7:24 PM on 05.18.2007
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It looks like the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer thinks that what its customers need more than lower prices is a little bit of common sense on their side. Best Buy recently announced plans to integrate reviews, content descriptions, and other Common Sense Media tools into their website an attempt to make the video game buying experience more family friendly than ever. From the press release: “At Best Buy we understand the importance of giving customers clear and accurate information to help them make good decisions about the video games they buy,” “The information from Common Sense Media provides guidance about both the content of a game and its entertainment value. We want parents to be confident they are buying games that are appropriate for their families and fun to play.” said Jill Hamburger, vice president of entertainment at Best Buy. Although everybody already agrees that education is the key to broadening the appeal of video games beyond its current reach, don't we already have the ESRB to do this for us? If simplicity is the crux of understanding, then this just might be another unnecessary tool thrown in to further confuse some parents. Just when we were doing so well, too. Now back to those lower prices I spoke about earlier. How about using some of that common sense, ditching the bloat, and passing the savings on to us consumers? We need more games.
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As sad as this is, your average parent either ignores or doesn't understand the ESRB rating system. I guess this will help parents finally pay attention? I'm not sure about kids today, but when I was a kid my parents made up their own ratings for things. Lots of parents won't listen because they want to do it their own way.
If the reviews or warnings are horribly biased, I think that this is a step in a good direction. Hopefully other outlets will follow suit and we can get these Jack Thompson's off our back when parents finally have an idea about what their kids are playing.
that is possibly the most patronising thing i have ever heard
We're thinking of implementing this on the Canadian site as well. Here's the deal: If you're a gamer this isn't being done for you. It's being done for that mom out there in suburbia who's about to drop $50 on a copy of Bioshock for her 8 year old so that she can take a read and realize that maybe it's not for little Bobby.
The addition of features or elements to the website has nothing to do with the cost or retail price of the products, so the snappy "lose the bloat" in the article is a little on the invalid side. If this prevents ridiculous laws like Jack's from being passed, it's our money well spent.
The only problem with this whole thing is that we are assuming parents will look at this at all. Most parents don't even pay attention to the ESRB ratings...if they don't have time to glance at a single letter, why would they bother looking at paragraph about the game.
As someone who used to work for Best Buy...it's just another way of making the consumers think Best Buy cares about them while they are raping their wallets.
If you can work the internet, then you understand the ESRB ratings already.
Thanks Best Buy. How about you stop marking up the price on your video cables 1200% now?
HA, Jill Hamburger. FTW.
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