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You can’t always judge a video game by its cover. Neither, alas, can you judge
how much violence it contains based on its rating. That’s the conclusion reached
by a pair of researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health who assessed all
video games with an “E” for Everyone rating in April 2001.
At the heart of their findings lies this fact: Game creators are the ones who
provide the content descriptors that are the basis of the ratings. The
Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) relies on industry descriptions in
developing its video game ratings, pegged to audience suitability.
Often, the manufacturers provide no descriptors at all. So the ESRB rating
remains silent on the violence many games contain. But don’t be misled. Absence
of the “v” word is no indication that a game is violence-free, Dr. Kimberly
Thompson and Kevin Haninger report. Here are the key findings of their
assessment of the E-rated games:
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Almost 60 percent contained no content description on or inside the game
packaging.
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Of those
games with no content description, 64 percent nevertheless contained
intentional violence during 30 percent of play time.
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Sixty
percent of all E-rated games rewarded or actually required players to injure
characters in order to continue playing.
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The
presence of cute characters had little or no bearing on the presence of
violence.
From
“Violence in E-Rated Video Games,” The Journal of the American Medical
Association, August 1, 2001—Vol. 286, No. 5. |
