Oh please let them propagate this. When people know that retailers already have an 80% success rate they'll see that the ESRB are doing fine on their own.
Parents Television Council Attacks Videogame Retailers
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
Frankly, if the PTC would have found only one store that was out of compliance, they would have trumpeted their findings just as loud. Probably wouldn't say that it was part of a larger study, but just interview the kid they hired and get some handy sound-bites. My in-laws are part of the PTC, and their newsletters are beyond ridiculous. One of them was griping about Rescue Me and how it wasn't family friendly. "And if you have cable," it said, "they're making you pay for it!" or something like that, as if people were being forced to buy cable.
Unfortunately, what the 'Industry' probably needs to do is form its own sort of AMA, an independent board who ensures that the retailers are checking ID's, and fines or sends letters or whatever to the shops who don't. The problem with this solution is that it would almost certainly mean a rise in game prices
Unfortunately, what the 'Industry' probably needs to do is form its own sort of AMA, an independent board who ensures that the retailers are checking ID's, and fines or sends letters or whatever to the shops who don't. The problem with this solution is that it would almost certainly mean a rise in game prices
The PTC has proven that the ESRB system works regardless of what they're saying. Regardless of whether it did work or not if parents paid attention to their children then we wouldn't need the system as much.
And these same people accused the industry of making only half-truths, of course on top of calling those that wrote "I believe in the first amendment" "thugs" and "bullies"....do I smell an irony here?Logan Westbrook said:
Considering that R rated movies had less than a 50% success rate and explicit content cds had less than a 30% success rate 80% is pretty damn good.Shycte said:
The federal government even said so.
http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2009/12/ftc.html
If you want to actually do something effective about this then start a campaign against the retailers that had the lowest rate of compliance. According to the 2009 Federal Trade Commission report the biggest offender was Toys R Us of all places. Cramming useless and potentially damaging legislation down peoples throats is not the way to do it.
Edit: Actually according to PTC's report Toys R Us cleaned up their act.
And now we will ban video games then? Clearly retailers that are corrupted and evil are selling product that is also then corrupt and evil.
I think the 21% of the survey were the retail people who don't care for their lives and hate their work/boss and life, and don't care for people who come trough the door to bother their life.
At least I'd believe so.
But then again, I am brainwashed and corrupted from young age by horrible corporations to protect their product from bad rep.
I think the 21% of the survey were the retail people who don't care for their lives and hate their work/boss and life, and don't care for people who come trough the door to bother their life.
At least I'd believe so.
But then again, I am brainwashed and corrupted from young age by horrible corporations to protect their product from bad rep.
No it isn't illegal. Nor is it technically illegal to let kids into R rated movies. The ratings systems are all voluntary. Reason being it's considered a form of censorship which is unconstitutional according to the US constitution. Now the ratings are a result of the government basically saying to the entertainment industry "look parents don't want their kids exposed to this stuff so either come up with some way to inform parents of your content and enforce it or we will". The entertainment industry obviously doesn't want that to happen so they came up with ratings boards such as the ERSB. The government also doesn't really want to do that since one any laws would most likely be ruled unconstitutional anyway, and two it could potentially open the door to other kinds of censorship and media control. Something which is not compatible with the principals of the US constitution.PseudoDuck said:
Well the PTC is on its way out, so we could just wait for it to go under. It's still very frustrating when there's a group so involved in making a point that they neglect logic and facts. Of course, the same complaint could be leveled at any other government group.
DUDE! Only 21%? What's their problem? That's actually pretty good!
I think these people are incredible idiots.
I think these people are incredible idiots.
Well an 80% success rate isn't good enough, I agree with them. There's no reason it shouldn't be 100 or at least 95. I know the parents should be doing more but an 80 percent success rate is still extremely slack on the employees behalf.
You're the Parent council so why don't you go an actually parent your children instead of blaming everyone else you thick-skulled responsibility-dodging cowards
True but it's also unrealistic to expect any ratings enforcement system to be 100% perfect. Besides according to the reports the games industry is doing more than okay, they're actually doing the best job. There's not really much more they can do.Shycte said:
Actually, for once, the statistics seem to be perfectly in context. A 21% success rate for minors buying mature games is hard to ignore, and does not need to be painted in a different light to be problematic (unless, of course, the PTC test process relied on dishonest methods, in which case they would indeed be lying, something the article above states that they are not).Logan Westbrook said:
The movie success rate is far worse, and should be dealt with first, of course. But that does not invalidate the results of this test, nor remove the need for action to prevent this.
Actually British law states that if the member of staff suspects that the customer is buying an age restricted product (Such as an 15+ rated game) to someone under that age they are obliged by law to refuse the sale. And you don't even have to give a reason.Charli said:
OT:
Someone needs to take that oversized stick out of the PTC's ass, they really do.
I see. Now I can understand why there's such an uproar about the whole thing. Thanks for clearing it up for me.CD-R said:
It is in some cases actually.Trogdor1138 said:
Look at the chart
Gamestop the only actual video game store had a 100% success rate. So did Toy R US which was actually the worst offender last year according to the FTC. Like I said no system is going to be 100% perfect all around.
I'd agree that it's problematic, and there's room for improvement, but it's hardly the abysmal failure the PTC claim it is.Ayjona said: