'What They Play' keeps parents in the loop

They have one hell of an up-hill battle. Parents hardly know the ESRB ratings even exist.

Of course, with the ESRB's track record, I'm not sure I could really blame someone else for wanting to take a crack at it.

While I too question the impact that this site may have, I really hope it takes off. John Davison is one of my favorite video game personalites and I sincerely wish him the best.

I wonder how they plan to mass market the site to parents?

Here's an idea: Monitor what little Timmy is playing WHEN he's playing it. I'm so damned tired of hearinf all the controversy over these games. I'm a mature adult, and I play mature games. I could give 2 sh*ts what the neighbor kid is playing. That's his parent's job. His parent's job also includes making sure the neighbor kid know the difference between the gaming world and the real world, so he doesn't decide one day to shoot me while I'm taking my garbage out to the curb.

My point is simple: Stop blaming the games, movies and other forms of media for your kid being a little violent bastard. My parents believed in spanking. Grow a pair and spank your brats when they act up. Be the damn parent and keep the "bad things" out of your kid's hands. If you fail to do so, I don't want to hear you gripe when the next violent game comes out.

This guide is bloody ridiculous. And why are they spelling video game as one word?

Nick the Hero:

I wasn't disagreeing. I laughed because it's true. But the guilty party are the children of the people this guide is for. My parents, mainly my father, had a pretty narrow view of things. I hated him for it, but I'm glad he acted the way he did. My dad would've said to hell with the guide, and just of pulled the plug on my gaming altogether or whipped my ass for being a "foul-mouthed Halo 3 player".

You can notice immediately this was made by the 1up group because the damn site is barely working and for the most part is incomplete (No GTA SA review, BS).

If this site was fully operational can you imagine the amount of lawlz it could offer?

Sounds like a good initiative, because informing is good, just afraid that it might end up being more biased than anything.

Like any info outlet.

there's still a major problem

parents have to care enough to actually read the website

most don't care that much

If you want to get info like this in front of parents, then you can't start your own site and hope they come. You have to go where the parents are. Places like Parents magazine are a good place to start.

This site is great in my opinion. It does what the ESRB doesn't do. First of all, ESRB ratings are way to subjective, and the content descriptors aren't nearly detailed enough. To be honest, they sort of make alot of games sound alot worse than they really are, and I find myself constantly getting asked what particular curse words are found in games, or what types of "sexual" or "suggestive" themes are in certain games.

For instance, you could say that both Grand Theft Auto and Ratchet & Clank have "Suggestive Themes" and "Violence" yet they are both very different games in terms of being appropriate for younger children. This website goes in depth as even tells you exactly which curse words are used in games, and exactly what caused the game to get a "sexual themes" content description. The ESRB ratings just aren't cutting it, it's that simple.

First of all, there isn't a uniform code of standards that they follow like the MPAA does with movie ratings. Everything is rated by a "non-gaming" audience of random volunteers who only get to see small glimpses of gameplay footage. These guys actually play through the entire game and give you a top to bottom description on it.

I will be recommending this site to parents on a regular basis.

So just what are your kids playing? You should know. You bought it for them.

1) It is such a shame I was too lazy to do this. I've had this idea since Columbine. Seriously - I purchased EducatedParents.com a long time ago and then just did nothing with it, finally letting it lapse. Now some family uses it for forums. My laziness and regret aside...
2) Check out http://www.commonsensemedia.org/. Similar goals, applies to movies and other media too and is geared towards helping parents. It's too bad that even with what common sense media has set up, people still don't know about it (bad marketing?). If I were them, I'd buy ad time before movies and put a banner up along with local restaurants. But that's just me.

-p-