Since today we found out about a very disturbing fact - a game being retooled simply because there were some references to alcohol in it, but no explicit drinking scenes, I think it has finally come the day when we should talk about these video game ratings. What is the video game rating scale, after all? How many rating scales are there? Why have so many ratings? Well, let’s try to answer some of these questions, or at least open the path leading to the truth…

Talking about Canada and the United States, the self-regulatory organization applying and enforcing ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles for computer and video games and other entertainment software, established back in 1994 by the Interactive Digital Software Association, now the Entertainment Software Association, is the ESRB, or the Entertainment Software Rating Board, if you like them long…

Now, the standard definition of any video game content rating system goes like this - “a system used for the classification of video games into suitability-related groups, most of them being associated with and/or sponsored by a government, and are sometimes part of the local motion picture rating system.”

While the ESRB reigns supreme in the US and Canada, Australia has the OFLC, the European Union has PEGI and a few others, Japan has CERO, South Korea has GRB, while most of the remaining countries have no organization to rate video games.
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Currently, the ESRB is awarding the following ratings:

EC — Early Childhood: considered suitable for young children aged 3 and older.

E — Everyone: suitable for children over 6 years of age, usually containing minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.

E10+ — Everyone 10+: considered unsuitable for children under 10 years of age, titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language, minimal and/or infrequent blood and/or minimal suggestive themes, was introduced in March 2, 2005, and “Donkey Kong Jungle Beat” was the first game to receive it.

T — Teen: used on E10+ games before 2005, this rating was applied to games considered unsuitable for children under 13 years of age, containing violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.

M — Mature: content that is considered unsuitable for teenagers and others under the age of 17 goes into this category, with titles containing intense violence such as blood and gore, sexual references and/or strong language. It is worth being mentioned that many retailers (such as Target and Wal-Mart in the United States, Future Shop in Canada, and Best Buy in both countries) have a policy of not selling games with this rating to people under the age of 17 without parental presence and approval.

AO — Adults Only: obviously, we’re talking about pornographic video games that depict sex and nudity and/or extreme depictions of violence that include blood and gore, but this rating is the subject of ongoing controversy due to the extreme restrictions it places on game sales. Games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Manhunt 2 were retooled to be rated as M instead of AO, because of the above.

RP — Rating Pending: this symbol appears only in advertising prior to a game’s release, and means the product has been submitted to the ESRB and is awaiting its final rating.

I hope all the above clears the clouds hovering above the “What is the video game rating scale?” question, and if you’re a parent, it points you into the right direction. After all, knowledge is power, so get it, and use it!