Sleepy Head

I'm not a huge fan of the Grand Theft Auto series of games but after the recent brouhaha, it does raise some important issues. Hilary Clinton waded into the whole debate by asking the FTC to look at the rating given to the game (GTA: San Andreas) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. I think that amongst other things Clinton said this is probably the only thing that had any sort of credibility.

The concern was all down to a recent mod released for the game called "Hot Coffee". Now why is it that this mod caused questioning of the rating given to the game?

In the UK, the game was given an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification. The guidelines set out by the BBFC is quite certain and unambigious. Even without the guidelines, I'm sure most would agree that this is a game for adults and should be given ratings that match that assumption. This also matches the age of majority here in the UK (the age at which one is given the rights and responsibilities of an adult).

Now let's look over at the US, where this storm has raged.

Firstly, I'll concede the age of majority differs from state to state. This could make things more complex than it should be however it should not be a big thing, as I'll explain later.

The rating system for gaming is handled with the ESRB ratings which seems to be based on the MPAA ratings. It seems ambigious as to which section a game would belong. The difference between an M-rating (which the game received) and an AO-rating (Adults Only) doesn't seem as clear cut. The only difference seems to be the period of time an action lasts for.

Now the way it seems, is that regardless of age of majority, the game should have received an AO, due to the content that can be accessed using "Hot Coffee". So that would have meant an AO-rating that states that only persons of 18 or older should be allowed play as opposed to the M-rating which states persons of 17 or older should be allowed to play.

Whilst I'm not going to advocate Rockstar leaving in content that they should have removed, the whole problem could have been avoided had the US rating system been a good one or not one that tends to be a little to relaxed. Merge the ratings for M and AO, make it closer to what an 18-rating is like in the UK. That avoids most of your problems even if a little surprise comes out later on. Or move the M-rating to one that more resembles a 15 but gives enough room for AO to be used more frequently for questionable games.

Either way, the ESRB system needs to be re-evaluated. If we continue to have these types of problems, then it's only going to make the stigma attached to gaming worse. It's bad enough already with politicians and newspapers harping on about it ruining our society or turning people into mindless thugs, we don't need to compound it by making mistakes to give more ammo to the cannon.