First a warning, I'm a huge PA fanboy. That being said, the thrust of these new ESRB ads by Penny Arcade are completly lost on me.

There's nothing wrong with the writing, and the art is pure Penny Arcade, but I'm not sure what exactly the Electronic Software Ratings Board is hoping to accomplish with them. Here's the ESRB's take on their goal:

The first ad in the series features a character named Sarah, a girl around age seven or eight that loves video games and whose parents use the ESRB ratings to help them choose ones they are comfortable with. The second ad, which will be released along with the first, introduces readers to the Andersons, a dad and son who play games together. The series progresses with characters of increasing ages and seeks to capture the way each age group views games and ratings. ... "We don't expect to ever be considered cool among gamers, but at the very least we want gamers to understand the purpose we serve," added Vance. "After all, many of them will be parents one day, at which time we expect they will be far more appreciative of the tools we provide."

Explaining the rating system (beyond the most high level concept) wasn't what they wanted us to do. The ESRB wants people to know who they are, and what they do, and who they're doing it for.

I guess I had imagined a series of comics demonstrating the difference between the ratings. Like the Fruit Fucker 2000 could have been the poster child for the AO rating. I think there probably would have been monkeys in the Everyone rating, monkeys and pirates... oooh or maybe monkey pirates! Brian Crecente