Research Question:
Is the ESRB a competent and effective system for rating games?
Thesis:
The ESRB is a competent and legitimate medium for labeling video games for their content before the games are released to the public. The ESRB raters are paid professionals who have experience with children and are not in any way affiliated with the game publishing industry. The ratings guide is based upon a comprehensive list of criteria of inappropriate content which the raters evaluate within each game. The ESRB is the most uniform and capable body available to rate games released to the public.
Plan:
The objective of this research is to prove that the ESRB is an effective source of self-regulation for the gaming industry. This can be done by a number of steps. Highlighting other rating systems like TIGRIS and organizations that do not affiliate themselves with the ESRB will show that the ESRB is the most effective organization available to do the job. Showing aspects of the European rating system PEGI will also demonstrate the ESRB’s superiority. Detailing the rating process will demonstrate the back and forth censorship process between publishers and the ESRB. I will research what some studies have found about violent video games and in what categories critics claim that the ESRB falls short. In the Harvard sponsored study of violence in “E” rated video games, for example, the research showed that an average of 30.7% of game play was spent commiting violent acts., and “44% [of the study's games] that did not recieve violence related content descriptors contained acts of violence.” Critics often claim that the ESRB assigns the “E” rating too liberally, but I will demonstrate through comparrison to the PEGI that the ESRB’s standards are the most restrictive. For example, PEGI rates games according to age, and games “7+” are permitted not only to include mild violence like the ESRB, but nudity as well. According to Kirsh, author of Children, Adolescents, and Media Violence, another shortcoming of the ESRB is that they do not necessarily assign a “violence” content descriptor unless a certain “threshhold” is surpassed, meaning it is up to their discretion to determine just how much violence and of what type warrants a violence warning.
Statement of Importance:
This is an important topic to explore because it deals with the regulation of graphic content being shown to children every day across the country. Without a competent and effective rating system, it would be very difficult for parents to get an idea of how appropriate a game will be for their child before purchasing and playing it.
Most Useful Source:
I found that the ESRB’s website was the most helpful, as it contained the most direct information about the rating process, content descriptors, and the organization as a whole.
May 5, 2009 at 12:04 pm |
Very good general outlien but you need brief summaries of what at least some of the studies you would use say as well as what critics of the ESRB say.