U.S. Congressmen Want ESRB Rating Clips Posted Online

Two U.S. Congressmen have sent a letter to the ESRB asking the Board to make its rating process more transparent by putting videos submitted by publishers to the rating agency online for public viewing.

Written by Democrat Joe Baca and Republican Frank Wolf, the letter says that only clips for games rated T (Teen) or higher need to be made available, and since many of the videos are quite long, only segments that are "most relevant" to the game's final rating need to be posted. The videos in question are gameplay clips submitted to the ESRB as part of the game rating process, and often include material or information not available prior to a game's release.

"Parents must have access to consistent, accurate, and objective information about video game content so they are able to choose games that are right for their children," the letter says. "By posting clips of T-rated games and above, parents and consumers will be better informed on the content of the games."

The Congressmen issued a joint statement following the release of the letter, saying, "We believe that posting comprehensive clips of T-rated games and higher online is advantageous for both consumers and the ESRB. The public will be more accurately informed of the substance of games before making purchasing decisions, and the rating process of the ESRB will be brought to light and given more credibility."

(Source: GameSpot)

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I have to say i support this, or a method of similar nature. Knowledge of the actual content of a game can be hard to come by for parents who are less technically savvy, and seeing videos would allow them to judge the game for themselves. They can make more informed decisions, as opposed to blinding following (or disregarding) the superficial ESRB ratings.

I think that the idea is hilarious. To protect kids from games they're suggesting that the material be posted on the internet. That's great, but kids are more likely to find the material than parents.

I wouldn't mind something like that, but who do our fine congressmen expect to pay for all that bandwidth?

SilentHunter7:
I wouldn't mind something like that, but who do our fine congressmen expect to pay for all that bandwidth?

ESRB would, I believe, as they are the ones who post game ratings anyway, they would also be expected to post the game videos that resulted in the ratings as well.

That is, if they follow this advice, which I highly doubt.

Not only would it cost more money that I'm sure the ESRB would be unwilling to pay, I'm sure that whatever privacy companies ask for would be written down on several dozen sheets of signed legal paper, all of which would most likely add up to the rating game videos never reaching the publics eyes.

The rating alone should be enough for any responsible parent, if they want to see more of a certain game, they will just have to go on YouTube and find some gameplay vids themselves or, heaven forbid, play the game in question to find out.

......

On second thought, posting the rating videos does cut out a lot of middle men in finding out how violent a game can be, but it's still nowhere near as good as a first hand impression.

What makes anybody think these parents are going to even look at the videos?
They could already google the game and see gameplay trailers, but the majority who won't do that now won't go and see them on the ESRB site either....