Snowblind
12-01-2004, 08:17 PM
Link (http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/7289/New-Ratings-System-Proposed-for-Videogames/)
"Current Attractions is proposing an independent ratings system for videogames, an objective and quantitative reporting on the Profanity, Sex, and Violence for today’s hottest video game releases. With Current Attractions’ use of the proprietary PSVratings technology, parents will know exactly what to expect before they purchase video games containing potentially objectionable material for their children.
Current Attractions says that until now, videogames have been rated only by the software industry’s own Entertainment Software Rating Board, (ESRB), which rates games using an age-based rating system. The ESRB attempts to match the content in games to players’ ages, but how many parents know that the Teen-rated best-seller Tony Hawk’s Under Ground 2 shows characters vandalizing buildings and women lifting up their shirts to bare their breasts?
The ratings found on Current Attractions are powered by the PSVratings system, which does not suggest what content is suitable to any particular age group. Instead, the color coded system provide parents with the detailed, unbiased information, independent of game manufacturers, necessary to make informed choices based upon each individual family’s own personal standards of suitability.
Initially devised to evaluate movies, the PSVratings system utilizes the globally recognizable traffic-light symbol to convey three levels – green (suggestive), yellow (explicit) or red (graphic) of Profanity, Sex and Violence.
It provides consumers with in-depth information including the exact number of instances and the context in which profanities, nudity, sexual words and activities, disrespectful behavior, character, racial, religious and sexual slurs, alcohol abuse, illegal drug use, tobacco use, threatening behavior and violent actions will be encountered.
According to Current Attractions, the inconsistencies found among games with the same ESRB rating can be seen clearly in a side-by-side comparison of four games rated M: *EDIT*= Example is in the link.
"Current Attractions is proposing an independent ratings system for videogames, an objective and quantitative reporting on the Profanity, Sex, and Violence for today’s hottest video game releases. With Current Attractions’ use of the proprietary PSVratings technology, parents will know exactly what to expect before they purchase video games containing potentially objectionable material for their children.
Current Attractions says that until now, videogames have been rated only by the software industry’s own Entertainment Software Rating Board, (ESRB), which rates games using an age-based rating system. The ESRB attempts to match the content in games to players’ ages, but how many parents know that the Teen-rated best-seller Tony Hawk’s Under Ground 2 shows characters vandalizing buildings and women lifting up their shirts to bare their breasts?
The ratings found on Current Attractions are powered by the PSVratings system, which does not suggest what content is suitable to any particular age group. Instead, the color coded system provide parents with the detailed, unbiased information, independent of game manufacturers, necessary to make informed choices based upon each individual family’s own personal standards of suitability.
Initially devised to evaluate movies, the PSVratings system utilizes the globally recognizable traffic-light symbol to convey three levels – green (suggestive), yellow (explicit) or red (graphic) of Profanity, Sex and Violence.
It provides consumers with in-depth information including the exact number of instances and the context in which profanities, nudity, sexual words and activities, disrespectful behavior, character, racial, religious and sexual slurs, alcohol abuse, illegal drug use, tobacco use, threatening behavior and violent actions will be encountered.
According to Current Attractions, the inconsistencies found among games with the same ESRB rating can be seen clearly in a side-by-side comparison of four games rated M: *EDIT*= Example is in the link.