Posted Jun 01, 2007 at 05:11AM by Sally B. Listed in: News Tags: ESRB, Ingram Entertainment
Ó

This is the rating Metal Gear Solid 4 will probably receive. - Image 1A major initiative to reinforce the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings on video games has been launched recently. The company is distributing ready-to-use store signages about ESRB ratings to 10,000 independent and small chain retailers. This is all in an effort to further support store policies against selling video games with Mature-rated content.

According to the press release from ESRB (which is working together with Ingram Entertainment), the distribution was carried out by including the signage materials in the May 28th issue of Ingram's Entertainment Preview magazine. The said issue will will coincide with the June "Entertainment Ratings & Labeling Awareness Month", so you can expect more fancy posters to be put up on your local video game shops and rentals. Apparently, the effort to educate parents regarding what games kids can play is not enough, thus the move to concentrate on video game retailers for the meantime. The signages will also serve as a tool to further educate the general public.

It should not be that much of a bad news for the younger Metal Gear Solid fans, though. It's just a matter of letting someone older buy a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 for them - or have their parent-slash-guardian with them during the purchase. Well, it seems that the ESRB is really working on letting us know what these ratings mean.


Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

Bookmark / Find this article on:


6 Comments


Sort by:
   by Bored (Unregistered) - 2007-06-01
 » Good

This is the right way to do it, educating people.

Not doing the stupid ***** that moron Thompson does.


   Re: Agreed (Unregistered) - 2007-06-01
 » yup

Although severe penalties need (and should be) in place for any outlets that do end up selling to minors. Basically a penalty severe enough to stop any outlet doing it again (even to the point of putting them out of business)

Stores dont sell porn to minors, so why should ESRB rated materials be any different.

Although I dont agree that a minor can still get hold of stuff just because thier parent is with them - parents know squat, hence why they all need this education tactic.

   Re: Advertising -


   Re: uberman (Unregistered) - 2007-06-01
 » To "Agreed"

Such unconstitutional enforcement is exactly what JT is trying to do!

   Re: KUYA (Unregistered) - 2007-06-02
 » next step

Educate Parent to use the parental controls on the next gen systems, set the rating relative to the age of the children using the consoles. the ps3 for example can give each household user an account which have separate functionality level.
   by AoxomomoxoA - 2007-06-01
 » X360 Vs. PS3 [Head to Head Deathmatch]

There’re so many stup+d PS3 fanboys right now who bark that PS3 is superior to X360 console; that’s the reason why I wrote this informal essay.

Let’s compare the most sold X360 game and the most sold PS3 game (HEAD TO HEAD DEATHMATCH); then talk about which console is superior to another at the end. Each category is worth 100 points unless mentioned. If it’s drawn, both get half points.

I spent much time to read about 10 different reviews on both games. Most sentences below are NOT my opinions (remember this). Most sentences below are from the reviews I read online.

[Epic’s Gears of War Vs. Insomniac’s Resistance: Fall of Man]

- Gameplay (300 pts): Resistance is a generic and mindless run & gunner. Epic adopted and improved Resident Evil 4’s point of view; then GoW’s over-the-shoulder revolutionized the gaming industry. Now, Sony’s best future games Uncharted Drake’s Fortune and Ratchet and Clank Future (when using weapons) both totally copied GoW’s point of view. Winner: GoW

- Graphics (300): GoW wins by a land-slide. No need to discuss more. Winner: GoW

- Awards: Many gamers bought GoW because it won so many awards. Winner: GoW

- Main character (200): Epic did a very good job on this. Marcus Fenix is as memorable as Halo’s Master Chief. Resistance’s Nathan is simply too boring to control. Winner: GoW

- Average review score: GoW got 94 from 172 different game related publications; Resistance got 89 from 164 publications; many gamers bought GoW because it got extremely high review scores.
Winner: GoW

- Level of Appealing (Fun Factor) (200): Resistance is all about run and gun like Halo 3 or Unreal Tournament 3. GoW has deep tactical play. Winner: GoW

- Online Modes (Multiplayer) (300): Resistance offers much more game types, but all of them are mindless run and gunner. GoW should have supported at least 8 versus 8 multiplay (4 Vs. 4 is just sub-standard). Winner: Drawn

- Single-player (SP): Resistance’s developers spent so much time, budget, and effort on this (Resistance’s SP is much longer); the thing is that Resistance’s SP is plainly boring and not even fun. Winner: GoW

- Weapons (200): Resistance has technically extremely advanced weapons, but these weapons are not balanced for multiplay. GoW has much less number of weapons; the thing is that lancer (the gun with chainsaw) alone is better (the powerful feeling; sound, lighting, and decal effects) than all weapons in Resistance combined. Torque bow and boomshot are extremely well made, too. Winner: GoW

- Music & Sound Effects (300): Resistance’s sound is on average; GoW’s sound is superb (especially guns and explosion sounds are mind-blowing). Winner: GoW

- Longevity (Replay Value) (300): Resistance’s run and gun gets old extremely quickly. Winner: GoW

- Technical Advancement (200): Resistance’s extremely huge maps + 42-player online + Resistance’s bull’s eye and sapper guns. Winner: Resistance

- General Concept & Originality: Resistance is a copycat of Half Life, Call of Duty, and Unreal Tourney. Winner: GoW

- Character Animation: Both games offer silky smooth movement of units. Winner: Drawn

- (NPC’s) A.I.: GoW’s AI is better made. Epic did a very good job here. If you kill one enemy in GoW, you feel satisfied and rewarded; if you kill one (or ten) enemy in Resistance, you feel bored and lame (LOL). Winner: GoW

- Atmosphere (Presentation) (200): GoW’s sci-fi movie like mood is all over the places. Winner: GoW

- Interface (attention to detail, how polished is the final game?): Winner: Drawn

- Overall Impressiveness (300): In general, GoW even deeply impresses diehard Sony fanboys. Winner: GoW

Finally, GoW won by f+cking huge margin.
- Resistance’s total score: 450 points
- GoW’s total score: 3,050 points
I said at the start that we need to talk about which console is superior to another at the end. Now, let’s talk about that. Which console is superior? If you’re still trying to defend your pathetic PS3 console then you must be illiterate and blind, period.


   Re: Stealth (Unregistered) - 2007-06-01
 » to AoxomomoxoA

First off those games has nothing to do with consoles only FPS. So unless your trying to impress someone with those lame comparisons dont speak. How about talking about the actual systems than games. And the fact that this has nothing to do with ratings is also lame.


Add QJ.NET
Add to My Yahoo!
Google Reader Subscribe with Bloglines
Add  to your Kinja digest Subscribe in NewsGator Online
Subscribe with Pluck RSS reader Add 'www.qj.net' to Newsburst from CNET News.com
Subscribe with SearchFox RSS del.icio.us www.qj.net
Add to Technorati Favorite! Add to My AOL
furl! it Stumble for Treehugger!

 Username: 
 Password:
Forgot password
New user registration



Categories
Emulators
Titles
Archives