Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Brownback Reintroduces Truth in Video Game Rating Act

Presidential hopeful, Senator Sam Brownback (R - KS), reintroduced the Truth in Video Game Rating Act to the US Senate. The legislation seeks to strengthen the ESRB's power and accuracy. It requires games actually be played before rated, dispensing with the current system of ratings based on video recordings of gameplay and creates an offense for purposefully hiding content from the ESRB. It would also call on the FTC to "specifically define parameters for describing game content and what would count as a mischaracterization of a game’s content," in an attempt to provide more precise ratings.

Uncovering the Truth in Video Game Rating Act

It sounds like the ESRB doesn't function very well. Developers and publishers can easily hide content from these video demonstrations. I cannot believe nobody plays a game before it gets rated. My guess is that the game needs to be rated before it can be sold, so effectively, this legislation will force gamers to wait that much longer for each game. That much longer.

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