ESRB and the TG16

[guyjin]

just had an odd thought: not one game I can think of for the Turbo or Duo has an ESRB rating, or ratings of any kind, for that matter.

It's not like it was too late - hell, at least one NES game got a rating. Was there some reason NEC/Hudson/TTI resisted or was denied ratings?

[nat]

TG-16 games don't have ESRB ratings because NEC and Hudson know that ESRB ratings are a load of shit and a waste of time, brought to you by your friendly "family-oriented," conservative North America.

If you own a TurboGrafx-16, you are obviously hardcore and have no time for crap like ESRB nonsense.

[Keranu]

Right on, nat.

[GUTS]

Ratings are a good thing, I don't get why anybody thinks they are bad.  The days are LONG gone where every game was appropriate for everyone, if I had kids I know for f*cking damn sure I'd be reading the ratings on games before I let my kids play them.

To answer the question though, the Duo was pretty much dead way before the ESRB started rating stuff, I just remember Sega voluntarily rating its games with the MA, MA-13, and GA labels back then.  Out of curiosity, what was the NES game that got a rating?

[guyjin]

egads. i agree with guts. 

IIRC, the NES game that got an ESRB rating was wario's woods. it was K-A.
(this was before they came up with the current E for everyone, T for teen stuff)

[nat]

While I don't think the general concept of ratings is "bad," in this circumstance I believe it is poor. The implementation is not correct. Since this forum is not really the proper place for politics, I will try to keep this brief and simple, but I feel I must elaborate on what I said.

First of all, the intent of my previous message was to try and make light of the subject while still conveying my underlying feelings about it. I feel that may have been misunderstood.

That said, what the ESRB (and other agencies) represent in this day and age is the slow move this country has been making towards extreme conservatism. The regulation and control of media, in this case. The choices that are made FOR us by third-parties. Freedom of the press, my ass.

While it could be argued that the ESRB is not actually controlling what you buy... think about it. They tout their ratings as "voluntary", but most major chains that sell these games will not sell unrated games. Further, said chains will not sell rated "M" games to kids under a certain age. That all still MIGHT not be so bad, but these jokers don't even play the games they are rating. No, they don't even boot up to the title screen. They rely on a synopsis submitted by the gamehouse to pass judgment. That's why the ratings are a load of shit, and a waste of time.

If I had kids (and for the record, I am certainly old enough to have kids old enough to be playing video games), I sure as hell would NOT be relying on a rating given by some right-wing jackass based on a written synopsis about a game he/she had never even seen. I also would sure as hell hope to know a lot more about the games I was buying my kids than what rating was stuck on the cover.

Don't get me wrong, the ESRB is really only a very small piece of a much larger, much uglier puzzle. This sort of thing hits a nerve with me, though. It was bad enough when they introduced the PG-13 rating. But at least those folks actually WATCH the movies they're rating.

And my apologies to any extreme conservatives here this may have offended. My ill feelings are not against people, just the philosophies.

[termis]

That said, what the ESRB (and other agencies) represent in this day and age is the slow move this country has been making towards extreme conservatism. The regulation and control of media, in this case. The choices that are made FOR us by third-parties. Freedom of the press, my ass.

Not a conservative, but wasn't it Democrats like Liberman and Tipper Gore that were huge on censorship and the like on games?

[nodtveidt]

The ratings are a shortcut for lazy parents so they don't actually have to research the games before buying them. Considering the vast majority of American parents are lazy as all hell and consider themselves "too busy", we're lucky some of them even read the ratings at all. No, the ratings are not perfect, but it's better than nothing...without them, the carnivorous conservative propaganda machine would have plenty of firepower to keep fighting their ridiculous "war on everything that our needle-eye-narrow minds don't agree with". So it's a necessary evil, really.

[SignOfZeta]

Not a conservative, but wasn't it Democrats like Liberman and Tipper Gore that were huge on censorship and the like on games?

Are you insinuating that Liberman is of what one would call a "liberal" mindset?

The US has no real liberal party of stature (ie: Labor, Liberal, etc), but even our pathetic Democrats decided to no longer support Liberman since he's basically the president's toady and a corporate stooge.

[GUTS]

I still don't see the problem, it sounds like complaining just for the sake of complaining about something.  Name ONE game where you've been denied some sort of content because of the rating system.  Hell Japan has a rating system too, are they ultra conservative?  Everybody complains about "the conservatives this and that" but jeezus dude you can look at f*cking donkey porn all you want, then go down the street and buy a game where you dismember people, then wrap the night up with a huge gay orgy while watching faces of death.  Exactly what have the conservatives ruined for anyone?

[Michael Helgeson]

Remember,Nintendo teamed up with Liberman in his 93-94 trials hoping to cause Sega and other competitors grief.
Sega was slaughtering Nintendo in system sales due to the more adult like content on the Genesis.
Howard Lincoln and Hiroshi Yamauchi were big buddies with him sitting by him in court,testifying in favor of Liberman,and against Sega with the basic "Sega doesn't care about children and what they play but Nintendo does" theme.

Too bad for both Nintendo and Liberman Sega was very prepared for this witch hunt mockery and made fools of them both during testimony.

Sega also stole the thunder from Nintendo when they created a rating system and helped pioneer the universal one thats used today.  It could have gone down alot worse if it wasn't for Sega.

[nodtveidt]

Exactly what have the conservatives ruined for anyone?

It's not what they HAVE ruined, it what they WANT to ruin. It comes down to intention. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Oh, I almost forgot...don't confuse Republican with Conservative and Democrat with Liberal. The labels are not interchangeable. There are plenty of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans.

[nat]

Oh, I almost forgot...don't confuse Republican with Conservative and Democrat with Liberal. The labels are not interchangeable. There are plenty of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans.

Very good, thank you.

However, my intent here was not to stir up a political debate. I'll be happy to debate this into the ground with anyone, but this is not the correct forum.

I was just adding a little clarification to my statement as to why these ratings represent a bad thing since GUTS and guyjin didn't appear to grasp my intended meaning.

Anyway... We're here to talk about video games! So getting on with it...

The REAL answer to guyjin's question. The ESRB was formed in 1994. By 1994 virtually all Turbo-related production in the USA had stopped despite the fact it would continue in Japan for another few years. I don't think there were actually any USA Turbo releases after the ESRB had formulated it's official rating system.

[Joe Redifer]

Night Trap is pure evil

[Black Tiger]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EHvrFClZeoM

Night Trap is pure evil

I remember at the time all that b.s. was going down, my mother told me how my aunt was so upset about the rape simulator for Sega-CD. She said how she told my aunt that it probably wasn't really like that, but my aunt was like, "No, I know everything about it. I saw it on the news".

Although pretty much every console maker did or would've done anything to make money, it's still pretty disgusting how Nintendo tried to blame Sega for violent rape video games, after the tactics they used to keep 3rd party publishers from putting anything on the SMS.

The ratings are a shortcut for lazy parents so they don't actually have to research the games before buying them. Considering the vast majority of American parents are lazy as all hell and consider themselves "too busy", we're lucky some of them even read the ratings at all. No, the ratings are not perfect, but it's better than nothing...without them, the carnivorous conservative propaganda machine would have plenty of firepower to keep fighting their ridiculous "war on everything that our needle-eye-narrow minds don't agree with". So it's a necessary evil, really.

The problem is that the ESRB is too lazy to actual play the games to judge them. I think that ratings are fine and I have no problem with a child not being allowed to buy GTA. It's just too bad that the ratings aren't very accurate/consistant.

I read a few posts talking about conservatives, liberals, etc. Virtually all politicians have no real morals or value system and only join a political party because they have to get elected and have a career. Video games are an easy target of politicians in general.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. use games to enrage potential voters to vote for them, just as the 'gay' issue was used to win the last presidential election. Even though pretty much every major Rebublican has a staff loaded with open homosexuals who they're friendly with. It's a way to drum up votes from people too lazy to vote(or think for themselves) on a regular basis.

Nintendo played 'the blame game' along with the politicians at the time, but soon funded "Killer Instinct" and had all the Mortal Kombat's on their system.