ESRB Defends Dead Island Logo Decision

[lord.jeff]

As I said in the other thread:

THE ESRB HAS 0 LEGAL POWER OVER GAMES!

What "guidelines" are they talking about? I have NEVER once heard of them, has anybody else? No?

I want to see the damned microscopic particles of these mythical "industry guidelines"

From the site:

In fulfilling a key aspect of the self-regulatory mission of the ESRB, the Advertising Review Council (?ARC?) is responsible for the implementation, administration, and enforcement of advertising guidelines adopted by the interactive entertainment software industry. The following ARC Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices (the ?Principles and Guidelines?) apply to all ?qualifying advertising? for games rated by the ESRB, and all publishers utilizing ESRB ratings are legally bound to comply with the guidelines and to ensure compliance by their co-publishers, licensee, agents and/or other third parties authorized in connection with the development, creation, distribution or placement of qualifying advertising. Failure to comply with ARC requirements can result in points, corrective actions, and monetary fines.

Link:

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/principles_guidelines.jsp



The rules been around for awhile, it's just being enforced now. Probably because if games put on a nice front, saying look we care about the children, games well get less crap from congress and then can get away with more in games, which is far more important then some changes to box art that can just get put on the manuals cover instead.

Well:

What would happen if the dev team just said "no"?

Unlike in ausstriala, a game is not banned if it doesn't get rated, because the esrb is legally required to rate all games, not the other way around where all games are legally required to have ratings.

No retailer in America would carry an unrated game, they don't even carry AO rated games, so the game would fail to be put on any shelves and lose most it's market.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

As I said in the other thread:

THE ESRB HAS 0 LEGAL POWER OVER GAMES!

What "guidelines" are they talking about? I have NEVER once heard of them, has anybody else? No?

I want to see the damned microscopic particles of these mythical "industry guidelines"

From the site:

In fulfilling a key aspect of the self-regulatory mission of the ESRB, the Advertising Review Council (?ARC?) is responsible for the implementation, administration, and enforcement of advertising guidelines adopted by the interactive entertainment software industry. The following ARC Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices (the ?Principles and Guidelines?) apply to all ?qualifying advertising? for games rated by the ESRB, and all publishers utilizing ESRB ratings are legally bound to comply with the guidelines and to ensure compliance by their co-publishers, licensee, agents and/or other third parties authorized in connection with the development, creation, distribution or placement of qualifying advertising. Failure to comply with ARC requirements can result in points, corrective actions, and monetary fines.

Link:

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/principles_guidelines.jsp



The rules been around for awhile, it's just being enforced now. Probably because if games put on a nice front, saying look we care about the children, games well get less crap from congress and then can get away with more in games, which is far more important then some changes to box art that can just get put on the manuals cover instead.

Well:

What would happen if the dev team just said "no"?

Unlike in ausstriala, a game is not banned if it doesn't get rated, because the esrb is legally required to rate all games, not the other way around where all games are legally required to have ratings.

No retailer in America would carry an unrated game, they don't even carry AO rated games, so the game would fail to be put on any shelves and lose most it's market.

Read my edit.

Even so, the only time that a game that was shceduled or already released was given an AO was sans andreas, and it had explicit sex.

I think microsft and possibly sony would LET this game carry an AO if needed for such a minor thing, and not ban it from the console.

And it still could be more or less unaffected on PC.

anyways, We've never had an urated game be MADE since the esrb was made, so we don't know for certain if it would not be stocked

 

[Johnnyallstar]

Wow... that's awesome in a ballsy way.

 

[lord.jeff]

As I said in the other thread:

THE ESRB HAS 0 LEGAL POWER OVER GAMES!

What "guidelines" are they talking about? I have NEVER once heard of them, has anybody else? No?

I want to see the damned microscopic particles of these mythical "industry guidelines"

From the site:

In fulfilling a key aspect of the self-regulatory mission of the ESRB, the Advertising Review Council (?ARC?) is responsible for the implementation, administration, and enforcement of advertising guidelines adopted by the interactive entertainment software industry. The following ARC Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices (the ?Principles and Guidelines?) apply to all ?qualifying advertising? for games rated by the ESRB, and all publishers utilizing ESRB ratings are legally bound to comply with the guidelines and to ensure compliance by their co-publishers, licensee, agents and/or other third parties authorized in connection with the development, creation, distribution or placement of qualifying advertising. Failure to comply with ARC requirements can result in points, corrective actions, and monetary fines.

Link:

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/principles_guidelines.jsp



The rules been around for awhile, it's just being enforced now. Probably because if games put on a nice front, saying look we care about the children, games well get less crap from congress and then can get away with more in games, which is far more important then some changes to box art that can just get put on the manuals cover instead.

Well:

What would happen if the dev team just said "no"?

Unlike in ausstriala, a game is not banned if it doesn't get rated, because the esrb is legally required to rate all games, not the other way around where all games are legally required to have ratings.

No retailer in America would carry an unrated game, they don't even carry AO rated games, so the game would fail to be put on any shelves and lose most it's market.

Read my edit.

Even so, the only time that a game that was shceduled or already released was given an AO was sans andreas, and it had explicit sex.

I think microsft and possibly sony would LET this game carry an AO if needed for such a minor thing, and not ban it from the console.

And it still could be more or less unaffected on PC.

anyways, We've never had an urated game be MADE since the esrb was made, so we don't know for certain if it would not be stocked

Gamestop, EBgames(the to count for a majority of game sales in US) and most other game stores I've been in have a poster explaining all the ratings as well as signs above each shelf saying "Check the Rating" I find it hard to believe they would stock an unrated game if they support the ESRB that much, plus anyone who stocked the game would pull it from shelves when it gets attacked which it will, because a violent game without a marker saying don't sell to kids would be an even easier target then San Andras's sex scene. And like I stated earlier ESRB is making a really smart move by attacking box art, they can show that they take action against gore and sex without changing the games at all, this is all about distracting the politicians and media, so that the games can go through unchanged. Also I think box art should fall within an E rating, game stores do have a lot of kids in them after all.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I liked the original concept art, but the change seems to have good intentions. That whole lynching thing from our past is still a pretty touchy subject. And while it would be hard to lynch someone from a palm tree, I doubt that's going to be as considered as a silhouette hanging from a tree. But, it hasn't changed in-game, so I can live with this.

 

[Rayne870]

Round the hanging tree, swaying in the breeze...

Anyway yeah zombies don't tend to hang people from palm trees so I think the change sort of helps stupid people who buy based on box art tell that the game is in fact about zombies and not about hanging people from a palm tree.

That said I still like the art and don't find it offensive.

 

[kitsunema]

all im seeing is rage and baww over a peice of rope. but as it seems people gut butthurt over the craziest things, rope being one of them.

 

[Squarez]

Dunno why but this reminds me of this atrocity.

For those of you not in the know, giving people two fingers in Britain is equivalent to the middle finger everywhere else. So for the UK release of Left 4 Dead 2, we got the laziest, cheapest re-packaging in the history of ever.

Hippie zombie FTL.

 

[InfiniteJacuzzi]

For the land of the free, you guys sure do have some odd fine print when it comes to these things.

It was probably the Canadians.

 

[uguito-93]

"Oooooo the fact that the I is not a hanging zombie on the boxart ruined the game for me"

The box art does not indicate the person hanging from the tree is a zombie.

well yeah thats true, but i was just saying how it would be idiotic for anyone to get angry over the hanging corpse I being changed on the game's boxart.

 

[Jumplion]

Dear ESRB,

You are rapidly becoming a contender to PETA in the contest for "Stupidest company to be involved in games". If you do not want this shameful title, than please stop this idiocy now.

Thank You.

The game is rated M. The box art is not.

Now that I think about it, it's not even that it potentially references a shaky period of history in the US, it's just that it's just graphic enough to not be appropriate to be shown on store shelves, and I don't see why that is getting any outcry.

And as others have said; how would you hang a zombie?

 

[Jumplion]

What happened to "If you don't like something just ignore it"?

The boxart would be present in most every store shelf in America, with thousands of people coming into Gamestops/Best Buys/Walmarts, some of them either sensitive to the potential symbolism with the hanging or just not desensitized to these things as we are. Is it easier to make everyone else get used to it, or just change the simple detail without a fuss?

Again, the game is rated M. The boxart is not.

 

[Lost In The Void]

snip

It's an understandable move. Box art is public. People who don't play your game--or who may be looking for reasons to hate your game--will see it. The game itself? Only paying customers. Box art and marketing are different matters.

The box art is only being changed for the North America release. With apologies to Canada, most of those boxes are going to the US, which is the place where this iconography could cause undue fuss.

Now, I think that we could, as a country, get over the idea that anyone hanging from anything ever must be about racism. But that's another discussion for another thread.

Ya I really wish that we [Canadians] had our own rating system, if only for the reason that we have a different culture from the USA. It isn't that I'm trying to be edgy or individual by saying that but both you and Root bring up that point, lynching is a sore subject in America. Not North America and as such it shouldn't affect us or have an effect on us, much like it wouldn't happen in Europe.

I'm pretty much just saying that I agree with you why they did it, but I don't like that we get drug along with it. One of those things we just need to tolerate, like horrible Amnesia box art, or censorship that doesn't culturally relate with us at all

 

[CommonSense1013]

Imagine that, the ESRB following the rules that they have set up for themselves, they aren't making any drama it's the gamers who are by getting mad about freaking box art.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Dear ESRB,

You are rapidly becoming a contender to PETA in the contest for "Stupidest company to be involved in games". If you do not want this shameful title, than please stop this idiocy now.

Thank You.

The game is rated M. The box art is not.

Now that I think about it, it's not even that it potentially references a shaky period of history in the US, it's just that it's just graphic enough to not be appropriate to be shown on store shelves, and I don't see why that is getting any outcry.

And as others have said; how would you hang a zombie?

Observe.

Spoiler: Left 4 Dead

[image/]http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1777/1216677243.jpg[/IMG]

Spoiler: Dead Space

[image/]http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/1/14030/851818-dead_space_cover_large.jpg[/IMG]

Spoiler: Dead Rising

[image/]http://crackedajester.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/dead-rising-cover.jpg[/IMG]

Now compare

Spoiler: Dead Island

[image/]http://www.gamedwellers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Dead-Island-Logo.jpg[/IMG]

Are you saying ANY of those other boxarts are not as bad if not worse than Dead Islands silhouette of a hung guy?

Oh, and in response to the "Why hang a zombie?" argument, I think it was a guy who got bit and hung himself instead of turning.

 

[MarsProbe]

Only in America? That's okay then, proviuded that means it will remain in it's original form in UK stores.

Not that I'm particularly interested in this game, but I abhor these kind of silly changes, really.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I was going to post an image of lynching on here, but I know that wouldn't go over well with the moderators. So I invite anyone with any trouble over the box art change in North America to look it up in Google Images. Combine that turbulent history with the fact that many people from that era are still alive, and what video games are going through in California, and this is the type of press coverage we want; that the video game industry is able to self-regulate itself and it's content without government interference. I can't begin to imagine the shitstorm that would arise in that trial if this box art were left unchanged.

(note: nowhere does it say that the hanged body is a zombie)

To requote root-

As I said before

It would be as bad as a Zombie silhouette being guillotined in France, nailbombed or carchased in a tunnel in England, kneecapped in Ireland, or having it's hands amputated in Arabia.

Certain things don't sit well with certain cultures because of their past. Having a "shadow" man hanging from a tree doesn't work well in America. Don't make me have to spell it out why. (KKK)