GameTrailers Rip The ESRB a New One
One of my favourite podcasts, Invisible Walls made by GameTrailers, had a few words to say about the ESRB on their latest episode. GT’s Editor-in-Chief Shane Satterfield and resident pessimist Marcus “Grumpy McGrump” Beer minced no words in talking about how they were forced to pull every Fallout 3 trailer they had up by the ESRB.
GamePolitics transcribed the conversation.
Shane: You may wonder why all the trailers ever released for Fallout 3 were removed from GameTrailers.com. Well the reason that happened is because of our good pals at the ESRB.
Grumpy: Wankers! …I am just absolutely flabbergasted about the ESRB. They’re a bunch of bleepwads sitting in Washington.
Shane: Hear, hear!
Grumpy: …they get publishers to pull video footage. They assisted in getting the Fallout 3 ads taken out of Washington because some dumb bleepwit… on a bus got upset that they were showing images of decimated Washington…
Shane: Never watched a movie before!
To add insult to injury, the pair also made mention of some rather underhanded tactics being used by the ESRB. Technically, the ESRB can only get GT to pull videos if they were made by the developer or publisher, not if they make the video in-house. But that doesn’t stop them trying.
Shane: I hate the ESRB… The week before [removing the Fallout 3 videos] we had gotten an exclusive on a trailer… suddenly we get a call… and the publisher is telling us to take it down because of the ESRB… The ESRB can only regulate media that the publishers send us. Anything that we create in-house, as GameTrailers, they can’t touch… we’ll make our own violent-as-hell trailer that they can’t do anything about. So we did. We put it up, it was huge… then we get a call from publisher X [who said] “…the ESRB is putting pressure on us and so that bleep is going to run downhill to where we can’t work with you guys unless you do what the ESRB say” …they are like the frickin’ Mafia… These people have totally gone like a frickin’ power trip…
The ESRB exists to help the gaming industry and to enforce the rules and regulations which help keep kids safe and the industry’s cogs turning. It is not their job to essentially act like ass holes when somebody does something they don’t like. If you’re own rules allow something, then you should allow it.
With great power comes great asshattery.
Is that even legal??!!
If a person is offended by an advert on a bus or what have you I /suppose/ I can at least see the angle they are coming from, they don’t want to see it all up in their faces (even if they are being a whiney bitch about it).
But if they are offended by it, don’t go fucking looking for it on GameTrailers.
Fuck.
Also, I must check out this podcast.
I’m not condoning their behavior (censorship is bad, folks), but I can sort of understand where they’re coming from. The ESRB was formed by the major publishers to make the video game industry look responsible. As you may recall, there was rather a lot of pressure at the time from congress and parenting groups over in-game violence, so MPAA-style self-regulation was a smart business move.
Anyhoo, as what amounts to an PR organization for making video games look less violent, the ESRB has a huge interest in game adverts. Violent adverts can attract exactly the sort of attention they wish to avoid, so if the ESRB can suppress them or tone them down, they will. Again, not condoning, just explaining.
As far at 99% of people in this country are concerned, the ESRB exists for one reason and that is to put an age rating on a game. That is all. Anything they do outside of this is pure bullshit and publishers should tell them to fuck off.
Seriously, it is a fucking trailer for an “M” rated video game. Yes, if you are playing a commercial on TV then it needs to meet certain broadcasting requirements but if it is a trailer on the internet then they should be able to do whatever they want.
It is like the rating system for movies. A movie is rated “R”, but they show an edited trailer on TV. But if you want to go online you can get a red band trailer if the studio decided to make one. The same type of thing should be completely acceptable in the game world.
The ESRB is fucking in shit that they have no business is and they need to shove off.