Activision, the company that vomits forth a new Tony Hawk game in your direction every time Brandon DiCamillo gets kicked in the crotch, recently conducted a survey of a large group of parents regarding their views towards the ESRB rating system (y'know, that "Your Mom is E for Everyone" thing), and the results are somewhat surprising.
To hear Jack Thompson and the other politicians who make their careers on gaming controversy tell it, the rating system is not only inadequate in informing otherwise good parents that the games will turn their children into church-burning, town-pillaging rapists, it's also almost completely hidden from the parents who are tricked by evil teenage sales clerks at their local Gamestop into buying Grand Theft Porno for their sweet, innocent child. Well Jack, turns out that just isn't the case.
Activision's survey found that 84% of parents surveyed were familiar with the ratings system, 79% of which said that they paid very close attention to it. Not only that, but 68% said that the system is effective in determing how appropriate a game might be for their child and 56% said that the ESRB system was their top factor in deciding whether to buy a game or not!
Since the ESRB (a company voluntarily set up by the gaming industry to rate it's own games) seems to be doing the job that is being asked of it, what else could be causing all of these children to go totally wacko and start stabbing their friends and raping beagles? I suppose it must be the parents! Of course, you'll never hear a politician tell someone that their child is a waste of flesh because they themselves are a waste of flesh, but you will definitely hear Destructoid tell them that.
(And then we'll bite them with shiny metal teeth!)
Contest:
6:30 AM on 12.06.2006
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Of course parents look for the rating system! though I bet most parents are really only looking for the M rating vs. whatever else is out there. Most people (fearmongers) like Jack Thompson are hoping that surveys like this never come out so they can keep fabricating lies about shit they really don't know anything about because they don't play the games themselves anyway!
here come the bites!
Its like a cigarette company bringing out a study that says smoking prevent cancer. Obviously this is false, but because it was sponsored by the cigarette company you would not beleive the study. The same applies to all of those studies by anti-game groups too since its advantageous for their agenda if their results agree with their view.
Its hard to beleive some surveys and its sad that policies are sometimes based off of this false data.
Not odd, no different than Florida orange growers doing a survey on people consuming OJ. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's like tobacco companies saying cigarettes PREVENT cancer. It's just a press release trying to generate positive spin for the industry during the holiday buying time. Don't assume that because a survey is sponsored by an interested party it completely invalidates the results. Of course, ALL surveys can easily be swayed one way or the other simply by the phrasing of the questions. Anytime you see a percentage symbol, take it with a grain of salt. :)
He used to. Now he's just a walking joke of a human being.