Parents Television Council Attacks Videogame Retailers

[Shycte]

By taking statistics out of context and painting them in an incredibly negative light, the PTC creates the impression of gross negligence or incompetence on the part of videogame retailers, when in fact they're actually doing more to comply with the relevant guidelines than anyone else.

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).

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.

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.

Maybe it isnt, but if we ever want gaming to be taken seriously we should always try to reach those 100 % on principle should we not?

 

[Xyliss]

I found that it's mainly the parents who buy for their children anyways. Then blame the games industry when it isn't suitable for them.

Also, I know this is about 12 to 16 year olds buying it themselves and 21% is a shockingly high number but most of them don't try to buy it, they get their parents to

 

[Dogstile]

Well, 80 % success is not really that great. Sure, it's easy to think it is not a big deal. But! A minor should not be able to buy a M rated game without the parents approval. Just like at the movies.

Psh, i'm 17 and i'm never asked for ID when I go see an 18 rated film or try to buy alcohol. Literally never. I always get asked at game.

 

[TheDoctor455]

PTC... legislation aimed at censoring the medium isn't going to make Gamestop employees more compliant with the "don't sell M games to kids" rule. More legislation in any regard won't solve that.
All you have to do to increase the compliance is to put pressure on retailers to incorporate a new policy: any employee caught violated the "don't sell M rated games to kids" rule can be fired on the spot without any warning, and without any severance pay.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

By taking statistics out of context and painting them in an incredibly negative light, the PTC creates the impression of gross negligence or incompetence on the part of videogame retailers, when in fact they're actually doing more to comply with the relevant guidelines than anyone else.

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).

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.

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.

Maybe it isnt, but if we ever want gaming to be taken seriously we should always try to reach those 100 % on principle should we not?

Well, obviously that's the goal, and as I said, there's more work to do, but an 80% success rate, especially compared to other media, is not a failure by any means.

 

[Shycte]

Well, 80 % success is not really that great. Sure, it's easy to think it is not a big deal. But! A minor should not be able to buy a M rated game without the parents approval. Just like at the movies.

Psh, i'm 17 and i'm never asked for ID when I go see an 18 rated film or try to buy alcohol. Literally never. I always get asked at game.

We can not allow others mistakes does not justifice ours.

 

[Dogstile]

Well, 80 % success is not really that great. Sure, it's easy to think it is not a big deal. But! A minor should not be able to buy a M rated game without the parents approval. Just like at the movies.

Psh, i'm 17 and i'm never asked for ID when I go see an 18 rated film or try to buy alcohol. Literally never. I always get asked at game.

We can not allow others mistakes does not justifice ours.

So you're taking an actual experience counter to your movies doing astoundingly well and replying with a cryptic phrase?

 

[Shycte]

By taking statistics out of context and painting them in an incredibly negative light, the PTC creates the impression of gross negligence or incompetence on the part of videogame retailers, when in fact they're actually doing more to comply with the relevant guidelines than anyone else.

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).

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.

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.

Maybe it isnt, but if we ever want gaming to be taken seriously we should always try to reach those 100 % on principle should we not?

Well, obviously that's the goal, and as I said, there's more work to do, but an 80% success rate, especially compared to other media, is not a failure by any means.

See, I don't really like this whole compare thing everyones about. The gaming industry is better than the others and therefor, their statistic should be taken more seriously than ours, because the fault is more grave. To that part I agree.

However, we shouldn't let their mistakes jutifice ours. The "But we are better than them, they are doing it to" argument is far below us isn't it?

 

[Shycte]

Well, 80 % success is not really that great. Sure, it's easy to think it is not a big deal. But! A minor should not be able to buy a M rated game without the parents approval. Just like at the movies.

Psh, i'm 17 and i'm never asked for ID when I go see an 18 rated film or try to buy alcohol. Literally never. I always get asked at game.

We can not allow others mistakes does not justifice ours.

So you're taking an actual experience counter to your movies doing astoundingly well and replying with a cryptic phrase?

Okay, let me say it so you understand.

Just because they are doing wrong, and that our statistic is better than theirs, it doesn't meen that our statics are okay. We can not settle with "Well, we are better than them atleast".

 

[theriddlen]

80% of stores don't sell M-rated games to minors.

And

Every fifth store sells M-rated games to minors!

I love manipulation.

 

[Michael Dagastino]

Just because THEY don't like games, doesn't mean we should get rid of them. This isn't the Salem witch trials, nor the retard who cried communism era. And this (USA) is not a communistic/completely socialist government. This does seem a little out of place, but Yahtzee had a video a couple of weeks ago about the VVN (Video game Voters Network). Take a peek, its a pretty nice thing they have going there.

 

[Ayjona]

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.

Agreed. I think that pat of the reason that video games are put under closer inspection is that the western world has had more than half a decade to study the effects of tv and movies upon ourselves, but we've only taken the video game industry seriously enough to actually analyze its impact for the past 10-20 years. Hence part of their paranoia.

The other part is probably just prejudice and fear of the slightly lesser known.

 

[Ledan]

I have never in my life been asked for id or seen someone being asked for id when it comes to videogames.
I played GTA Vice city when I was 9,
have I suffered for it?
Hell no.
PTC should be banning sports before videogames, since sports cause: Paralysis, broken limbs, mental trauma, and sometimes death. Also, many sports (such as rugby) promote machoism and authoritarianism.

 

[ReaperzXIII]

See this is where the UK wins out, you want to buy a mature game you have to be the age or have a parent/friend/random stranger you think you can trust to purchase the game for you, the ESRB people tell you outright what is in the game and what age they think are allowed to view the product and parents just ignore it? Don't blame an industry because you bought little Jimmy Gears of War a game as gory as f*ck and didn't look at the back to see what the game contains.

I mean the 360 even has parental settings so kids can't play games with a ESRB rating higher than what the parents choose.

Also just because a game is 16+ does not mean it is bad for your child it just means it has adult themes and guess what? Adult themes are very prevalent in real life, sex, drugs, murder, blood, violence etc... all there, hiding it away from them until they are 18 is just going to make them more likely to join in because they had no actual knowledge about it and couldn't make their own judgements.

Everybody watch the American Dad episode Stan's son and you can see the results of restricting a child from everything and letting them be completely free.

 

[JediMB]

I'd think that nearly 80% of the stores refusing to sell M-rated games to minors was a good things.

Now let's do a survey on how many parents buy M-rated games for their children.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

However, we shouldn't let their mistakes jutifice ours. The "But we are better than them, they are doing it to" argument is far below us isn't it?

As I've said before, I'm not saying there isn't more work to do, but comparing the videogame results to those for other media shows how much work has already been done. I don't think that's an unfair comparison to make.

 

[Shycte]

However, we shouldn't let their mistakes jutifice ours. The "But we are better than them, they are doing it to" argument is far below us isn't it?

As I've said before, I'm not saying there isn't more work to do, but comparing the videogame results to those for other media shows how much work has already been done. I don't think that's an unfair comparison to make.

We have come a far way yes, but not far enough. We shouldn't use other media to judge how good we are at this. We should look at ourself and see exaclty what work needs to be done, not look at others and say "Well, we are better than them" because it is when you start to do that, the progress stops.

 

[DTWolfwood]

They need money. lol what better way than to join the bandwagon and drum up some attention for themselves.

O wells 21% didnt comply which is more or less exactly what the 80%+-1-2% compliance indicated as accurate \o/ go go ESRB!

 

[Danpascooch]

[quote="Charli" post="7.241448.8734556"
It sucks but...Adults come into the store and buy them for their kids and to my disgust it isn't illegal. As long as they doll the money and make the purchase there's nothing I can do, even if their little hellspawn is standing next to them pulling the puppet strings.[/quote]

Seriously? You don't think a 16 year old with parental permission should be allowed to view content both he and his parents deem alright? That's pretty narrow minded.

Most 13 year olds are mature enough to handle most M rated games.