Penny Arcade Teams Up With The ESRB

[vansau]

Penny Arcade Teams Up With The ESRB

How do you raise awareness for the tools you provide to parents in order to help them choose the right games for kids? Get Penny Arcade involved.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board constantly works to make parents aware of how its rating system works. However, Penny Arcade is joining forces with the ESRB as part of a new PSA campaign, complete with original artwork.

The campaign is intended for both print and online media outlets, will include "caricatures based upon real parents and gamers," and will communicate their own stories about how they've used the ESRB tools like the organization's ratings system and mobile app. Accordingly, these ads will start appearing in "parent focused and game enthusiast media outlets" across the United States, starting this Spring.

Of course, this isn't the first time Penny Arcade has worked with the ESRB. In 2006, the creators of the webcomic created a similar series of PSAs.

According to GamePolitics:

The stars of the ESRB PSA campaign include Juri Peterson, a Navy wife and mother of two teens from Lakeside, CA.; Richard Hosler, a married father of one from Lafayette, IN; and Joshua Conway, a gamer from Los Angeles, CA.

The ESRB is also planning to co-host a "Twitter Party" on February 23d at 9 PM EST. The party will also be co-hosted by <a href=http://www.twitter.com/FmlyFrndlyVdGms>Johner Riehl of Family Friendly Video Games and <a href=http://www.twitter.com/maryheston>Mary Heston of WiredMoms to talk about how the ESRB's tools can be used to choose the right games for kids. You can join the conversation by RSVPing on <a href=fb.me/y2MISB>Facebook and then using the #ESRB hashtag on Twitter.

Source: <a href=http://www.esrb.org/about/media_library.jsp#printads>ESRB via <a href=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/02/16/esrb-penny-arcade-team-new-psas>GamePolitics


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[xyrafhoan]

Penny Arcade has actually been contracted for art by the ESRB in the past, so it's no surprise that the company would go back to them for another round of campaigning. However, the fact that the ESRB has a mobile app for detailed game information is news to me, and I hope parents everywhere embrace researching games for their kids. After all, the letter rating only scratches the surface and you wouldn't compare Catherine to Skyrim to GTA4.

 

[Qitz]

And yet, people will still buy their 3 year olds Modern Warfare because it shuts them up.

Also, is it just me or does it look like the woman in the picture standing incredibly awkward? Either she's holding something in-between her legs or they gave her some really goofy proportions.

 

[The.Bard]

There is something seriously wrong with this artwork. The mother has some sort of... freak mutant crotch... her pelvis and her legs are just at crazy odds. The only way I can make any sense of it is to imagine that is a white glowing triangle on the front of her pants. And her lower right leg looks like it was snapped off at the knee...

And the daughter looks like she has her underwear pulled down to her knees. (I know, I know, those are knee socks, but what has been seen cannot be unseeeeeeeen)

Seriously, did Penny Arcade draw this up in 5 seconds?

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Anything that aids parents get more informed about what games their kids are playing is okay in my book. An added bonus this may help stop the ban video games because of the children crowd or at least get them to shut up for a bit. Bottom line this gets my full support.

Edit

Just had a little look at the app. Its very easy to use and looks like a great tool for parents to use.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Anything that aids parents become more informed about what games their kids are playing is okay in my book. An added bonus this may help stop the ban video games because of the children crowd or at least get them to shut up for a bit. Bottom line this gets my full support.

I second this, and also approve that Penny Arcade is getting involved with this.

Although I would prefer artwork to be a bit less scary.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Yeah, it's about time the Fox/Daily Mail brigade realised that the vast majority of US don't want kids playing games that are not suitable for them either, and that's why we get games rated and offer tons of information about it.

When it comes to the crunch and parents flatly ignore it just to stop the screaming 6 year old however, quit blaming GTA for it.

 

[Rad Party God]

And yet, people will still buy their 3 year olds Modern Warfare because it shuts them up.

Also, is it just me or does it look like the woman in the picture standing incredibly awkward? Either she's holding something in-between her legs or they gave her some really goofy proportions.

And yet, those same kids just won't shut the fuck up while playing online -_-'

And yes, I noticed those wierd legs too, what's up with that?

OT: More power to both, only Penny Arcade can make the most obvious things awesome. Hope the stupid parents will take notice.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

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[imnot]

lets be honest I excpect most people will just buy them anyway, I was in GAME yesterday and saw about 2 parents buying 15's for their kids that where about 7 or 8,
Not even a good game!
[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]It was MW3[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[draythefingerless]

fix the parents first, not the rating. you can rate it M all you want, if the kid whines enough the stupid fat fucking idiot of a parent he has is gonna give it to him. fuck i love games, but i will, if i ever have a child, never let it play sth beyond its age assignment. of course if he is 11 and the game is for 12+, thats a diff story, but a 8 year old playing a teen or mature game? no.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

It makes me wonder, did movie ratings have to campaign like this when they were introduced already in common use for nearly 2 decades? Also, it seems the obligatory "Americans are too sensitive to sex" discussion started-up somehow... oy.

 

[Something Amyss]

Penny Arcade has actually been contracted for art by the ESRB in the past, so it's no surprise that the company would go back to them for another round of campaigning. However, the fact that the ESRB has a mobile app for detailed game information is news to me, and I hope parents everywhere embrace researching games for their kids. After all, the letter rating only scratches the surface and you wouldn't compare Catherine to Skyrim to GTA4.

Part of me wants to say "If they couldn't look it up with the web page, the URL fairly frequently placed, they won't do it now."

But then again, the other part of me knows that if you make something an app, people somehow too stupid to use a web page will suddenly do it.

I'm pretty sure al Qaeda could get donations from NYC if they had an app.

 

[KeyMaster45]

And yet as long as organizations like the one which supported the bill which went to the supreme court develop their own rating systems (because they're to flipping stupid to realize the ESRB already has one) parents will remain confused.

For the life of me I can't remember the name of the organization but their site has reviews of games with their rating system attached to it. The ESRB rating is there, but it's almost hidden from view while theirs is front and center. Yet they have the gall to say the current rating system is confusing. Of course it's confusing you morons you're sending parents mixed signals by supplanting yours over the industry standard. Their system is not the one they'll encounter in stores, so it's their own damn fault when a parent buys an M rated game for their kid despite the big freaking "M FOR MATURE" plastered on the front of the box.

/rage

 

[Proverbial Jon]

There is something seriously wrong with this artwork. The mother has some sort of... freak mutant crotch... her pelvis and her legs are just at crazy odds. The only way I can make any sense of it is to imagine that is a white glowing triangle on the front of her pants. And her lower right leg looks like it was snapped off at the knee...

And the daughter looks like she has her underwear pulled down to her knees. (I know, I know, those are knee socks, but what has been seen cannot be unseeeeeeeen)

Seriously, did Penny Arcade draw this up in 5 seconds?

First thing I noticed was her nose... I mean what's going on with that?

Then I saw the crotch... I get that it's a heavily stylised representation of a female figure and that's just Gabe's style anyway, but like you say, some of it just looks unnecessarily off.

Sadly the snapped knee and girl with dropped underwear are things that I am now seeing thanks to your oh-so insightful comment...

lets be honest I excpect most people will just buy them anyway, I was in GAME yesterday and saw about 2 parents buying 15's for their kids that where about 7 or 8,
Not even a good game!

Haha! I know that feeling, the amount of times I would rather warn fellow shoppers that they are buying a BAD game rather than one that is far too mature for their kids.

My parents would always go in the shop and buy GTA games for me when I was like 14/15 and those games are rated 18. Curious how they never even questioned the content or put up any resistance. Guess I just got lucky in the parent department there. They don't understand video games but they've never considered them dangerous either.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

This looks like as good a place as any for me to rail on the ESRB, so let?s do this .



only 2 mainstream games EVER got an AO rating (Manhunt 2 and GTA San Andreas) Why only 2 you ask?
Well it's because any game that receives an AO rating will not be carried by stores (even online ones) no publisher will ever fund an 18+ game and console manufacturers will not allow AO games to be released for their systems . so an AO rating is equivalent to a ban.


The combination of console makers banning these games , retailers not selling them and publishers not supporting ensures that if someone ever wants to make an adult game they will gave to fund / distribute it themselves and only release it for PC's.

And while self censorship is better than imposed censorship, the problem is that IT"S NOT THE ESRB's JOB TO SENSOR OUR GAMES they are a ratings Board their job is to rate games not ban them. because If I ever wanted to make a game with a realistic depiction of the holocaust I will not be able to find someone to fund, distribute or sell my game.

This is not all directly the ESRB's fault but they are a big part of the problem and need to change the way they rate games, and the way they operate overall

(also The ESRB also has a problem with sex. out of the 24 games to ever receive the AO rating 23 of them are for" Strong Sexual Content" and only 1 is for violence.)

I'm pretty certain those games rated AO solely for sexual content were blatant porn games, so I don't buy what you're saying. There are plenty of games with nudity, there are a few with sex, as long as that is not the game's main focus (and the ones that were banned solely for sexual content did have sex as their sole focus) they tend to still be rated M. The few games they deemed to be violent enough to warrant an AO rating fucking deserved it.

As for the ESRB censoring our media, what are you talking about? There have been a small handful of games given or threatened with the rating (I found twenty two, but we can go with your number if you want). Those that were are equivalent to snuff films and pornos, which shouldn't be sold by normal stores because they are fucking snuff films and pornos! These games are not and do not want to be seen as artistic expression, they are meant to arouse or sicken, and occasionally both. To top it off, I have no idea how you can claim that the ESRB is the one doing the censoring when it is the console makers and stores that are deciding they do not want to sell the game. Even if the ESRB assigns the rating knowing that this means it will only be found by the people who really want it, and only on PC, the developers have chosen to make something that solely appeals to adults and which should never find itself in the hands of minors. That was their choice, not the ESRB's.

I'm sorry, but you are going way overboard about something that isn't a real issue. I'm certain that if a truly worthwhile game were so violent or contained such strong sexual themes that it deserved an AO rating that game would still find an audience despite it's AO rating. Shoot, if people can still make money making Leisure Suit Larry games, they can make money off of a historically accurate game about the holocaust, and that's assuming it got an AO rating, which it might not.

 

[gunner1905]

This looks like as good a place as any for me to rail on the ESRB, so let?s do this .



only 2 mainstream games EVER got an AO rating (Manhunt 2 and GTA San Andreas) Why only 2 you ask?
Well it's because any game that receives an AO rating will not be carried by stores (even online ones) no publisher will ever fund an 18+ game and console manufacturers will not allow AO games to be released for their systems . so an AO rating is equivalent to a ban.


The combination of console makers banning these games , retailers not selling them and publishers not supporting ensures that if someone ever wants to make an adult game they will gave to fund / distribute it themselves and only release it for PC's.

And while self censorship is better than imposed censorship, the problem is that IT"S NOT THE ESRB's JOB TO SENSOR OUR GAMES they are a ratings Board their job is to rate games not ban them. because If I ever wanted to make a game with a realistic depiction of the holocaust I will not be able to find someone to fund, distribute or sell my game.

This is not all directly the ESRB's fault but they are a big part of the problem and need to change the way they rate games, and the way they operate overall

(also The ESRB also has a problem with sex. out of the 24 games to ever receive the AO rating 23 of them are for" Strong Sexual Content" and only 1 is for violence.)

I'm kinda confused about what you actually want the ERSB do?
They're not censoring anybody, they're just doing their job, rating games based the criteria they have (disregarding ratings that would be influenced by their own ideals) and the shops just sell what they want (which is usually not AO games).
So do you actually want the ESRB to do their job badly, like rating down an AO to M, so that the so called "censorship" doesn't happen?