Blog
Technology news and Jobs 
Radioactive IT Target bans Manhunt 2. So what is the point of the game ratings board?
Radioactive IT Target bans Manhunt 2. So what is the point of the game ratings board? | Target bans Manhunt 2. So what is the point of the game ratings board? |
|
| by Mike Bantick | |
| Thursday, 08 November 2007 | |
|
Luckily for North America they rate items such as video games from EC (Early Childhood) up to the full fun - and usually sales killing - AO (Adults Only) ITWire's own Stephen Withers examined the way Manhunt 2 slashed its way to store shelves, he mentions recent alterations made to the game to enable the reduction of the original AO rating down to the more sales friendly M. Of course the patchwork done to the game - which has at its core, the rather tasteless premise of thrill killing, has supposedly been circumvented, enabling little johnnies everywhere to be tainted by the original vision of pixilated digital gore. So [one of] the other moral dictators of the western world have stepped in to right this wrong. Yep, everybody rest easy, retail chains are looking out for the kiddies. News in from the U.S. that retail giant Target has decided the ESRB have got it wrong with the M rating. Despite selling other M rated titles, such as the immensely popular Halo 3 for Xbox 360. In a statement released on Tuesday Target told ABC News; "All video games and computer software sold at Target currently carry ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board - from early childhood through mature audiences. While 'Manhunt 2' was given a 'Mature' rating by the ESRB, we received additional information that players can potentially view previously filtered content by altering the game code. As a result, we have decided not to carry the game." Which throws up the immediate question. Shouldn't every game that can be modified - post sale that is - to show AO rated material be likewise banned? In the age we live in, this is quite simply just about any piece of software out there. Nude patches for The Sims (one of the highest selling games of all time, usually rated TEEN) are rampart, not that I... hrrrrmph,,,, have ever seen them. What about our favourite digi-heroine Lara Croft, she has had some work done (code wise) to improve the after market titillation. Many other action games have been modded by keen enthusiasts, using in game modding tools, to alter the originals vision. Add bigger explosions, more blood, sexier opponents or settings and more. The ESRB actually recognises this fact, and has taken the only sensible approach open to it, judge the content as it appears in its raw form, and then trust the parenting skills of the people it serves. Simple and smart, Target may well find that interest groups will be lining up, behind their own personal agendas to target (no pun intended) other game titles or forms of morally suspect media. Of course I am writing this many thousands of kilometres away from the situation, in a land where the government ratings board does not even have the power to place a 18+ rating on a game, anything beyond MA 15+ in Australia is banned immediately from sale (because it cannot be rated). Maybe we need to adopt the Retailer moral process the largest capitalist society in the world seems to have put in place.
Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now
|
Tags
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
