November 16th, 2008

ESRB Spoilers

If you ask me, the ESRB could as well go to Mars right away, and rate games produced there, but you can't always get what you want. After all, game ratings are not that bad, as long as they don't turn into spoilers. Why? Well, this week, the ESRB reported its new ratings guidelines, and the new descriptive write-ups can spoil all the fun provided by games like Fallout 3...

According to a short article published by Kotaku, quoting GameSpot, "The ESRB write-ups can also include details of plot twists and other spoilers. One line from the Resistance 2 write-up omitted in the quote above reveals a significant plot detail from a climactic moment of the game. Fallout 3 is another title with a key revelation included in the summary."

Oh, my, if those guys at the ESRB had to play a game and check for some elements, until now, it seems the game is getting much harder for them. After all, if you're going to get in the story that deep, why not turn the "Entertainment Software Rating Board" into "Entertainment Software Reviewing Board?" First, they were telling us if a game is good for a certain age or not, and now, they are slowly moving towards giving away all there is to discover inside the game. I don't know why, but this looks EXTREMELY fishy to me. How about you?