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The ESRB, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, decides who video games are appropriate for. Beginning next week the people who determine if a game is too gory, too sexy, or too violent for children will be replaced by computers. A special program has been written to "replicate the ingrained cultural norms and predilections of the everyday American consumer, at least when it comes to what is appropriate for children and what isn’t."
The ESRB has been flooded with games recently and they are set to announce that the majority of games will no longer be rated by human beings. The program will analyze the data before rating the game. The criteria for what makes a game appropriate or inappropriate is based of off a "detailed digital questionnaire meant to gauge every subtle nuance of violence, sexuality, profanity, drug use, gambling and bodily function that could possibly offend anyone." It will be up to the game's makers to fill out a questionnaire that will then be judged by the program. Penalties will be set up to punish developers or publishers who are not honest when filling out the survey.
The survey will break down each type of digression. For example offensive language is broken into six categories, "minor profanities, epithets, scatological vulgarities, racial obscenities, sexual vulgarisms and a final category devoted to one particular three-letter word that refers to both a beast of burden and, colloquially, to a part of human anatomy." Religious slurs don't need to be noted, for now anyway.
While this survey may save time, it doesn't offer game makers to give an explanation or context. If your game has sex in it, then the only thing that matter is it has sex. There's no way of expressing how it's used, whether it's a part of a larger narrative like in Mass Effect or a raunchy mini-game in God of War.
How do you feel about the ESRB relying on computers to rate games?
source
I'll call it right now, the computer will mess up, parents will rage, lawsuits will follow.
The ESRB has been flooded with games recently and they are set to announce that the majority of games will no longer be rated by human beings. The program will analyze the data before rating the game. The criteria for what makes a game appropriate or inappropriate is based of off a "detailed digital questionnaire meant to gauge every subtle nuance of violence, sexuality, profanity, drug use, gambling and bodily function that could possibly offend anyone." It will be up to the game's makers to fill out a questionnaire that will then be judged by the program. Penalties will be set up to punish developers or publishers who are not honest when filling out the survey.
The survey will break down each type of digression. For example offensive language is broken into six categories, "minor profanities, epithets, scatological vulgarities, racial obscenities, sexual vulgarisms and a final category devoted to one particular three-letter word that refers to both a beast of burden and, colloquially, to a part of human anatomy." Religious slurs don't need to be noted, for now anyway.
While this survey may save time, it doesn't offer game makers to give an explanation or context. If your game has sex in it, then the only thing that matter is it has sex. There's no way of expressing how it's used, whether it's a part of a larger narrative like in Mass Effect or a raunchy mini-game in God of War.
How do you feel about the ESRB relying on computers to rate games?
source
I'll call it right now, the computer will mess up, parents will rage, lawsuits will follow.
