Video Games as ‘Kid’s’ Toys - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 42

In response to early fears about the content of games and the Provenzo
report, the U.S. video game industry developed the Entertainment Software
Ratings Board (ESRB) in 1994 to review and rate games and their suit-
ability for dif erent audiences. The ratings system combines six-age based
classifi cations, from Early Childhood to Adults Only, and included a group
of content descriptors, like language, nudity, and violent references to add
context to the ratings. 15 Although the program is voluntary, almost every
game is rated, as many retailers will not stock unrated games. The funda-
mental issue in developing a rating system for video games is the massive
amount of content contained within an average video game. Many games
have thirty-plus hours worth of activity, more than ten times as much as a
typical movie. The end result of a rating system is that the decision for what
games should be played is left in the hands of parents, who are given infor-
mation to make choices about what games their children should play. This
idea, that game choice for children is “a personal decision for each family
to make” and one that “can vary from child to child and one circumstance
to another,” 16 outsources the decision from regulatory control to parental
oversight. This enables the games industry to skirt governmental restric-
tions, but does not eliminate judgments about which games are proper
for children to play. Establishment of the ESRB allowed the creation of a
broader selection of titles, as the industry could clearly label them as not for
children. However, the continued belief by some that children are the target
audience for games perpetuates criticism of the content in video games.
In addition to concerns about the impact of mature content on the young,
games are to be feared because of their 'addictive' qualities. The notion of
addiction to games is frequently tied to young people who fall far too deep
into the world of video games, displacing many of the other activities in
their life, most notably school, family, and friends. Treatment programs
have sprung up to address this issue, with one program greeting visitors to
its website with the message that “anyone who has experienced it knows
all too well—video game addiction is real.” 17 Although the site acknowl-
edges that the American Medical Association has “not yet oi cially” rec-
ognized video game addiction as a diagnosable disorder, the site portrays
video game addiction as certitude, one suf ered by ten to fi fteen percent
of the teens who play games. A guide for parents notes that “according to
some studies it would appear that the excitement of video games causes
the brain to release a chemical that is, in essence, addictive. For any parent
who has seen the fervor by which some kids play video games, this news is
no surprise.” 18 Concerns like these work from the presumption that video
game addiction is real then confi rm that position by meticulously select-
ing extreme cases that demonstrate clear problems with the role of video
games in certain people's lives. Although adults are mentioned in a fraction
of addiction discourse, those portrayed as suf ering are disproportionately
children or teens. This approach borrows from early social discussions in