digibutter.nerr

[Sam]

Some high-profile U.S. Senators, including Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), have made attacking the ESRB their new pet project. The cause of this controversy is, of course, Manhunt 2. You may recall that Rockstar was forced to revise the game in order to remove the "Adults Only" rating given to it by the ESRB. These tactics may have worked in the U.S., but the British Board of Film Classification was unimpressed and still refused to issue a rating for the title.

The Senators are pretty ticked off at the ESRB for not being as censor vicious as the BBFC. But the ramifications of the Senators' attack on the ESRB go deeper than Manhunt 2, and may affect the video game industry in general if the ESRB is put under the "thorough review" that they are demanding.

Even worse, the Senators are calling for more extreme ratings on the Wii, due to the console's motion-sensitive controller. They argue that the Wiimote "permits children to act out each of the many graphic torture scenes and murders."

Of course, they don't acknowledge the fact that children shouldn't be playing Manhunt 2 at all, since the game was given a "Mature" rating by the ESRB, and one of the few ways they can even play the game is with parental permission. If children playing mature games is really their concern, perhaps the Senators should be putting parents under review, and not the ESRB. Those old enough to play violent games can differentiate between using waggle and using real weapons, making separate Wii ratings unnecessary.

At times like these, we really yearn for Stephen Colbert to make a political comeback.

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Source: http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2007/11/21/when-senators-attack-politicians-target-esrb-and-wii/
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[Mariofan9]

I cannot say I'm into violent games but I think that the taken actions are quite useless. They always tend to attack the wrong things, don't they?

[Francis]

LOL at old people who have no idea that the market for video games is no longer children. Its like they think Manhunt was advertised during Saturday morning cartoons.

Oh and Altair, you should cite your source instead of just copy/pasting.

[Sammer Guy Pizza Cat]

If the Government had their way, we'd see Manhunt 2 advertised late at night, when all kids are asleep, and we'll live in a world where E and E10+ are the only ratings allowed in the daytime, something like what Marge Simpson and Ned Flanders would want, It's not like we'll be forced to play the new Go, Diego, Go game for the DS!