The lights are on
Activision has launched its Ratings Are Not A Game program, which aims to teach parents about the importance of ESRB ratings as well as other important issues that affect children and video games. The series of short videos feature experts, such as Cheryl K. Olson, co-director at the Center for Mental Health and Media at Harvard Medical School, giving tips and other useful information."Activision is committed to providing consumers with guidelines and information to help them determine which video games are most appropriate for their families," said Mike Griffith, president and CEO of Activision Publishing. "We are proud to partner with Dr. Olson and believe that these videos will be informative and useful tools for families."Parents should definitely check out the videos. They’re short and interesting, and the tips are actually useful. Of course, if you’re not a parent and you don’t care about game ratings, these are not the videos you are looking for.
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I'm supposing that this is partly to make up for the MW2 fiasco... :-P
I'm glad to see them trying to educate parents on the ratings. The only problem is actually getting parents to see these videos. For parents that don't currently pay attention to ratings, I somehow doubt they'd suddenly check these videos out (or even realize they exist) and become enlightened.
good job to them for precovering their butts. if anyone says anything bout mw2 being a bad influence they can just point to the video
I think thats funny but how do we get the parents to actually watch this? M<aybe make a big new broadcast and some parents will watch.
I'm with dbull. The chances of parents going to Activision.com and finding that video are slim to none. They should campaign it a little more publicly, put it in the news and stuff.
rating aint isht its just a form of stoppinh the 1st amendment
now hopefully if people see that a game is rated M, they know not to get upset when the commercials use F.A.G.S or has slurs. lol HOPEFULLY!!!
This is a site that will likely be reference in little blurbs in mass-market publications in the near future. While parents might not independently think, "OH HEY WHAT ABOUT THESE RATINGS I SHALL GO TO ACTIVISION.COM TO EDUCATE MYSELF," once more people are pointed in the general direction they are likely to check them out.
It's easy for us to be cynical about these kinds of things since we already know about ratings, but I'm all for any steps to educate people who still don't understand them.
@DaHarvMasta
"rating aint isht its just a form of stoppinh the 1st amendment"
The flaw there is that no right is absolute. Case in point - go ahead falsely accuse someone of rape or yell 'fire' in a crowded theater. Words and forms of speech that incite violence or uncivil behaviors are not a part of 'free speech' or 'free press'. Many people have this false impression that the First Amendment is a 'get out of jail free' card when it comes to 'expression'. With that, I'll ask you - How is realism in a war based video game striving to total realism constructively expressive? What is the expressive nature of shooting unarmed civilians in a video game? What is the expressive value of beating a prostitute and taking her money after contracting her services in games like GTA? What makes any of those 'art'?
Maybe this will keep the kiddies off of M rated games...
One can only hope.
At least they're trying. Though I suspect Bobby Kotick has an ulterior motive for doing this.
Hurray!! xD Game Ratings!! They are exciting and fun...
dang right guvna! parents need to be in on the game world too. too many kids have died because they were mimicking what they saw in a video game, but that stems back to the parents, why did they let their childrenhave these games?
This should definitly make more parents aware of what their kids are playing.
totally b/c of mw2, just like how mcdees took down supersize portions after supersize me. but i think it is a godd thing activision is doing
Glad they are trying to inform people that don't know or understand video games. But this strikes me a little suspicious that they only did this to cover their rear.
The rating system is so easy to understand. It practically never fails either (not counting mods), its not like movies where its oh this is light PG-13 and oh that's an extreme PG-13 like Dark Knight. Its hard to believe people do not know what they are buying with the best ratings program around.
My mother after all my life this year picked up the surfing the net. I can't beleive the things we can talk about now because of it. Like up coming movies and books and even games. I have for well over 15 years been picking out my own games but however if my mother can use the net anyone can. This could help out a lot of parents out there better understand what the rating means. I just emailed this to some parents I know out there that could use this.
As a kid with parents who already do follow the system, I have to say I am glad for this. The more you know...
Its not going to stop kids from convincing their parents to get them GTA or cod. But it might be enough to raise more awareness. Hey, i say go for it.