...watch football at 1:00 and they cover up cheerleaders with ads, yet every commercial is for CSI or NCIS or some other murder show.
Why are we more offended by sex/language than violence? What if Janet Jackson had appeared to headshot Justin Timberlake instead of showing her boob? Would there have been such a stir?
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