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July 14, 2007 Link to this post
ESRB ratings - and what they mean to you
You know... normally I would have let this slide, because we've already posted about the news that this article is ostensibly about, but there's a comment that I simply don't feel comfortable letting by. Xboxer put up a news post about the Jeff Bell comment to Major Nelson which many sites have been interpreting as possible confirmation of 4-player coop (we put up a note last night), and in it they commented on the ESRB rating it looks like Halo 3 will get:
Halo 3 is likely to receive an ESRB rating of "M" for Mature, just like its two predecessors. According to this official guidelines, titles with this rating "have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language."
Bell's three sons are aged 10, 14, and 18, so he's basically making a public statement of his intention to ignore the parental guidelines laid down by a regulatory body. That's fine for Joe Public, but not so good when you're in the business of making videogames and should be setting a public example.
I'd like to point out that ESRB's guidelines are exactly that - guidelines. Choosing to play an M-rated game with your sub-17-year-old children (or, for that matter, a T-rated game with your sub-13-year-old kids) does not mean you're 'ignoring the guidelines' - it means you've considered them, and chosen to override them. Mr. Bell did not say "yeah, I think my kids are gonna be playing that Halo game" - he talked about playing the game WITH them. He knows what's in it, he knows his children, and he's made a decision that the game is appropriate for them. And that is absolutely the perogative (indeed, the JOB) of a parent. Okay, enough editorializing on the news page. Sorry. I just thought that needed to be clarified. (Louis Wu 20:18:53 UTC)
