In the late 80s and 90s, there was a giant pushback against video games and some of their content. Many people felt that games were becoming ever more gruesome and violent. This was brought on by the emergence of games like Duke Nukem and Doom for MS-DOS where the pixels started to form more realistic humans and the content started to become more mature. FVM games like Mortal Combat were also using human images to replicate what many saw as extremely violent acts and were more accessible in the console marketplace. I think anyone who has seen a fatality would agree there is some level of violence in the game. Parents began to ask why these games were not being rated as movies were.
As with movies before it, games became the blame for violence in the real world. In the late 80s, there were studies on the reaction of undergrads with certain video games. (Strasburgber, Comstock p.115) Much of what they found then is found in the modern studies of video games where aggression is usually short-term and a lack of evidence of long-term effects exists. (I cover this in an early post) Despite the lack of evidence, there was still a moral panic about violent games so several large software companies of the time decided to come together on order of the government to create a comity that would self-regulate.
The large publishers like Nintendo, EA, and Acclaim came together to create the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). (Wikipedia) Sega was also on board even though they had started a rating system before, which Nintendo did not want to agree to. In the end, they decided on the system they have now along with getting the larger retailers of the time to not sell games that had not been rated by the ESRB.
One of the biggest and most controversial powers that the ESRB holds is the dreaded AO(adults only) rating. This content rating will cause most stores to not even put your game on their shelves and no consoles release games with that rating. This rating to a triple-A developer can be a death sentence. Games that receive this rating usually pair down the violence or the nudity like with Manhunt 2.(Wikipedia) This also became an issue with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when a mod was made to reintroduce content that had been edited out.
Indie-game who do not wish to be distributed on consoles can skirt around the ESRB. There is a free volunteer rating system if they want it, which runs in contrast to the PEGI rating system in Europe that requires a payment per platform.(gamasutra.com) In the US many can go around the system and if they find themselves becoming successful they can later apply and get the rating to move on to the consoles like Stardew Valley, which go itself an E rating before being released on all current platforms.
If you are looking for a really good in-depth history I would highly recommend this video by the Gaming Historian called The Creation of the ESRB. Like it or not the ESRB came from a necessity to stop possible regulation from the government. It has played a big role in the content that many triple-A titles will produce because of the dreaded AO rating. Right now only indie games dare go to these level and in the United State are able to get away with it. That in mind, I will agree with this sentiment of the Gaming Historian in saying that it is not necessarily a bad thing that people have a way of knowing the type of content in a video game.
As with movies before it, games became the blame for violence in the real world. In the late 80s, there were studies on the reaction of undergrads with certain video games. (Strasburgber, Comstock p.115) Much of what they found then is found in the modern studies of video games where aggression is usually short-term and a lack of evidence of long-term effects exists. (I cover this in an early post) Despite the lack of evidence, there was still a moral panic about violent games so several large software companies of the time decided to come together on order of the government to create a comity that would self-regulate.
The large publishers like Nintendo, EA, and Acclaim came together to create the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). (Wikipedia) Sega was also on board even though they had started a rating system before, which Nintendo did not want to agree to. In the end, they decided on the system they have now along with getting the larger retailers of the time to not sell games that had not been rated by the ESRB.
One of the biggest and most controversial powers that the ESRB holds is the dreaded AO(adults only) rating. This content rating will cause most stores to not even put your game on their shelves and no consoles release games with that rating. This rating to a triple-A developer can be a death sentence. Games that receive this rating usually pair down the violence or the nudity like with Manhunt 2.(Wikipedia) This also became an issue with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when a mod was made to reintroduce content that had been edited out.
Indie-game who do not wish to be distributed on consoles can skirt around the ESRB. There is a free volunteer rating system if they want it, which runs in contrast to the PEGI rating system in Europe that requires a payment per platform.(gamasutra.com) In the US many can go around the system and if they find themselves becoming successful they can later apply and get the rating to move on to the consoles like Stardew Valley, which go itself an E rating before being released on all current platforms.
If you are looking for a really good in-depth history I would highly recommend this video by the Gaming Historian called The Creation of the ESRB. Like it or not the ESRB came from a necessity to stop possible regulation from the government. It has played a big role in the content that many triple-A titles will produce because of the dreaded AO rating. Right now only indie games dare go to these level and in the United State are able to get away with it. That in mind, I will agree with this sentiment of the Gaming Historian in saying that it is not necessarily a bad thing that people have a way of knowing the type of content in a video game.
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