The game Catherine really got me thinking more about the ESRB ratings on video games. There is talk about how this should have been an AO game instead of M. How Atlus had to tone it back to make it an 'M' game. From the consumer stantpoint, I still think people are confused with 'M' in general. Parents let kids play 'M' all the time because it is just violence and minor swears anyhow. 'M' also says 'Mature' on it, giving people the false feeling that Maturity and the game content somehow coincide. To be fair with the ESRB they also put labels next to 'M' or 'T' explaining what sort of content is really there. But there is not indication of how much of that content is present. Lets compare to the industry non-gamers are familiar with. Everyone knows how Movie ratings work - everyone. G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. They have recently slapped on 'NA' to mean whatever it was originally released as this is a little bit more towards the NC-17 side of the scale. (not NC-17, just closer). If it was 'PG-13' it could be almost 'R' now or 'R'... etc. Every parent knows 'R' means swearing, lots of 'F-bombs', lots of violence (possibly) and gory at that, nudity and confined to certain 'parts'. Parents also know when kids shouldn't be watching 'R' movies. PG-13 means you get two F-bombs max, tons of vulgarity and off color jokes though. No nudity, except maybe a butt or two but never in sexual context. Now where do games sit in terms of these ratings? What rating is 'R' and which is 'PG-13'? Does gaming have an 'NC-17'? This is where I think the ESRB needs to fix their ratings. As of right now the 'AO' rating doesn't exist. Consoles won't even allow a release of said material on the console - for whatever reason. However, 'M' games are perfectly fine - and most 12 year olds are 'mature' right (every parent wants to think their kids are). What does 'M' even mean? Is it 'R'? and if so why didn't Catherine have any real nudity? Not saying I wanted it, but still. The verbal content is very much in line with 'R', but the rest of the content couldn't be. What does 'T' mean? Contrast it with 'M'. There is a HUGE gap not being covered very well by these two ratings. Star Wars, the force unleashed, had to go for a 'T' rating. In doing so they had to leave out a LOT of the violence they wanted to put into it just to maintain 'T'. Where is the gap of PG-13? It clearly isn't 'T' and it isn't 'M' either. Quick comparison. Mass Effect 2. "M". Why? Blood, Drug Reference, Sexual content, Strong language, violence. I think there were 2 F-bombs in it. One avoidable sex scene chance, which didn't actually show anything and a lap dance girl (again avoidable). Compare this with GTA, same rating "M"... is it? really? The language is on a constant loop, the chances for sex scenes pretty much infinite, and some of them are part of the storyline - no way around it (someone feel free to correct me on that)... etc. However, as a parent, ME2 "M" is really a PG-13 to me - borderline 'R' but probably not. GTA - definitely "R". How about Gears of War? Lots of language, insane amount of gore, also "M", a "R" 'slasher' type game - Devil May Cry 4 - "M" - Blood Language (no f-ombs), sexual themes (they have a skanky girl in it), violence has minor splats of blood - really 'M'? How are these games all the same rating?! It gets better. If you go back in time across the Devil May Cry games, they were ALL "M" - No wonder no one takes the "M" rating seriously. "M" use to mean PG-13 and in a lot of cases still does. To digress a little bit, "M" is a problem. In todays gaming "M" is too vague and covers too much spectrum. Parents are confused at what "M" stands for. If people really saw it as "R" that would probably change parents buying habits. The second problem is the fact "AO" doesn't exist to absorb the 'R' games that are beyond "M". Would a parent really pick up GTA for their 12 year old if it said "ADULTS ONLY" on it. Right now it just says "Mature" - "yeah, my kids mature. It's ok". Take the media. "This game has a sex scene in it!" - "Um it is no worse than a PG-13 movie...", "But you are selling this to kids!" - "No, we are selling it to 'mature' gamers" - "well this other game you can have sex as much as you want in it and it is the same rating!" As such developers can't put any nudity in games for fear of the media. Reorganize the ratings though to match movie industry guidelines and now the whole dialog dies. GTA = "AO" = "R". Mass Effect = "M" = "PG-13"... "T" is "PG" (we all know it is already). and just get rid of 'E10' what is that anyhow? And get rid of the ESRB labels. Just use the rating system people are familiar with like Movies. Then the comparison is easy and acceptable. It is amazing the industry hasn't figured out the easiest way to get consumers and the media off their backs to just match the labeling system everyone is already familiar with... I already know most people that see this probably think what we have is good enough. That is because we are familiar with it. Most parents are clueless though - it is too much effort to learn yet another rating system and one where it seems like all the games kids want are lumped into the glob of "M" rating anyhow. One side comment - I can't figure out that the ESRB hasn't found a way to make 'prevalent' part of their description. If every time I shoot someone they scream "F*" that seems pretty easy to put on the box as "Prevelant Strong Language". Mass Effect 2 on the other hand, one or two F* - "Strong Language". Another example: Borderlands supposidly contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, and Strong Language. Ok, how is this any worse or better than any of the other "M" games? So I read the description and it says it contains "F*, S*t, p*ssy, d*ckbag" - I can't recall a single one of these! They must be one time occurances again... Thoughts?