A Look at the ESRB Ratings

January 16, 2001 12:16 PM

WomenGamers.com has an article looking at the ESRB rating system for games, offering an overview of the system and comments by Cliffy B of Epic, Dave Perry of Shiny Entertainment and Kenn Hoekstra of Raven Software. Currently, about 80% of PC games and all consoles carry the rating that show parents what kind of content the game contains. The article is mainly positive, as are the developer comments. Not everyone agrees with the system used though, as seen in this Shack post by George Broussard of 3D Realms of last year, commenting on the story of the game Giants appearing in stores with modifications. Despite green blood and a clothed Delphi character (who appeared topless in several screenshots), Giants still got a "Mature" rating. M-rated games are no longer being sold at major retailers like Wal-Mart and Toys R Us and so some developers aren't happy with the system at all.

Cliff Bleszinski, Lead Designer at Epic Games, states that: "the ESRB does a fantastic job of communicating their easy-to-use ratings system to the public. Just visiting BlockBuster Video the other day I not only saw pamphlets at the counter explaining game ratings but also a large sticker on the front door that explains the ratings. Most ratings systems simply say something like Â‘Not appropriate for minorsÂ’ but the ESRB's system actually lists what may be seen as objectionable (i.e.animated blood and gore, language, etc.)."