No, no, I think you're dead on the money there. This isn't going to do anything, not by any fault of the ESRB, but just because parents pretty much suck these days.

Pffft...youth of today. I say let them rot, wither and die. Then more money will be put towards me getting a sweet ass cybernetic body.

Oh yeah!

I just wish that we had this in our store, in Australia. Its a great idea. But... will it work? I don't think so.

It's not like anyone cares whether or not it works, so long as the ESRB isn't shrugging slightly and saying, 'oh well, I guess parents don't really care about ratings, wry smile!' This way, they can go to Washington DC and the NIMF and say that they've been running consumer information programs in stores, and the lobby groups and the politicans can go, "Yes, I see, they're very nice, good job ESRB, good job Gamestop."

This way, the ESRB protects the free speech of game makers and the poor retail staff who get overruled by the customers; and blame for little Timmy buying GTA4 falls to where it belongs: the people responsible.

(Last year, the NIMF actually did take parents to task for not holding up their end of the bargain, so it's a working strategy.)

@SID135: EBs in Australia used to have them. They did nothing. So they got rid of them.

But what's to safeguard the children of today from the dangers... of today?

@Sturm Truppen: Perhaps maybe an Adrienne Barbeaubot?

that kid has some bitchin hair. i had the vanilla ice too back in '92 including but not limited to lightning bolts shaved on the side and back, the word "BAD" and those awesome spikes. i was a 2nd grade playboy.

@Maldron: remember when she was on hollywood squares all the time? the actress not the barbeaubot.

i couldnt agree with you more. I took worked for the man of video gaming, and man i cant tell you how many signs we'd have to put up only to have nobody read them. Like they would be literally hung so they are just about in their faces, but nooo what brat #1 gets brat #1 gets.

im just glad i got out of that before this new york law went in.(ya other kotaku article i know i know)

Politicians attack industry for not caring, yet im sure they all buy there kids gta when they start whining.

Yeah, and big chainsaw hands!

Bravo!

We have this all over the place in our R-Zone(TRU's game dept) and I don't think any parents notice them, except for the one who find mario borderline on violence because it says comic mischief on the rating...

The more the ESRB pushes this the less Shock J. Tampon can blame the developers and has to move to blaming parents. The way it should be.

ESRB's over zealous ratings are the real problem.

Lumping games like Halo and GTA in the "mature" category doesn't hurts far more then it helps.

My son has played Halo since he was probably nine, I see no problem with that game. GTA is totally different, unless you are the ESRB.

@connorrhea: Never really watched Hollywood Squares. Only brought it up in honor of Captain Murphy.

Parents do pay attention to these (I know some that do) and I say more power to them for attempting to make people aware that all games aren't as benign as Tetris.

I don't think this will do anything. At all. Kids won't think twice about wanting games that are rated for older audiences, and the Parents that are buying the games won't think twice about the rating.

This just sings for a YTMND with how those kids look.

Seriously, I could go down to the remedial class in my local middle school and find kids that don't look as goofy as those two do.

The ESRB is just trying to show some positive power before the new legislation that passed recently completely castrates it.

ESRB thinks that it can actually make a difference in what age the children are that play video games... haha. So far, they've REALLY made a difference (sarcasm). From what I have seen, most kids are allowed to play rated M games by about ten or eleven years of age, so... sorry ESRB, but I think that you're fighting a losing battle.

And why the hell do the kids look so damn... goofy?

@Tyrannical: I agree with you, but the ESRB just wants to be like its older brother, the MPAA. Certainly, you would agree that it's a bit silly for a movie like The Matrix and a movie like Eurotrip or 300 to have the same rating.

@NoMoreTrolls: The ESRB is just trying to inform parents, nothing more. If parents know about GTA's (or any example) content, the ESRB has done its job, regardless of whether the parent decides it's okay for their children to play it.

@AssemblyLineHuman:
I completely agree. The whole point is to inform the parents, not force the parents to conform to their standards. In some families, anything goes as long as there is no nudity and in others they won't allow "bad" language. It is up to the individual parents to decide once they have adequate facts, which are available at a glance thanks to the ESRB ratings. The problem is not with parents who decide that their kids are mature enough to handle the game, the problem is with politicians and advocacy groups who want to force their beliefs on the parents.

I actually got one mother to put down a copy of GTA3. Told her what it had in it and the violence it had in it, and that before she bought the game she should do some research before she bought the game. All the while the little 8 year old is giving me the eye of death as i talk his mother out of the game. She didn't have a clue about the ESRB. Told her all about it. On the way out of the department i heard the kid saying "But so and so has the game!" Mother replied with "Well thats fine, i will call his mother when we get home." Kid shot me one more dirty look and it felt like i had just defeated the romans.

Yeah now i know what i did some may look down at but i felt like the parents should know. I've had plenty of parents not care and its nice to see that you can at least get some parents to see what their children are doing.

Why do people in any videogame-related marketing have to be making the most obnoxious faces possible while looking like total tools in general? I swear, the PR teams and video directors behind Christian rock bands are more 'in the loop' than gaming's ad agencies.

Some marketing major explain to us why this is, what 'buttons' it's pressing. I've seen it far too much to chalk it up to sheer incompetence.

Considering the average American won't or can't read, I would say this is a much of a waste a time as a screen door on a sub - *gets shot*

@Merus: Said it better than I could have. Even if it rarely works, let's make it obvious that the industry is holding up their side of the bargain.

@Balance_In_Life: Good on you. Maybe I'm a prude, but I really don't think kids should be playing most M games, including (especially) the GTA series. (And if they do, let them furtively sneak around to do it so they're aware that the game's content is not typical and socially acceptable.)

As a grown-up gamer who likes the increasing maturity in games, I'd like to insure that the art keeps growing and progressing, instead of reverting to the bad old days of Nintendo censorship.

i hate that stupid kid on the left who looks like he's being held at gunpoint from behind...

they're all...

"AND SMILE, DAMMIT!"

Doesn't the boy look like a young Mario Lopez with a flattop?

I hope this graphic is just the first thing Kotaku found and that the ESRB isn't actually giving this out. Seriously, I remember seeing that graphic years ago and thinking it looked shitty and it still does.

That and the majority of gamers are adult males 18 to 25 with the next largest demographic being teenage males 13 to 17 I believe. I don't think they want to see some douchebag looking kid on a poster saying, "

...OK to Play?"

(sorry for double post, accidentally submitted).

@absentblue:
Observation bias, my friend. The majority of gamers is certainly not 18 to 25. As we got older, we were replaced as the majority by the next generation down.

I have nephews who can't get their heads around the notion that I've been playing certain franchises that are at least twice as old as they are. Why? Because even these franchises haven't grown up with me, for the most part. A lot of them are still marketing for the same age group they did when I first picked them up.

Consider this: the trend in RPGs is still to this day to follow the story of a young (often even pre-teen) hero as s/he saves the world. The efforts at producing an adult protagonist usually end up covering him or her in angsty teen baggage. (Squall much?)

I imagine this is more to appease politicians than it is to do any actual work. Which is fine, too. Sometimes you have to do that.