The Shrine

It's always been the case that the ESRB is, essentially, the MPAA on crack.

This is not an entirely bad nor unexpected thing. When movies were first being released, there were INCREDIBLE restrictions on content. Even though the video game industry is moving at a REALLY fast rate, it's still going to take awhile before the harsher restrictions are removed--especially with so many politicians just jumping at any opportunity they can to make video games out to be the death of society.

I appreciate 1up's stance on trying to get some real industry-based journalism, but there's no real story here--not yet. The ESRB is likely going to become more of an obstacle than an ally in later years, but for now, they're doing a fine job keeping the political heat off the backs of developers--and that's a good thing for everybody.

The ESRB is needed, but there shouldn't be a level of enforcement. A rating board is there so that a parent can figure out if a game is proper for their kid or not. Walmart and none of the stores should be enforcing anything, either.

As soon as you put in place a level of enforcement, suddenly the ratings get muddled. If you can't afford to release an AO game because it's not going to get sold in Walmart and many popular stores, you're going to bribe and claw your way to a M-rated game.

This is exactly the problems plaguing the movie industry, and it's being going on long enough that the R rating has been corrupted into a nonsensical joke. Independent films get an NC-17 for small sex scenes, and big budget films get R (and PG-13) ratings for killing hundreds of people.

The ESRB has been doing pretty good, but I don't like where the ARC is going. Ratings... don't... need... enforcement! That's not their purpose.