Rediculous Violence Rating System Presented Before Senate To Show the ESRB's "Flaws"

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http://nintendo.about.com/od/screenshots/ig/The-62--Violent-Pac-Man/The-62--Violent-Pac-Man.--2e.htm

In July of 2006, Dr. Kimberly Thompson testified before the U.S. Senate on the effectiveness of the ESRB rating system. To support her claims, Dr. Thompson cited a study she conducted in 2001 which analyzed the violent content of E-rated video games. The study found that the classic arcade version of Pac-Man is supposedly 62% violent. In the same study, Dig Dug is 67% violent, Ms. Pac-Man 54.3%, Q*bert 33.5%, and Centipede 92.6%.

While completely out of touch with reality, the study was still taken seriously as evidence that the ESRB is missing "violent" content during their labeling process.

It gets more amazing. The numbers come from measuring the duration a player engages in violent behavior over a 90 minute period. So to say that Pac-Man is 62% violent literally means that the player spends 56 out of every 90 minutes being violent towards another character. The process of measurement is simply flawed. In fact, when you apply the same measurement to 15 minutes of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, an M rated game, you find that it says Oblivion is 18 times less violent than Pac-Man, about 5%.

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Final Thoughts:

As a final example of a poor standard, the study points out that Ridge Racer V contains the text, "Push it to the limit," during the introduction. This is listed as one of the reasons that the study felt Ridge Racer V deserved a "suggestive themes" descriptor from the ESRB. There's nothing inherently sexual about, "Push it to the limit". A coach telling their athletes to, "push themselves to the limits" wouldn't be considered suggestive by anyone.

The point is, the Senate is getting information from studies that are not really relevant to the argument. While much of the methodology in the study is solid, it is being presented as if it measures something it doesn't. It's being presented as if it measures public opinion of violence, and it doesn't even come close. When looked at in that criteria, as the senate hearings did, it lacks both internal and external validity. It doesn't measure a level of violence that's significant to the average person, and it can't be applied to judge public opinion beyond the borders of those that conducted the study.

We can only hope that the Senate is capable of understanding the differences, and that they're not too busy to examine the research they hear about in their hearings.
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How the Mario games stack up in this rating system:
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How the Legend of Zelda series stacks up:
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How some arcade classics stack up:
arcade.jpg
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Here are how a few N64 games stack up:
violent.jpg
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A few more classics:
interesting.jpg
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Feel free to read the entire article about this unique look at these "violent" games.

I'm not sure what type of rating system would be worse than this one. :whistle2:k I find it funny that Lego Racers seems to be pretty violent. It seems that as the graphics and gameplay became more complex, the amount of violent content went down within a series.
 
Shit, now I know why I became a serial killer. It was all because of that god damn Galaga. I could just kill the makers of that game for making me this way!!!!!!
 
Dude, after playing Centipede as a young, impressionable child, I went out in the backyard and went genocidal on every bug I could find! And Im now my towns local Orkin Man, so these findings are 100% correct!
 
Blind leading the blind here. Unfortunately, which video game company has the nerve to stand up and state the obvious here (that the definition of violence here is vastly too lose to be relevant)? No academic will stand up for free and say it, so we need a company. However, EA won't do it. Nintendo won't do it. Take 2 might be willing, but they'll be drilled too hard on the GTA games to be credible.

Video games will be picked on until new laws are put in place that will negatively effect EA. Once this happens, they'll stand up and take on their responsibility as one of the largest game companies in the industry.
 
You know. Sometimes I have to punch myself in the face to see if this is actually happening in reality or if I'm asleep. Have things really gotten this absurd?
 
Well first off I agree those green dots shooting red dots video games are more violent then the games we have now. In fact this guy is not even considering geres or nevermind this guy is just too Hilarious.

That Thompson really is reeeallllly taking it to the limit:p!0!0!0L.. Never stoping LALalalala
 
I'm still trying to figure out how Pac-Man is any more violent than Ms. Pac-Man. They're essentially the same game. Is it those intermission skits?
 
[quote name='radjago']I'm still trying to figure out how Pac-Man is any more violent than Ms. Pac-Man. They're essentially the same game. Is it those intermission skits?[/quote]
Well of course, when a MAN does it, it's not okay, but when a WOMAN does it...
 
What, no drug references for Pac Man? (Perhaps a junkie chomping on pills to get his fix while multicolored police are running after him?)
 
[quote name='RegalSin2020']Well first off I agree those green dots shooting red dots video games are more violent then the games we have now. In fact this guy is not even considering geres or nevermind this guy is just too Hilarious.

That Thompson really is reeeallllly taking it to the limit:p!0!0!0L.. Never stoping LALalalala[/quote]

So those little blips and beeps are more violent than stuff like Devil May Cry, True Crime: New York City, and Tenchu? :whistle2:s
 
Says "Nudity" on the back of DoA:Extreme Beach Volleyball....turns out you have to mod the game to access said nudity. I'm trying to show my kids what the female body looks like so they don't grow up to be little puritans who pop a woody when they see some thigh and the ESRB mislead me in my purchase. It's an outrage.
 
[quote name='Scorch']What, no drug references for Pac Man? (Perhaps a junkie chomping on pills to get his fix while multicolored police are running after him?)[/quote]
This is about violence, not drugs. Drugs aren't corrupting the youth, just violence.
 
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