ESRB To Automate Game Rating

The Entertainment Software Rating Board, which has struggled to keep up with the flood of games produced for app stores and other online markets, is now taking steps to automate the rating process. "Starting on Monday the ratings board plans to begin introducing computers to the job of deciding whether a game is appropriate for Everyone, for Teens or for Mature gamers (meaning older than 16). To do this the organization has written a program designed to replicate the ingrained cultural norms and predilections of the everyday American consumer, at least when it comes to what is appropriate for children and what isn’t. ... the main evaluation of hundreds of games each year will be based not on direct human judgment but instead on a detailed digital questionnaire meant to gauge every subtle nuance of violence, sexuality, profanity, drug use, gambling and bodily function that could possibly offend anyone. The questionnaire, to be filled out by a game’s makers (with penalties for nondisclosure), is like a psychological inquest into the depths of all the things our culture considers potentially unwholesome."

everything reduced to a meaningless number

[Hazel Bergeron]

I'm fed up with decisions being made by questionnaires and computers. I think we should stop tolerating analyses of health, fitness, credit, intelligence, etc based on simplistic tests and numbers. The expert system is one of the most horrible simplifications of human judgement ever to grace the confused world of AI, and is almost without exception implemented with some bias to fulfil a pre-determined aim and reinforce some prejudice.

This isn't automation...

[Phoenix0]

This is shifting the work to the game developers, whose staff has to fill out the extremely long questionnaires. Which might make one wonder, what's the point of the rating board in the first place?

Rediculous

[TubeSteak]

The board says that publishersâ(TM) answers to the digital questionnaire will determine a gameâ(TM)s rating and that a human wonâ(TM)t review it until after the game is out the door.

As stated in a draft of the boardâ(TM)s news release, âoeAll games rated via this new process will be tested by E.S.R.B. staff shortly after they are made publicly available to verify that disclosure was complete and accurate.â

Their computer spits out a rating based on a questionaire and nobody double checks until after the public launch?
The ESRB is turning itself into a rubber stamp organization.

Re:This isn't automation...

[91degrees]

The developers already do most of the work. They develop games to fit the rating. They don't produce a game and then wonder what the rating's going to be.

And they had to fill in the questionnaire anyway. The ESRB doesn't play the game through to the end. They rely on honesty from the developers. The developers will be honest because getting a too low a rating will typically deter serious adult gamers from certain types of games.

Re:everything reduced to a meaningless number

[Eivind]

But -any- rating-system that in the end, delivers a recommendation for age-group, is going to have to choose some prejudice.

You have to compare different sorts of content and weigh them against eachother.

How does *this* sort of violence stack up against *this* sort of sex ?

There is no single correct answer to that, indeed any extreme is thinkable from "Any amount of sex is okay, but no violence" to the opposite extreme of "any amount of violence is okay, but no sex"

It doesn't really matter if the score is by computer+questionaire or by human judgement or by any other method. There simple *isn't* one single correct answer.

The method of judging, isn't the problem. The fundamental task, is.

I tend to ignore the age-recommendations completely - instead if I'm in doubt about a certain game being apropriate or not for my kids, I will play it myself for a while. (usually you don't have to play it for -that- long to get a fair guesstimate)

Re:the Questionnaire

[mustPushCart]

The idea is to wash liability off the ESRB and everyone and let parents decide exactly what they want their kids to play. If they cant be bothered to read it then they have no right to complain. As it stands right now the parents are saying "this 13+ rated game has too much violence" and the other 'mature gamers group is saying "you cant decide at what age we should play these games!".

There might soon be a time when parents will set up a steam account for their kids and be shown a checklist of games they are allowed to own on that steam account with max limits based on the questionnaire like nothing more than moderate sexual themes but no restriction on violence.

Re:six days in Falujah

[Vectormatic]

speak for yourself, i dont use moderate to high amounts of violence in my daily life (or drugs/gambling for that matter)